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Imagine CRISPR hardwood trees that rapidly grow as tall as Redwoods while maintaining their broad cover and proportions. Would be great both for lumber and to p

Imagine CRISPR hardwood trees that rapidly grow as tall as Redwoods while maintaining their broad cover and proportions. Would be great both for lumber and to plant in neighborhoods. A Navi/night-elf tree for every subdivision. Having the view and the shade in hot weather may be worth the risks of permanent shading and falling limbs. As long as they're sterile.

tetris11 3y ago
Imagine when we could bio-engineer our own houses: Grow an acorn room, cut out some windows, water tight it. When the kids grow up, you cut it off from the trunk and regraft it as the planting for their next house. One can only dream...
kuchenbecker 3y ago
IIRC Fast growing trees have less-dense fibers as each ring is bigger which makes the wood literally weaker.
- taylorportman 3y ago
  Throw in some baobab genes to help redistribute the growth/weight.
- DrBenCarson 3y ago
  good point, add in some density genes to make them hard as rocks
  - thfuran 3y ago
    Or maybe not quite that hard. Some woods are already hard enough to be inconvenient to work. Though maybe it's still all benefit if you're just trying to make industrial feedstock for cross laminated timber or something.
- walnutclosefarm 3y ago
  Not necessarily. Black locust (Robinia psuedoacacia), e.g., is one of the faster growing hardwoods in North America, but produces very hard, dense, and strong wood.
plumeria 3y ago
One can only dream.
madaxe_again 3y ago
People would complain that they drop needles, that birds hang out in them and crap on their cars and sing loudly in the mornings, that they block their light, that they are scared they will blow over in a storm. No, people want tarmac, concrete, astroturf and air conditioning. I see this everywhere I go. Nature as an inconvenience, something to be opposed and complained about. Just watched them hack down and mulch a 500+ year old chestnut here because it dropped fruit on the road and someone complained. Never mind that the chestnut had been by that road for longer than modern France has existed. I’m sure they can plant a laurel bush and nature will heal.
- SturgeonsLaw 3y ago
  The world is bigger than suburban America, there are a lot of places where greenery is a core part of the (yes, even urban) landscape
  - thfuran 3y ago
    That's far from a universally held position in suburban America.
  - madaxe_again 3y ago
    Indeed. I’ve seen this attitude everywhere from Uruguay to Uzbekistan to Ulaanbaatar to Ulm - and the people who want to remove nature inevitably win, as it’s a lot easier to destroy than to create. Where I live most of the time in very rural Portugal, people are utterly mystified by our desire to protect nature in our land - “but it’s good firewood!”, “animals live there!” (Wild animals == food/fear), “why do you want to live in a dirty forest?”, “how can you bear to live next to a river? Aren’t you scared?”, and on it goes. Of course there exist people who care about the environment, and prefer greenery to sterility - but they are the minority, always have been, always will be.

tetris11 3y ago

Imagine when we could bio-engineer our own houses: Grow an acorn room, cut out some windows, water tight it. When the kids grow up, you cut it off from the trunk and regraft it as the planting for their next house. One can only dream...

kuchenbecker 3y ago

IIRC Fast growing trees have less-dense fibers as each ring is bigger which makes the wood literally weaker.

taylorportman 3y ago
Throw in some baobab genes to help redistribute the growth/weight.
DrBenCarson 3y ago
good point, add in some density genes to make them hard as rocks
- thfuran 3y ago
  Or maybe not quite that hard. Some woods are already hard enough to be inconvenient to work. Though maybe it's still all benefit if you're just trying to make industrial feedstock for cross laminated timber or something.
walnutclosefarm 3y ago
Not necessarily. Black locust (Robinia psuedoacacia), e.g., is one of the faster growing hardwoods in North America, but produces very hard, dense, and strong wood.

plumeria 3y ago

One can only dream.

madaxe_again 3y ago

People would complain that they drop needles, that birds hang out in them and crap on their cars and sing loudly in the mornings, that they block their light, that they are scared they will blow over in a storm. No, people want tarmac, concrete, astroturf and air conditioning. I see this everywhere I go. Nature as an inconvenience, something to be opposed and complained about. Just watched them hack down and mulch a 500+ year old chestnut here because it dropped fruit on the road and someone complained. Never mind that the chestnut had been by that road for longer than modern France has existed. I’m sure they can plant a laurel bush and nature will heal.

SturgeonsLaw 3y ago
The world is bigger than suburban America, there are a lot of places where greenery is a core part of the (yes, even urban) landscape
- thfuran 3y ago
  That's far from a universally held position in suburban America.
- madaxe_again 3y ago
  Indeed. I’ve seen this attitude everywhere from Uruguay to Uzbekistan to Ulaanbaatar to Ulm - and the people who want to remove nature inevitably win, as it’s a lot easier to destroy than to create. Where I live most of the time in very rural Portugal, people are utterly mystified by our desire to protect nature in our land - “but it’s good firewood!”, “animals live there!” (Wild animals == food/fear), “why do you want to live in a dirty forest?”, “how can you bear to live next to a river? Aren’t you scared?”, and on it goes. Of course there exist people who care about the environment, and prefer greenery to sterility - but they are the minority, always have been, always will be.