Trees
Although the Thai does not really differ much from the average Dutch person, you sometimes experience something in Thailand that you will not easily experience in the Netherlands. That's what the next stories are about. Today: Trees.
Trees
Natural agarwood oil is used in the perfume industry and costs 20 to 40 dollars per gram, so almost as much as gold. The oil is extracted from agarwood of the Aquilaria crassna tree and we have twelve specimens of this on our land.
About 12 years ago my wife took some cuttings from a park – with permission – and now they are already about 7 meters high. Have we already become rich? No, unfortunately not yet. The tree will only produce that oil in response to damage, for example after a lightning strike. Or after being attacked by certain bacteria. In practice, there is little chance that such a tree will produce that oil, and certainly with us because we have a lightning rod. Fortunately, they are beautiful trees.
But those who have time to live can also plant hardwood. Teak is of course a well-known tree, but unfortunately not beautiful to look at. Mahogany, however, is a beautiful tree. But there is plenty of choice in Thailand. And the law will soon change; then you no longer need permission from the government to cut down your trees and monetize them. Unfortunately, you have to wait thirty years before your tree is worth a million.
And of course you also have to understand it. Because only straight ones bring in a lot of money.
Apparently money grows on trees. Nice story!
Never knew that a lightning strike would make someone better
I'd say plant the lightning rod in the tree!
Then it won't help you because then it will hit the lightning rod and not the tree.
“Plant the lightning rod in the tree,”
That will definitely work...
But then you have to "earth" the bottom of the tree
And not on the earth stake in the ground.
Good luck…
Our house in Isaan is almost ready . And quite high on the mound. We are looking for a company from which lightning protection can be ordered. Do you have an address for us? And we still have to figure out the trees for the garden.
If your house is built from a reinforced concrete frame, the foundation of which goes deep into the ground, and your roof is also built from a steel frame on which your roof tiles lie, you don't need a lightning rod, think of the Faraday cage, this ensures that electrical discharges cannot penetrate the walls of your house, so that the discharge immediately disappears into the ground.
We did not use a specialist for the lightning rod. It was placed by the contractor at the same time as our warehouse tower. So far we have only had one impact with no consequences by the way (except for a huge bang). At least, we thought it was without consequences. But a few days later our water supply was gone and refilling was no longer possible. Fortunately, it was only a blown fuse.
It is possible to get free trees from the Thai government.
We have planted more than 100 trees here, mainly trees that are not used that much anymore.
the government wants to encourage that.
(Plant propagation center) is the name, you need a thai ID card,
We had Mahogany trees, all kinds of trees with flowers
According to my wife, that center is in every province.
Thanks Wim for the information!
You can also get a free starter set from the government (Land Development Regional Office) to make EM yourself. EM stands for Effective Microorganisms (various blends of common predominantly anaerobic microorganisms in a carbohydrate-rich liquid carrier substrate). Food waste and plant waste are thus converted into food for the plants. You can also use it to restore polluted ponds to health. And when Bangkok was flooded a few years ago, it was also used to purify the water in the flooded streets.
As an extra you also need sugar syrup, but you also get that for free and it is for sale everywhere in large containers.
Nice government service!
Can you give the name of that office / agency; also show it here in Thai, then maybe we can also find it here in the province?
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After damage, the "Agarwood" tree produces a kind of resin (it is actually not a resin but a lighter in weight and dark in color wood) for defense, it could be an insect or a fungus, you can even hammer nails into it, but What is often done nowadays is to drill holes in it and then inject a fungus or hope for a fungus present to do its job. The tree does not produce oil, oil can be extracted from the “resin”, but that is a process involving boilers and fire. The tree is protected because there was a lot of logging in the wild on this tree. In Papua New Guinea they discovered that the trees there were full of Agarwood because they had been damaged in the Second World War, aircraft with live artillery and shrapnel turned out to be the cause of this. There the tree was almost extinct in the wild due to logging. The price of the resin or extracted oil varies depending on the quality, but can indeed be very high. It is used in the perfume industry, in the more expensive perfumes it is often one of the ingredients, called "oud", it is pronounced as oud. It is also widely used in Japanese and Chinese Buddhism, where they often use it in incense sticks. The young Buddha is often shown holding a Lotus flower in one hand and an Agarwood branch in the other. If a tree is doing really well and whole "clumps" of agarwood are produced, artists also carve statues and other works of art from it, which are really worth a fortune. The richer Asians have this in their house as if they had an expensive painting hanging, only this status symbol also smells very nice throughout your house. In the Middle East they are also crazy about the smell, where many people burn pieces of Agarwood as incense to relax and make the house smell nice. Those who can afford it burn the better quality, but even the less wealthy burn with a lesser quality. Many customers of today's Agarwood plantations in Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia come from the Middle East. In Thailand the Agarwood tree is also protected and if you plant them for trade it is better to have it certified that you planted them yourself and that they come from a plantation. Then you will at least have no problems in the future if you ever want to sell an expensive tree. In the Philippines, most Agarwood is traded on the black market, but for astronomical amounts. In Thai, the Agarwood tree is popularly called “tonmai hom” or literally translated as a tree that smells nice. Personally, I think Agarwood smells really wonderful, whether you smell a burnt piece or a good oil, it is really very special. In the West we don't know the tree at all, probably because it is a tropical tree and most people are not Buddhists.