A free, researched guide to growing trees: nine fast-growing species, and the questions to ask before you plant or buy trees.
Watch the 5-minute video — or read every word of it below.
Everything below is what I say in the video, written out.
Hello and welcome. My name is Kostas Katsarakis. I'm proud to be Greek, and over the next five minutes I'm here just to earn your trust — and not ask you to take my word for anything.
I have been a tree-plantation customer myself for over 15 years, across two plantations — one in Africa and one in Greece. Everything in this book comes from actually doing this, and not from a course or a seminar.
If you're here, it's probably because you want to put money into something real — something that outlives a stock ticker — and you don't yet know who to trust with that. That is a fair instinct. Tree planting has a real history of vague promises and more.
I have spent 15 years learning to tell a real operation from a good pitch. And this book is the first thing that I hand to anyone before they trust me with more than that.Why I wrote it
Because I wanted to share what I have actually learned — not just what you can already find online. The facts are out there for free, but the personal experience, the mistakes, what actually happened when I put my own money in — that part you will not find anywhere else.
Paulownia, Eucalyptus, Teak, Mahogany, Black Locust, Poplar, Bamboo, Walnut and Acacia. For each one of them: what the research says about where it grows well, how fast it really grows, what it needs, what could go wrong — and of course the economics worth looking at. Sourced from peer-reviewed evidence, not opinion, and flagged wherever a claim cannot be independently verified.
World maps of where these trees actually grow, and a chapter on carbon markets, certification and timber demand — what is real out there, and what is over-promised.
Third, and for me the most important: due diligence. How real plantation frauds actually worked, and the red flags to look for before you sign anything.
What went well, what surprised me, and what I would do differently.
And the book is free. That's what the title is all about: Free Knowledge, Paid Experience.
Knowledge should be free, because it is the homework that everyone should do before they put money into trees. Experience is different. Fifteen years of it cost me real money and real mistakes — and the only way to share it is personally, one conversation at a time.
Plenty of coaches and advisors would tell me:
"Give the book away for free, collect thousands of emails, and start bombarding them with messages until the sun stops shining."
I did not want that, for two reasons:
So I ask you for only one thing: your personal details — your name, your phone number, your email, and the app you prefer, like Viber, WhatsApp or something else. You will not be added to any automatic email list, and your details will not be shared with anyone.
As soon as you fill in the form below, the rest of my website opens and you can download the book right away.
There I show the options I personally use for having a company plant trees on my behalf. Where I might earn a commission from one of them, I tell you so, right next to the link. You don't have to use any of them. The book stands on its own.
Page 2 of the website — opens after the form
If you want to go further, there is a short quiz, and after it a free personal conversation with me.
This book is for you if you're looking at trees as a long-term investment, but you do not believe every big promise you hear about fast growth or higher returns. You want to see the proof first.
This book is for the person who wants to be the one in their family who actually looked into this before acting — not the one who wishes they had, later.
…the form is right below. Fill it in, and the book is yours.
Fill in the form and Page 2 opens straight away, with the download button for the book.
Already filled it in on this device? Go straight to Page 2. Any problem? Email katsarakis.treeplanters@gmail.com and I will send you the book personally.
Thank you for watching. This is
Kostas Katsarakis, from Thessaloniki, Greece
here to help you plant your own future.