Hybrid Poplar Wood Is THIS Properties of Hybrid Poplar As a Suitable for Their Products

EM 8667 Reprinted October 1997 $1.00

Product and Market Opportunities for

HYBRID DATE. Interest in hybrid poplar has • What products can be made from exploded in recent years. Within the hybrid poplar, and what products past 10 years, four pulp and paper OFshould be avoided? POPLAR companies have established hybrid • Who will buy the resource? poplar plantations in Oregon to help (Although poplar may be suitable supply their mills. for a company's products, there The Oregon State UniversityOUT is no guarantee the company will WOOD Extension Service and private buy poplar.) landowners are conducting First, a basic idea of the physical growth, yield,IS and clonal and mechanical properties of hybrid research in many parts in Oregon poplar is needed. Examples of of the state. Within 5. Leavengood and J. Reeb physical and mechanical properties 1-2 years, we'll be include machinability, shrink/swell better able to deter- characteristics, density, fastening mine which (ease, splitting, etc.), strength, and information:varieties per- finishing characteristics. The form best in any biggest hurdle to finding answers to given region. these questions is that little publicly The big question available research has been con- for private landown- ducted on hybrid poplar. ers wanting to To further complicate matters, establish poplar current the research that has been done plantations is, "Who PUBLICATION provides evidence that "not all will buy the raw mate- hybrid poplars are created equal." rial?" At the same time, The term "hybrid poplar" refers to buyers of the raw material (the numerous varieties, and therefore it wood products industry) are asking most is impossible to describe the whether hybrid poplar wood is THIS properties of hybrid poplar as a suitable for their products. From a whole. product and market standpoint, the Varieties are crosses between For pressing questions are: many different species in the genus http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog• What are the physical and Populus. This genus includes mechanical properties of hybrid 25 species, including black cotton- poplar? wood, eastern cottonwood, quaking

OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERVICE Scott Leavengood, Extension agent, south-central Oregon; and Jim Reeb, Extension wood products manufacturing specialist; Oregon State University. aspen, balsam poplar, white poplar, such as hardboard and medium- density. To work successfully, the European black poplar, and Lom- density fiberboard. This publication original density of the wood must bardy poplar. Not only are the discusses each of these products, be sufficiently low that the wood properties of all these species including the processes used and does not resist compression and the different, but so are the properties potential obstacles to using hybrid final product is light enough to be of offspring produced by poplar. moved by the end user. Wood cross-fertilization. > species with a density of less than Poplars, such as cottonwood and Laminated strand 39 lb/ft3 work well. aspen, are used for a variety of lumber and oriented The density of most poplars, products, including boxes, crates, including hybrids, ranges from core stock for plywood, pallets, strand board " 25-30 lb/ftDATE.3 (Phelps). Therefore, food containers, upholstered In Canada and the midwestern hybrid poplars should work well for furniture frames, and pulp and United States, aspen is used widely LSL and OSB. In fact, laboratory paper products. The new hybrid for laminated strand lumber (LSL) OFtests have shown this to be the case poplar plantations in the Northwest and oriented strand board (OSB), '- (Heilman, et al.). were established to supply pulp and often called waferboard, flakeboafd, So why aren't we growing paper mills. chipboard, or a host Of other names. thousands of acres of hybrid poplar If you want to sell hybrid poplar LSL is a relatively new product in the Northwest for LSL and OSB chips to pulp and paper companies, used as a substitute for OUTsolid-sawn-' mills? The answer is that there are be sure to consider the haul dis- lumber and timbers. LSL can be no LSL or OSB mills in the North- tances to the nearest mills. produced in smallIS sizes such as west. Lockwood-Post's 7992 Directory of 2x4s, or larger sizes such as beams The problem is raw material Pulp and Paper Mills in the United and headers. OSB is a panel product supply. These mills require an States lists 7 mills in northern widely used as a substitute for ■>.