The Chinese proverb "The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is today" comes handy for you. If you have a good chunk of land in the highlands where they do well, you can give it a trial.

Good luck

Cypress in 5 years?

On eucalyptus, a friend of mine who got into it before I did was telling me how he'd sell each tree at sijui 10 or 7k. That was around 2009 when he ventured

So last year, many of his trees had matured. The offers?2k a piece! He refused to sell. But later, he was badly in need of cash so when some brokers came calling offering the same 2k, he didn't even bargain

The good thing is they paid him for his 1000 trees even before harvesting. A cool 2M for his first harvest without any haggling!

Not bad.

We thank God for some of these old threads. A true treasure trove of valuable info! Asanteni sana to all of you who have contributed!

Jameni, villageseer please update us on what happened here?

I feel your pain kabisha kabisha. I can imagine everything you went through, expecting a goodly 50m and then the cartel politics turned it upside down. As they say, this is Kiinya (TIK)..not surprised but it is very sad these msukosukos happened to you.

The million dollar question is, what did you eventually do with the trees?

On my end I plan to plant plain old cypress. Was at my timber shop juzi buying 2 by 2s and the tiny things were going for a shocking 25 bob a foot before transport! Meaning all I need to do is grow a good size of acres worth of Cypress, hire a very kali Masai moran to guard them, a caretaker to water during the dry season, and wait 5 years, before milling the wood myself and selling on Namanga rd by myself. Si nitatajirika mbaya mboff jameni?

1 huge cypress tree can produce thousands of feet of 2x2s. So imagine 10k trees Even after carrying costs jameni this should be a roaring profit of a deal because I will be vertically integrated from seedling to timber board with zero middle men. And we all know DC is construction central sasa ivi so no shortage of customers especially if I undercut all these tunjamaas here who are selling us overpriced wood we can get from Kitui and elsewhere at many shillings less per foot.

Hebu wacha nijipange jameni, time and life wait for no man. Swenani, who was that guy you were asking aangalie mkate yake ya eliot inasema nini, aniangalilie kama hii gitu ginawesekana.

By ERIC WAINAINA
More by this Author

The weather is sunny as Rose Makimei walks on a narrow path cutting through indigenous trees, shrubs and wild fruits on her farm in Gituamba village, Kiambu County.



As the retired hotelier uses her right hand to push aside the shrubs, birds chirp, seemingly acknowledging her presence.

Next to the thicket is a plantation of pine and cypress trees planted three by three metres apart, creating a canopy.

The 3,000 eight-year-old trees, 1, 500 pines and 1, 500 cypress, Makimei says, sit on two acres, part of her land, where she also grows eucalyptus, grevillea robusta, pears and plums, as well as vegetables. She further rears 15 sheep.

Makimei is a seasoned tree farmer, a venture that she has engaged in since 2005, when she retired.

“I planted 3,000 eucalyptus trees soon after retirement after buying each at Sh20 to ensure my land is not idle,” she says.

Though she did not plan to sell them, three years later a buyer surfaced, seeking the trees to use in construction industry.

Makimei harvested 2,200 trees that she sold at Sh100 each because they were smaller in size.

“I realised that even though I had planted the trees to conserve the environment, I could still make good money from them,” she tells Seeds of Gold.

Encouraged, she planted 3,000 more eucalyptus trees, which earned her up to Sh500,000.

“The money was all profit because after buying the seedlings and taking care of them at the initial stage, you do not incur any other cost,” she says.



She chanced upon an opportunity to work with the Kenya Forest Service, which was willing to provide free tree seedlings to land owners, who would later allow their farms to be demonstration centres.

“I was lucky to ink the deal, getting the 1,500 pine and 1, 500 cypress trees. KFS provided me with the seedlings and brought in youth who did the planting. In the deal, KFS was to look for loggers to buy them at set prices,” she explains.

EFFORTS IN PLANTING TREES, CONSERVING FORESTS

She is projecting that in the next three years when the trees mature, she will earn between Sh21 million and Sh30 million, with a mature tree fetching between Sh7,000 and Sh10,000.

Joseph Mureithi, the principal of the Waruhiu Agricultural Development Centre in Githunguri, Kiambu, notes that tree planting is a viable venture that has economic and environmental benefits, adding that instead of leaving the land idle, one should grow them.

