Balsam Poplar

Size, growth and what to expect

Balsam poplar grows fast, about 2.75 feet a year in our growth estimator. Expect 30 to 100 feet, with a narrow, open crown 25 to 40 feet wide. It is short-lived in the south of its range, though some trees reach 200 years. The oldest dated tree was 207 years old.

Catkins open in April and May, before the leaves, the males with 20 to 30 red stamens in each flower. Female trees shed tiny seeds on tufts of cotton from May into July. In spring the sticky buds, about an inch long, fill the air with a balsam scent as the leaves unfold. Ruffed grouse eat the male buds in winter, and moose, deer and beavers take the twigs and bark.

It grows wild across Canada and Alaska and south to Minnesota, Michigan, New York and Maine, with scattered stands as far south as Iowa, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In the Rockies it grows sparingly south to Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. Look for it on floodplains, stream banks and lake shores and in moist woods.

How to grow Balsam Poplar

Balsam poplar needs full sun, since it will not stand shade, and deep, moist, fertile soil. It takes flooding on stream banks, lake shores and wet flats, but not stagnant, brackish water or acid peat. Its roots run shallow and far and send up suckers, and older trees drop brittle limbs, so keep it away from houses, drives and lawns. Plant it 30 feet from a wall and more than 50 feet from overhead wires, and set trees 25 feet apart.

Saplings ship bare-root or potted. Plant them dormant, from leaf fall until bud swell, in a hole wider than the roots and no deeper. Set the root flare at the soil line, put the native soil back in, and keep the mulch clear of the trunk. The cottony seed lives only a few weeks, too short a time to sell it as a packet. To raise your own, sow it the day the catkins open, on the surface of wet, bare soil. Keep the bed moist until the seedlings are up, which can be within a day.

Water weekly through the first summer unless the ground stays wet. Guard young trees from deer, hares and beavers, which browse the stems or girdle the bark. Prune in the dormant season to keep one leader, and pull suckers where you do not want a grove.

Trees are male or female, and only females shed the cottony seed, from about 8 to 10 years old. Female trees also drop heaps of spent catkins and cotton. Poplar borers can girdle or weaken the stems, and leaf rust, leaf blight, cankers and wood rot also attack it. Forest tent caterpillars and leaf beetles feed on the leaves, though the resin makes it a poor host.