Moscow Food Co-op
Really Fast-Growing Trees
by Pat Diaz, from the January 2004 Newsletter
I’ve been asked a lot lately which trees would be good for planting not only as windbreaks, but as screens against a less-than-desirable view. With several housing developments going up, some people are finding that the view they thought they would have, all of a sudden is going to contain other houses! Others have bought or built and discovered that the wind really blows at them and they need screening against it.
Most of the fastest growing trees are deciduous, which usually means that you’ll have to rake leaves. There are a couple of evergreens that are fairly fast growing and these are great because they don’t shed leaves, but for the most rapid growth, deciduous is usually the way to go.
Most trees grow fastest when they’re young and slow down as they grow older. Planting time for our area is best in the early spring after the ground thaws. You can buy bare-root stock then too, and these trees are cheaper and will adapt faster to the native soil. The rest of the year nurseries offer container-grown trees or balled-and-burlapped ones.
Let’s discuss some of these speedy trees that are good for our area:
DECIDUOUS
The ‘Accolade’ elm (Ulmus x ‘Accolade’) has shiny,
dark leaves and grows three feet per year. It is resistant to Dutch elm disease
and elm scale. It grows to 70’ tall and 45’ wide.
Catalpa (C. speciosa) trees have white, trumpet-shaped flowers that bloom in late spring and summer along with big, heart-shaped leaves. It does have brittle wood and aggressive roots so you’ll need to watch for that. It grows to 20-40’ high and 15-25’ wide.
The green ash tree (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) is a good choice and the best varieties for our area are ‘Marshall,’ ‘Patmore,’ and ‘Prairie Spire.’ A very good shade tree with beautiful yellow or bronze fall color, it will need regular watering.
The honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) is another good choice for our area and has beautiful fernlike foliage. The trunk is thorny, however, and the seedpods are messy. ‘Skyline’ has a great pyramidal shape while the ‘Shademaster’ is more upright. Both of them grow 3-4’ per year.
The Populus family of trees is well-known for its rapid growth, toughness, and low maintenance. They grow best where there are cold winters and hot summers. The big caution for these trees, however, is that you MUST NOT plant these near pavement, sewer lines, septic tanks, or leach lines. The roots are invasive and these trees produce suckers. But for rapid growth, it’s hard to beat their speed. The plains cottonwood (Populus sargentii) grows three feet per year and is pyramidal in shape when young, then rounds with age. It will eventually grow to 80’ tall and 50-60’ feet wide. The white poplar (Populus alba) grows speedily to 40-60’ and is broad and wide-spreading. It has beautiful flickering leaves and tolerates a wide range of soils. If you’re planting this one as a windbreak, the profuse suckers will be a definite advantage, filling everything in. The Bolleana poplar (P.a. ‘Pyramidalis’) also suckers freely and, therefore, is great for windbreaks or sun screens. One of the cottonwood varieties, Balm-of-Gilead, can be obtained in seedless hybrid form and therefore doesn’t blow “cotton” everywhere. These two are ‘Idahoensis’ (‘Idaho Hybrid’) and ‘Mojave Hybrid’. They grow to 30-60’ and are broad-topped.
EVERGREENS
Probably the two fastest-growing evergreen trees suitable for our area are
the Norway Spruce and the Western White Pine. The Norway Spruce grows fast
to 100-150’ and has stiff, deep green needles. It is extremely hardy
and wind resistant. The Western White Pine has been decimated in many northwestern
forests by the white pine blister rust. It grows rapidly at first then slows
to moderate growth, eventually reaching about 60 feet. It is very hardy and
has blue-green needles and light brown, slender cones.
I hope that these ideas have helped some of you in your planning of windbreaks and visual screens. You can also contact your local nursery and either of the two university extension offices for further suggestions.
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