Redwoods are still an evergreen and fast growing. Alternatively, we could put the tannin producing gene in a regular lumber tree to make it naturally rot resistant to be a green alternative to lumber treatments
In: Biology
there might be better reasons, but afaik redwoods don’t grow across a huge range that would allow large-scale cultivation. Their natural, pre-human range is only a narrow strip of the California coast, and up in the Sierra Nevadas.
They’re fast-growing, but you want them to get big, which takes a long time. Also, they seem to be very sensitive to climate. Naturally they only grow in a few isolated patches in California, though apparently the UK has had some success in growing them.
The bottom line is that it’s cheaper to pressure-treat pine than it is to grow redwoods.
We still don’t really use what we’ve planted to make stuff, a tree takes close to a whole human generation to be viable for production. redwoods are also picky about the conditions they grow in compared to other trees
… Who builds buildings from wood?
The older the tree, the more heartwood it has. Heartwood is very rot resistant but is much slower growing than sapwood.
I live in California and you can absolutely buy redwood dimensional lumber at HD and Lowe’s. It’s reasonably priced, used for a lot of outdoor projects.
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