“With the increasing population, there is a high demand for wood products such as timber and poles, therefore, a tree farmer will definitely make a killing from such a venture.”


Ms Makimei indicates towards a section of pine trees she grows in her farm in Lari, Kiambu County. She additionally grows cypress and eucalyptus trees. PHOTO | ERIC WAINAINA | NMG

Makimei teaches various groups how to plant trees and take care of them.

She says that seedlings must be planted in a two-feet-deep and two-feet-wide hole, and the distance from one tree to another should be eight feet.

“You should put in manure in the hole and mulch the seedlings. If there is rain, the seedlings grow firm in one to two months. If there is no rain, it should be watered once in three days.”

At seven months to one year, one should prune the branches of the trees at half the length of the tree.

“In second and third years, we prune to three-quarters the length of the tree. This allows the tree to grow taller and to thicken up,” she says.

At year four or five, the farmer again has to prune to three-quarter the length of the tree. From year six to 10, the tree grows freely to maturity.

Due to her efforts to conserve the environment, Makimei has earned recognition nationally and globally.

In 2014, she won the Total Eco-Challenge Award, which is organised by Total Kenya, for her sustained efforts in planting trees and conserving forests, where she also keeps bees in 40 hives, harvesting honey from 10 that she sells at Sh700 per kilo.

Last year, she was the second runner-up in the Kenya Forest Service awards and was honoured by First Lady Margaret Kenyatta for her tree-growing efforts. She also received the Green Apple award due to her environmental best practices in a ceremony that was held at the UK Houses of Parliament in Westminster, London, where she was named the Green Apple 2019 ambassador. Source: https://www.nation.co.ke...e-queen-of-trees-141474

Dear Villageseer,

First off, are these trees still available, if so, email me.

Secondly, i have read through your post and having been in the poles business for the last 8 years i can assure you there is no such monopoly at KPLC or REA.... rather there seems to be a misconception on pricing paid by KPLC and the rate at which the Hybrid Eucalyptus grows:

1. It takes a tree ( Grandis or Grandis Hybrid) a minimum of 8 years in a heavy rainfall area to mature to KPLC spec poles - which is a minimum of 10M length and a top diameter of 160mm ( top diameter must be without bark and allow for shrinkage) so to be safe you go with a 170mm top diameter on a standing tree.

2. The spacing of trees when planted must be a minimum of 2.5M x 2.5M averaging 1600 stems per hectare. Again spacing is determined by location of planting. Drier areas may require a 3mx3m spacing.

3. 30% of trees planted will most likely not survive to maturity, from the remaining 70% of surviving trees only about 30% -40% will qualify for poles, the rest will not make the specs...either too thin or too crooked etc This is the general rule of thumb, if you are able to achieve this then you are doing well.

4. The selling price of a raw tree or pole will average around Kshs 4000 per tree today, why Shs 4000 and not Shs 12,000-16000 like you read about in the papers? Answer is simple, you cannot cut a tree and deliver it to KPLC - it has to be treated first ( the process of treating can take up to 5 hours under high pressure - not simply dipping the pole in green chemicals). This is where the treatment plants come in, so the price most farmers see is the Kshs 12,000 which can be misleading- this price is for a TREATED pole delivered to KPLC not a raw pole. Furthermore, treatment plants have to warranty the pole for 25 years.

I hope this clarifies some misconceptions as is commonly found in the newspapers.

Regards
Fash

As @fizash explained in post #31, tree farming isn't an easy enterprise. Only brokers like nyanja make easy money. The farmer bears all the risk.

@amorphous,if you have a sizeable land, esp in your favourite DC, you can explore Accaia farming for firewood and "legal" Charocal burning. A good Accacia variety can mature in 5 yrs for harvest.In between you can do bee keeping and harvest honey. See link below for motivation
https://www.nation.co.ke...the-tree-to-grow-189702

From the KFS pamphlet you gave on post #48:



You will have to wait for 28ys (upto 2048 AD) to sell your timber and would have made about 6k per month per acre. Also note that areas receiving > 800mm rain where cypress would do well are high potential areas in the highlands not the arid dustbowl where the only tree that grows there is the dwarf thorn acacia. Good luck.