Our Kiri trees

The Kiri is considered to be the fastest growing tree in the world. With the right conditions, it will grow over 5 metres in one year and produce as much wood by volume as an Oak tree in a tenth of the time.

At WeGrow we are passionate about the Kiri. As the developer of our own protected Kiri tree variety, NordMax21®, for commercial cultivation in Germany and Europe, we are shaping sustainable wood production for the future within our plantations. Every day for 10 years, the Kiri tree has been the core of all our efforts. Our goal is to devise and then provide the best conditions for each stage of its lifecycle so it can achieve its full growth potential, and we accompany it along the entire value chain.

We produce our Kiri trees ourselves, in our seedling lab and greenhouses. Here we propagate the carefully selected varieties developed by us using micro cuttings. The sterile laboratory conditions and the use of innovative IT solutions with environmentally friendly LED exposure technologies ensure the production of more vigorous, pure and healthy plants.

Of course, we work here completely without the use of genetic engineering, but instead apply our expertise in biology and botany. By controlling the spectral range of our cultivation light in the laboratory, we can control the plants’ physiological processes such as rooting and shoot growth much more precisely, and also reduce conventional energy requirements by up to 60 percent. Our germ-free propagation trays, which are closed with permeable films, hold 50 plants each and are used for cultivation as well as secure and space-saving transport. We can ship 1,000 plants in one carton and load them on a single Euro pallet, thus moving up to 16,000 young plants at a time.

In our greenhouses, we utilise specially designed roller-table systems, which enable a true-to-nature toughening of our Kiri plants. Here we carry out another cultivation step lasting several weeks, to help prepare them for outdoor planting on the plantations. We inoculate the young plants with symbiotic microorganisms, and so promote the formation of homogeneous root systems and strong shoots, increasing their resilience when outside in the open.

Our Kiri cultivation

The global population of over seven billion people consumes wood products each and every day. At WeGrow, we want to contribute to creating a sustainable supply of wood for the future, as safe and environmentally sound as possible. As a pioneer in Germany of green wood production in plantation form, we use the advantages and opportunities offered by modern timber cultivation on agricultural land to produce our wood outside the forest.

Developing and implementing commercially and ecologically balanced Kiri projects is our most important goal. With a comprehensive multi-factorial evaluation process, we carefully examine the suitability of possible cultivation areas in advance, and only develop projects that offer the best potential for success according to our inter-disciplinary analysis.

For our plantations we use planting equipment with dedicated GPS technology. This uniquely precise approach enables us to achieve a planting accuracy of up to 2cm. We employ this degree of mechanisation throughout our plantation management, which allows us carry out accurate, cost-efficient work with a long-term horizon. We define nine central development priorities in the operational management of our plantations:

  • land development work
  • surface preparation work
  • installation and maintenance of irrigation devices
  • planting
  • infrastructure work
  • maintenance work
  • harvesting operations
  • re-cultivation
  • sales of wood and other agricultural products

Our state-of-the-art technology is adapted handle the realities of a plantation, and it allows us new ways of integration and control of the individual processes over our international cultivation areas.

Our Kiri wood

The economics of timber is largely determined by quality of the product and the proof-of-origin of the wood on offer. At WeGrow, our goal is to bring out the best Kiri wood attributes from our plantations worldwide in a sustainable and fair manner. We achieve this through consistently combining varietal purity, thorough site selection, sustainable production methods and professional care.

Well in advance, we can precisely calculate the most efficient planting distances and harvesting plan for our plantations, and we can tweak and differentiate the production of premium timber for different sales markets. We can harvest Kiri wood on the industrial scale that is needed; yet it stands out with a defining characteristic, its knotless even grain. We achieve these layer qualities by systematically hand-pruning our Kiri plantations through all the growth phases of the tree.

It is for good reason that Kiri is known as the “aluminum” of wood, and the “Lightweight Champion”. Its honeycomb cell structure gives the wood its uniquely high relative strength. Combined with its exclusive grain pattern, Kiri is the in-demand modern material for furniture manufacture, natural interior design and sustainable building. We enhance these qualities to meet that market demand, and with the proof of our sustainable production methods from seed-to-cutting for all to see, this makes our Kiri wood unique. So our end-product is suitable for all areas of the Kiri-wood processing industry.

The market for Kiri wood is large and growing year-on-year. In China alone, over 4 million cubic metres of Kiri wood are processed annually into furniture, awnings, blinds, doors, musical instruments, sports equipment, wood-based materials, veneers and many other products. So at WeGrow, we network closely with national and international wood processing firms. This allows us to consider new market trends quickly, and best adapt out cultivation measures to meet them.

Ecology

Business success and social responsibility go together at WeGrow. For us, acting responsibly means that we follow an integrated approach to environmental protection in the course of all our work. Our projects promote climate protection, conserve valuable resources and contribute to the preservation of an environment worth living in, both on our sites and beyond.

With our sustainable wood production based on plantation agriculture, we integrate not only business efficiency but also a multitude of positive ecological and social elements, and we contribute to meeting the challenges of our time with a long-term perspective:

  • Our Kiri trees absorb up to 40 tons of CO2 per hectare annually. Since we produce our wood for high-quality use in the furniture and the wood-based materials industry, the CO2 captured on our plantations remains permanently locked in over the very long lifespan of these products.
  • With our Kiri plantations, we contribute to the long-term enrichment of nutrients and the ecological health of the agricultural land. Our Kiri trees have a deep root system. The roots, which grow up to 5 metres deep, can tap nutrients from lower soil layers. With the autumn leaf-fall, these nutrients reach the soil surface and are quickly transformed into valuable humus. A natural cycle closes.
  • Due to its physical properties and appearance, our Kiri wood can substitute tropical timber. With our plantations located outside the forests, we help to sustainably reduce the pressure on the world’s woodland resources, and in particular protect natural rainforest areas from over-exploitation, illegal deforestation and destruction.