Planting Willow

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Planting Willow

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snozzer

Joined: 19 Oct 2006
Posts: 296
Location: The Centre of Britian

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 10 9:40 am Post subject: Planting Willow
Well, finally got the agreement on another 600 acres for our shoot and need to get stuck into planning and prep for the 2011 season. Is it too late to plant willow cuttings?

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 10 10:04 am Post subject:
Perfect time. They will root almost any time of the year but you will get more success when they are dormant. You will need to watch out for rabbit & deer damage in the spring. They love the new young shoots.

evie2

Joined: 29 May 2010
Posts: 2156
Location: Here

Posted: Mon Nov 29, 10 11:30 am Post subject:
Is willow fencing suitable for gardens?

Bodger

Joined: 23 May 2006
Posts: 13524

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 10 3:33 pm Post subject:
Willow isn't realy suitable for planting near to housing. Their roots are very strong and go a long way. Snozzer I cut some short willow wands from local trees and simply stuck them in the ground. There's certainly no need to buy any. They've grown very rapidly and I didn't lose a one. I've cut some of them down now and they'll form part of next years firewood.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46313
Location: yes

Posted: Tue Dec 14, 10 3:43 pm Post subject:
as above until the ground gets to about 5 degrees c is a good time for willow in dryer places tis a good time to plant oaks as acorns either poked in or broadcast fruit trees are good for pheasant if you have the places to add them

Cathryn

Joined: 16 Jul 2005
Posts: 19856
Location: Ceredigion

Posted: Wed Dec 15, 10 9:10 pm Post subject:
They love chestnuts. We're planting trees at the moment in the brief gaps when the ground thaws.

alice

Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Posts: 2820

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 10 8:37 am Post subject:

Tavascarow wrote:

You will need to watch out for rabbit & deer damage in the spring.
They love the new young shoots.

And geese! A friends planting was scrobbled by wild geese.

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 10 9:41 am Post subject:

Bodger wrote:

Snozzer I cut some short willow wands from local trees and simply stuck them in the ground. There's certainly no need to buy any. They've grown very rapidly and I didn't lose a one. I've cut some of them down now and they'll form part of next years firewood.

That really depends on what purpose you want to put the end product to.
You can use ordinary wild willow for fuel production but there are varieties that will produce many more tonnes per hectare than the wild.
Just google short rotation coppice.
Cuttings are cheap & as you say easily rooted, & once you have a few you can always repropogate.
& obviously for craft purposes, hurdles, basketry etc then you need to select suitable varieties.
Saying that as you want only game cover then I doubt variety choice is important but there may be another market you can put the wood towards besides hiding game.

alice

Joined: 18 Feb 2006
Posts: 2820

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 10 9:46 am Post subject:
tavascarrow - off the top of your head, which varieties of willow would you suggest for fuel?

judith

Joined: 16 Dec 2004
Posts: 22789
Location: Montgomeryshire

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 10 10:26 am Post subject:
Can I just say that "scrobbled" is the best word I have read all week.

Tavascarow

Joined: 06 Aug 2006
Posts: 8407
Location: South Cornwall

Posted: Thu Dec 16, 10 10:40 am Post subject:

alice wrote:

tavascarrow - off the top of your head, which varieties of willow would you suggest for fuel?

I'm only growing for craft purposes so have only done online browsing of SRC but a quick google came up with this.
Page 4 has a list of varieties.
Most commercial SRC is chipped or pelleted but for non open fire burning (woodburners, rayburns etc smaller diameter logs will burn well, at least they do for me, I keep the big stuff for overnight burning & when I'm not around.
I despair at some of the stuff I see going through tree surgeons chippers!

Woodburner

Joined: 28 Apr 2006
Posts: 2904
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Mar 11, 11 9:19 pm Post subject:
It's getting a bit late now, but West Wales Willows site has a ton of information, and they are very helpful people, too.

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