Growing crepe myrtle and other stave trees.

[Morgan]

I have lived in my current home for 3 years. When I moved in, my neighbor had some crepe myrtle bushes that were merely shoots maybe 1/2-3/4” in dia and a couple feet tall. Now many of the shoots are 3” in dia and plenty long enough for a bow. I have been wanting to start a sustainable  bowstave garden if you will for quite a while now and think this species may be an option.
 If anyone knows, can you coppice this tree? How do you encourage straight branch free growth? What other species of trees could supply bowstave size wood every couple years and also allow coppicing for future stave growth.
During the fall/winter months I’ve been making 6-8 bows and a one or two here and there throughout the rest of the year, so it wouldn’t take much to support my habit.
I own wooded land 35 miles from where I live that has a large variety of white wood bow woods growing in it, but everything I have cut is either bug infested or has disease. I have some black locust that is good, but it doesn’t like me.
  I would love to have a section of my back yard devoted to bow wood and arrow wood so I can actively manage and harvest without leaving home.

[simk]

hi, what you can do is tie a shoot to the ground and it will produce multiple straight shoots. from these shoots you remove after some time the side branches to get clean staves. i just started this procedure with a little elderberry in my yard. cheers

[DC]

Hazel works well. 4-5 years will give you a skinny stave that you can get 40+# out of. I try to pick the buds off before they even get to the small branch stage.

[M2A]

That is interesting Morgan. Sounds like it could be a fun project. Cant say I have experience in trying this other than a few apple shoots in an orchard I manage. But they will have too much twist in the grain I fear.   

(for bow wood)I think for straight growth you would be best to stake or trellis. Maybe a bit more difficult to prevent lateral branching because sunlight usually promotes that. You could use black drain pipe to block light however that would prevent you from seeing and removing any rouge branches. Maybe latex paint would help that? Being in the back yard you could inspect often to remove anything asap, like stated by DC and Simk. To Promote new growth leave a 2-3 inch stump on what you harvest, the next year you should have several new suckers develop. I think many different trees could work to do that.

For arrow wood...I know red twig dogwood is sold as a landscape plant in my area. It sends up a bunch of shoots from a crown and grows rather fast. No staking or trellis here, just let them grow. That would be what I'd try.

I hope I was not too vague. good luck if you try it. I'd be interested how it works. Mike                     

[GlisGlis]

hazel will work good both for arrows and bows
they tend to grow straighter if planted in a shadowed area and naturally produce many suckers

[DC]

I have suckers on my Hazel that start at the ground and grow straight up through the tree. About 10' with no branches and I only trimmed the branches(buds) once.They are getting close to 3" now.

[penderbender]

Plum is another one that's easy to copice. And top notch wood to boot! Cheers- Brendan

[Morgan]

Thanks for the replies guys! Does anyone know the growth rate on plum? I am going to get some cuttings from my neighbors crepe myrtle and try to get them rooted for spring planting. The crepe myrtles need planted in spring or summer from what I’ve read. I think other trees do well planted fall so I may try to find some plum and dogwood for planting this fall. I’ll need to read on the hazel to see how it grows here.

[Limbit]

Mulberry is essentially a weed in wet climates and is super easy and fast to grow. You can even cut straight twigs off a tree, rub them with a bit of root growing powder and watch them take off. When it is about as thick as a baseball it will have developed enough heart wood although softball sized is much better. That will take about 6 years depending on rainfall in the area and soil factors. Another thing you can do to grow straight shoots is shade them or grow them in a PVC pipe. Walnut would be easy. You could do Honeysuckle also, but careful about that stuff since it is highly invasive.

[GlisGlis]

sure. best thing is to check what grows better were you live.
Plum is excellent bow wood but it's not so easy to find straight untwisted staves

[Ryan Jacob]

I liv in the tropics but given 5 years, guava will give you atleast 1 stave good eneough for a 70+ pound bow. Can’t shoot that weight well though so I just make two bendy handled  40 pounders.

[Morgan]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! The neighbor has a mulberry tree as well. I didn’t realize it was a fast growing tree. I may get some cuttings off the branch that hangs over our fence and stabs me in the face every time I mow.

[Ryan Jacob]

Ask your neighbor before you cut, wouldn’t want to get in a fight over bow wood.