Teak Wood

Hello again, Zitizzi,

I know little about teak in particular but I have been able to obtain tree plantings free of charge indirectly through the CR government. The local Tico who is caretaker of my property was able to this for me. There must be an official plan in place for such a thing. I did not go with teak, however. The teak tree grows pretty rapidly but it is not the most attractive of trees. It grows straight and tall with few secondary branches and so contributes less than other trees to the canopy.

Thanks for the kind words Scott.

I am more than willing to answer any questions regarding teak that people may have. I will give a little bit regarding teak.

Teak is not native here but in many places in Costa Rica will not self-seed due to the fact that you have to pre-treat the seed – I do believe on the coast it will due to the presence of a lot of sand in the soil. I know in our area, I have never seen a teak self-germinate. Therefore, teak is non-invasive, unlike gmelina.

Unfortunately, there has been deliberate scams as well as unintentional ones. Here are some facts about teak that might help.

1. Teak is not suitable in Costa Rica EXCEPT in the following circumstances.
a. The land must not have more slope than 15%.
b. The soil must be well drained and fertile.
c. Teak hates competition, therefore you must prevent competion from weeds, grass and other trees.
d. Teak should be pruned at least once a year, perhaps twice (with excellent growth)
e. The elevation should not be any higher than 1,000 feet (lower is better) and NO WIND.

Teak wood will not have the required oils to be suitable for outdoor furniture until it is 12 years old. It makes nice furniture before that time, but not outdoor furniture and of course is not suitable for boats, etc.

You have a high percentage of heart wood (the good stuff) when you grow it in soil that is fertile or when it grows slow enough to not need fertile soil.

Poorly grown teak has almost no value. If it is not pruned and cared for so that you have straight, knot free wood – you are wasting your time and money. There is an abundance of poorly grown teak in Costa Rica. I have seen estimates as high as 70% of the teak plantations in Costa Rica have very poor quality teak. Just about every week someone tries to sell me wood from plantations that are 15 years old that have never been pruned and never maintained. Usually this plantations have a few trees on the outside with a diameter of 15 inches or so and all the ones in the inside no more than 8 inches. Invariably the owner wants to sell all the trees because they have realized that they will get very little for them.

One thing to be aware – anyone who is trying to sell you land will tell you that you can grow teak on it. You must have your own forestry engineer to evaluate the land.

Just my dos colones, growing trees is a business. No matter what you might have read, growing trees is not easy, especially in the tropics. Unless you are going into it in a large scale, you would be much better off having someone like ourselves grow them for you. You will make more, it will cost you less, and you will have much less headaches.