■ enormous supply of raw material to California (north of Sacramento), plywood sheathing. •;. operate economically. Assuming a 13 mills in Oregon (all on the The processes used to produce yield of approximately 91 tons/acre westside), 1 mill in Idaho, and LSL and.QSB-information: are Ivery similar. -, for a hybrid poplar plantation 6 mills in southern Washington Most pl^Qts feied logs (not chips or (Heilman, et al.), a "typical" OSB (south of Yakima). While these "junk" as often is believed) into a, mill can use the equivalent of more numbers are a bit out of date, they disk-type flaker (a vertical rotating than 2,400 acres/year (Spelter). give a general idea of the number of disk). The flaker slices the logs into potential buyers. flakes.or wafers approximately : When chip prices are low, it may 11/2 inch,wide, 3 inches long, current1 be uneconomicalPUBLICATION to haul poplar and /32 inch or less thick. chips over long distances. For a The wafers are dried, crop that must be harvested within a sprayed with adhesive, set time, this limitation could be a and formed into a mat. problem. In othermost words, the The mat is loaded into a landownerTHIS may not be able to "hold press, where pressure out" until chip prices rebound. and heat are used to Some Oregon landowners densify the panel and interestedFor in establishing hybrid cure the adhesive. poplar plantations are seeking Wood density can markets other http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalogthan pulp and paper. have a pronounced Hybrid poplar wood has potential impact on LSL or OSB for use in laminated strand lumber, production. Compressing oriented strand board, veneer for the wood gives the final plywood, solid-sawn products product a higher density (e.g., boards), and fiber products than the wood's initial Until producers of OSB and LSL Unlike OSB and LSL mills, there how hybrid poplar performs as see hard evidence that this volume are over 85 veneer and plywood more solid-sawn product trials are of raw material will be available mills in northern California, conducted. over a long period of time in the Oregon, and Washington (Directory There may be opportunities for Northwest, there is little chance of the Wood Products Industry). hybrid poplar to be used as core they'll take the risk of building a Therefore, a market for plywood stock for door and window parts. new mill. should exist, providing logs are Manufacturers of these products We have the chicken and the egg grown to an "adequate size." overlay high-quality veneer over problem here. One possible answer With regards to the issue of lower-quality core material. is "if we grow it, they (the mills) adequate log size for plywood and In recent years, central Oregon will come." However, it's also veneer mills, Baldwin (1995) mills haveDATE. supplemented their raw possible that OSB and LSL produc- stated, "The definition of small material supply with radiata pine ers fear pulp mills will outbid them underwent an evolutionary change from as far away as Chile and New for the raw material. Therefore, during thisperiod [1980 to present]. OFZealand. It certainly seems, at least even "if we grow it," raw material Small meant a 12 to 14 inch diam- at first glance, that locally grown supply still may be a problem. eter in 1980. By 1990, six or more hybrid poplar could help alleviate producers were successfully peeling the industry's supply woes. Again, Plywood southern pine in diameters as small product tests need to be conducted as seven inches." • OUT to determine whether hybrid poplar There are a few mills in the Clearly, the trend for the ply- will be suitable for the millwork Northwest using Oregon's native wood industry is toIS be able to use industry. poplar, black cottonwood, as core smaller and smaller logs. How this Last, but not least, is the export material for plywood. Like the OSB translates into a rotation age for: . j; market. Heilman, et al. (1990) and LSL processes, plywood hybrid poplar plantations-still is', j • -. stated that "a potential market for manufacture involves compression unclear. • .r?;. ■■.■\>j? hybrid poplar is lumber for export. of the wood, although the amount i Limited sawmill tests show hybrid of compression is far less in ply- information:poplar wood equals or surpasses wood than in OSB and LSL. Solid-sawn material. - black cottonwood, which is cur- Again, low-density woods such Much discussion has de'titered on rently being exported for lumber." as poplars work well for plywood the use of hybrid poplar for lumber There are reports that many core. K Ply, of Port Angeles, pibduction. As mehtioned previ- Japanese buyers prefer light-colored Washington, tested TxD hybrids ously, other poplars are' used for wood lacking distinctive grain (hybrid poplars produced from solid-sawn products su61i as boxes patterns. Most poplars fit this crosses of Populus trichocarpa^-current and crates, upholstered ftimiture description. black cottonwood—andPUBLICATION Populus frames, and lumber. deltoides—eastern cottonwood) for However, poplar wood has a plywood manufacture. They found tendency to warp during drying. In Fiber products that TxD hybrids make excellent addition, there is a problem with Hybrid poplar also may be used plywood (Heilman,most et al.). There is grain fuzzing during machining due for fiber products such as medium- someTHIS concern, however, about to the presence of tension wood density fiberboard (MDF) and warpage of cottonwood veneer as it ("abnormal" wood formed in hardboard. There are approximately dries (Carroll,For Hatch & Associates, leaning stems of hardwoods). 