10/25/1993

AU Test Proves Valuable to Southern Landscapes

CAMP HILL, Ala. - In 1980, the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station planted about 40 acres of shade trees at the Piedmont Substation here. At the time, the planting was considered more folly than fact-provoking.

Now, the Shade Tree Research Area is recognized as the largest--and best-- of its kind, and its 2,500 trees have been viewed, evaluated, and many used, by people all over the world. Far from folly, it is one of the most often visited and well used research projects ever instituted by Auburn University.

Auburn Researcher Harry Ponder, a professor of horticulture, has been a key liaison between research generated information from the project and the industry that uses this information. Information on oak trees has been of particular value to several organizations in the Southeast.

"A few years back a major university underwent an extensive facelift. Part of those changes included planting about $400,000 worth of oak trees for street plantings. They were about to plant northern red oak, which would have been a $400,000 mistake in that particular area. Administrators from the University and the landscape designer came here, saw the different oaks, and selected Shumard oak to plant at the campus, which was a much better choice," Ponder contends.

The City of Savannah is covered with beautiful live oak trees, but it is a monoculture. City planners became concerned that a single disease could devastate the city's trees, so they came here to find a second variety to plant throughout the city. They chose Chestnut oak--one of the better oak varieties in the shade tree planting here, according to Ponder.

Groups from the Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia nurserymen's associations have toured the project. From their visits it is obvious that the shade tree project is having a positive impact on the tree species now being grown in the South.

Perhaps the most often used tree from the planting has nothing to do with landscapes, according to Ponder. Deer hunting clubs are planting sawtooth oak by the thousands. "We literally had to build a fence around the Shade Tree Area to keep the deer away from these trees. Sawtooth oak produces heavy acorn crops that deer seem to like. The tree is native to Asia, but grows well in Alabama and usually produces a heavy nut crop within three to five years of transplanting.

"In general, we have found that the white oak trees in this planting grow at a much faster rate than believed," Ponder noted. Bur Oak, for example, is native only Montgomery County in Alabama. In fact, this is its only native habitat south of Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River. The literature says its growth rate is slow, yet bur oaks in the AU shade tree project have reached 30-40 feet tall since they were planted in 1980. "This project will cause us to 'rewrite the book' on several species," Ponder claims.

In fact, a book has been written on many of the different trees in the Shade Tree Research Area. It will include color pictures of fall and summer foliage, and spring flowers on some species, plus descriptions of the trees and their production in the test. The book, "Shade Trees for the Southeast: An Auburn University Evaluation," is written by Auburn researchers Ponder, Charles Gilliam, Dave Williams, Gary Keever, John Owen and former AU researcher Donna Fare. It will be available from the Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station at Auburn University in early December.

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News from:

Office of Ag Communications & Marketing

Auburn University College of Agriculture
Alabama Agricultural Experiment Station
3 Comer Hall, Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849
334-844-4877 (PHONE) 334-844-5892 (FAX)

Contact Jamie Creamer, 334-844-2783 or jcreamer@auburn.edu
by Roy Roberson

10/25/93