It grows on soils with a wide range of pH, from 4.3 to 7.5.
Tsuga dumosa is found m Nepal between 2100 and 3600 m. In the lower parts of its range it occurs in Quercus semecarpifolia forest, and higher up as a constituent of Pinus wallichiana, Abies and Picea forest. In some places, especially in the west, it forms almost pure stands.
The seed is collected between January and March, and is extracted by drying the cones in the sun. There are about 400,000 seeds kg-1, and the viability is reported to be six months only.
The seed should be sown in the spring once the weather has become warmer. It should be sown in beds or trays at the rate of about 250 g m-2 and the seedlings pricked out into polypots when about 7 cm high. Tsuga, like Pinus, needs mycorrhizal soil in the potting mixture. At the altitudes where it is likely to be planted it may need two growing seasons in the nursery.
At Ikudol, south Lalitpur District, 76 per cent of the trees planted by farmers survived, but at the higher altitudes of 3100 m at Kaku, Solukhumbu District, survival of seedlings planted in 1983 was very low, in part at least due to the use of bare-root seedlings for planting (J. Stewart, 1984). Growth is slow, the mean annual diameter increment ranging from about 0.3. to 0.45 cm. Mean annual increment in natural forest in the Darjeeling Hills in forest between 38-49 years old ranged from 8.4 to 10.9 m3 ha-1.
The timber is whitish and soft, and altough not of the highest quality is used in villages at higher altltudes for house timber, doors and window frames. It is also used for shingles. It weighs about 450 kg m-3.