11 mills in Oregon producing MDF Inc.). Interestingly, Heilman, et al. and hardboard [Directory of the Northwest plywood mills find it (1990) report that TxD hybrid Wood Products Industry). difficult to acquirehttp://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog hybrid poplar poplars had "... 3) fewer defects The manufacturing process for logs large enough to test. To date, affecting lumber quality and 4) fiber products is similar to that for most commercial hybrid poplar straighter boles with less tension LSL and OSB. A key difference is plantations aren't old enough to wood, a feature yielding more that fiber production uses chips provide logs large enough for usable wood and better lumber instead of logs. Also, the chips are testing. quality." It will be interesting to see "ground" into individual wood fibers and small fiber bundles One southern Oregon company Directory of the Wood Products versus the much larger flakes or recently experimented in its fiber Industry—1996 (Miller Freeman wafers used for OSB and LSL. operation with hybrid poplar chips Inc., San Francisco, CA), 978 pp. Fibers are sprayed with adhesive purchased from James River Heilman, P.E., et al. High Yield and formed into a mat. The mat Corporation in Clatskanie, Oregon. Hybrid Poplar Plantations in the then is loaded into a press, where They found the material to work Pacific Northwest, PNW 356 pressure and heat are applied to quite well. Their future plans for (Washington State University, densify the panel and cure the growing and/or buying hybrid 1990, revised 1995), 41 pp. adhesive. poplar are unclear. Myers, G.C. and J.B. Crist. 1986. Myers and Crist (1986) com- Feasibility of Manufacturing pared hardboard made from one DATE. Conclusions Hardboard from Short-Rotation hybrid poplar (No. NC-5260, or As interest grows in using hybrid Intensively Cultured Populus. 'Tristis No. 1") with hardboard poplar for producing wood prod- Forest Products Journal, vol. 36 made from native aspen stands. One ucts, so will the information base. OF(1): 37^14. disadvantage of the poplar was that, As the wood products industry in when chipped whole-tree, it pro- Phelps, J.E., et al. 1982. Raw the Northwest continues to suffer duced more fines, an industry term Material Quality of from raw material supply problems, for wood particles smaller than the Short-Rotation, Intensively interest in experimenting with desired size for the process. A high OUT Cultured Populus Clones: I. hybrid poplar is certain to increase. percentage of fines often results in A Comparison of Stem and reduced strength of the final IS Branch Properties at Three product as well as increased use of For more information Spacings. IAWA Bulletin, vol. 3 (3^1): 193-200. adhesive and, therefore, higher Baldwin, R.F. 1995. Plywood and manufacturing costs. Veneer-Based Products: Manu- Spelter, H., et al. 1996. Economic Using the dry-formed process, facturing Practices (Miller Feasibility of Products from Myers and Crist found the strength Freeman Inc., San Francisco, Inland West Small Diameter properties to be about the same for CA), 388 information:pp. Timber, Forest Products Labora- tory General Technical Report panels made from hybrid poplar as Carroll, Hatch & Associates, Inc. FPL-GTR-92 (USDA Forest those for panels produced from 1991. "A Report on Methods to Service), 17 pp. aspen. In summary, the researchers Improve Cottonwood Veneer stated, 'Tristis [the hybrid poplar Performance for Plywood Core, clone tested] appears to be a Crossband and Substrate Materi- suitable raw material for the currentals" for Mt. Baker Plywood, Inc., manufacture ofPUBLICATION high- and medium- Bellingham, Washington (Report density hardboards by both the wet- sponsored by State of Washing- and dry-forming processes." ton Department of Trade and Economic Development, Con- most tract No. 91-D-019-A), 36 pp. THIS For http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog© 1997 Oregon State University. This publication may be photocopied or reprinted in its entirety for noncommercial purposes. This publication was produced and distributed in furtherance of the Acts of Congress of May 8 and June 30, 1914. Extension work is a cooperative program of Oregon State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and Oregon counties. Oregon State University Extension Service offers educational programs, activities, and materials—without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital status, disability, and disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran status— as required by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title DC of the Education Amendments of 1972, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Oregon State University Extension Service is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Published June 1997. Reprinted October 1997.