the cubbinton pear and other matters

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the cubbinton pear and other matters

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dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Oct 28, 23 5:50 pm Post subject: the cubbinton pear and other matters
ummmm old news but ongoing

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45676
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 23 8:08 am Post subject:
This is the truth for so many planting schemes now. When we moved here (2005) we got at least 95% survival rate, 2020 was 5%. It’s really not easy to establish young trees now

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15998

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 23 8:36 am Post subject:

To put this into context of tree planting in general; Tahir is right, but even in a 'normal' year and with correct planting on a suitable site it would be expected that 10% would die. 'Beating up' is a normal forestry procedure. If trees are planted on an unsuitable site the death rate would be expected to be higher. Use untrained people to do the planting, have a long dry spell in summer and more will die. It isn't really feasible to water that many trees, and it would have to be done on a regular basis during the dry spell.

Very sensibly they didn't plant 'saplings' but 'whips' which are usually somewhere between 2 and 4 years old and stand the best chance of survival. It is not the mess they made of tree planting that bothers me so much as the destruction of semi natural ancient woodland which cannot be replicated by planting trees on a new site.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 23 10:00 am Post subject:

ummm yep on both comments

as far as i can tell so far using seed is still effective, one of the orchards would have been 100% failure if the trees had not been bucket watered
that was 30 trees and 200 m to walk, a forest is not practical even if the entire village plays

several groves,patches and my little forest have had a decent survival rate from chucking plenty of seed

90% germination in a nursery does not count if the youngsters die when planted out

if 10 % of the seeds take and survive when broadcast it will become woodland, and it is far less work

hand planting a pampered baby is unnatural, a tree making many seeds in the hope a few will land in a suitable place is, giving that a bit of help seems to work

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45676
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun Oct 29, 23 1:56 pm Post subject:
Yep, we've left quite a lot of land to it's own devices and self seeded oaks and hornbeams aplenty

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15998

Posted: Mon Oct 30, 23 8:47 am Post subject:

If you have a nearby seed source, natural regeneration is a good way to get woodland. In a field, or even worse, relayed ground such as I suspect they have along the HS2 path, the first things that will come up will be birch, brambles etc. If there are trees nearby, they will contribute, particularly oak, which likes to grow in open spaces, but ash, hornbeam, sycamore and maple all have seeds with wings that will travel. We have opened up a few clearings in our oldest plantation, and apart from the dreaded sycamore, we are getting hazel, dogwood, and many more.

On the whole, the only thing worse than planting whips is planting saplings. They can work as street trees if the locals are willing to put water on them during dry spells, as they have been asked to do along son's road. They have almost 100% success rate after a couple of years there.

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