I'm eventually going to be moving to a new house, set nearby a pine plantation (pinus radiata). I've noticed that steel in the area seems to suffer from surface rusting, more than expected from a place far from the ocean. Is it possible the pines have something to do with this? It worries me a bit, thinking of the damage it might cause to my tools etc. Would things kept indoors also be susceptible, or am I barking up the wrong tree?
Jordan
I live in a pine plantation (pinus resinosa) commonly called Norway or Red pine. I've not experienced unusual levels of rusting. It could be a case of shading causing morning dew to not burn off as quickly as a more open area.
Wes
White Pine is a host of the rust disease that kills currants and gooseberries. Not the answer you wanted, I'm sure
It's possible that the pollination is the problem. My own area has lots of spruce and cedar, these and pines give off so much pollen that I have to wash the house or it traps water and grows mildew (which, however, is NOT in the paint, just on the surface and washes off).
Salt spray also results in water retention on surfaces (the salt in a rust pit retards evaporation, so the pit stays damp and just rusts deeper). Either way, it's a water-retention issue.
I grew up in the Southern Pine belt and never noticed any excessive rusting. It was fairly humid there, also.
I know they cause sore butts...ask any Christmas Angel!
As long as they don't kill my raspberries and blackberries. Especially the blackberries.
Wes
On Thu, 8 Mar 2007 21:36:33 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, "Tom Gardner" quickly quoth:
I'm sure glad I'd finished swallowing that sip of tea before reading this post, Tawm.
.-. Life is short. Eat dessert first! ---
Glyphosate or ammonium sulphamate are the things to kill blackberries with. Once you've killed the brambles, you can plant some black currants and gooseberries :-)
Mark Rand RTFM
If I did that, my elderly mom would kick the chit out of me. My land, her blackberry patch.
Wes
Yep ! They also cause radio problems to some extent. Years ago, Motorolan Phil "Bugs" Barnes authored an interesting paper on "RF and the Loblolly Pine". It seems the length of needles of that tree offer significant RF attenuation compared to other pines. The lengths of loblolly needles are "wavelength favorable" to Land Mobile UHF frequencies and thus attenuate RF more than others.
Bob Swinney
Not only pine needles, in the spring all the uhf customers would complain of poor coverage. The tree leaves in spring would do the same thing until the matured. At that time most of the uhf equipment ran off repeaters.
John
John
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