Former cattle pastures, soy fields, banana or cocoa plantations are frequently chosen. Rain forest is not cleared for Baltek plantations. Each balsa tree produces hundreds of thousands of seeds. These are carefully culled, and only the fittest are germinated in nurseries and planted on the farms. Baltek has created a complete management system to nurture and care for thousands of trees at every stage of growth, from seedling to 90-foot adult trees.
Climatic conditions are charted, soil is analyzed and trees are constantly examined and measured.
Twenty five years of experience aid us in producing superior quality balsa crop after crop. Remarkably small amounts of energy are required to transform natural balsa into structural end grain balsa building products. Mature trees are harvested, milled and receive a fungicide dip before being kiln dried. The quality, physical properties and density of the balsa are then closely graded and glued into large blocks. These blocks are precision cut into end grain sheets at Baltek's Northvale, New Jersey plant and further processed into the numerous available product configurations.