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keithrawlins · Joined: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 152 Location: banbridge

i have decided to bite the bullet and fence the rock of from the cattle and plant a willow and hazel wood. the rock is a small feild about a 1/3 of an acre that was left over from building the house.
has any got anyone advice on the best verities and the best planting patern there does not need to be any vehicle acsess as it is just through the gate and i am not quiet that lazy Wink

blowin · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 1:49 am Post subject:

Do more research than I did ! Laughing

One type of willow grows on all the open ground around here and there is plenty of another type in the hedges so I assumed that I could plant a whip anywhere and it would thrive . This doesn't appear to be the case !
Willow seems to need a lot of light . One row is open on all sides and just looses direct sunlight about mid afternoon . That is enough to make a difference of about 3 ft of growth this season ( comparing one end of the row with the other ) .
It also makes a big difference if you can prevent weeds etc from growing any closer than about 18" from the trunk by using matting , mulch or Roundup . This is for the benefit of the tree . For the convenience of the harvester in overgrown conditions the coppicing should be done higher up than usual , creating a crown at about 18" but this apparently takes longer to establish than at low level . I can't think why that is but a pro grower told me so !
And I have one row of young trees about 15 ft high whereas the next row which is only 30 ft away is no more than 10 ft high . I guess that must be to do with drainage . Dunno !!! Good luck Wink