Cairn Wood Early History Part II

Cairn Wood Early History Part II 

The field at Cairn Wood had been planted with willow for basketry starting in 1995. It had only been occasionally cut and then only the best bits. The result was that much of it was very thick and some quite sparse. The areas that were easiest to clear were the first to be cleared. The first  area which had been cut and the regrowth spayed off was planted. 40 cells each of 5 different Eucalyptus species were put in the ground in May 2007. There was no ground preparation, the cells were planted with a trowel, and left to get on with it. Sheets of cardboard were put around the trees as a mulch. The cardboard can be seen in the photo, in the area marked 1d: Willow. The labels refer to later plantings.

Believing  Eucaypts were not troubled by herbivores they were not guarded. The summer of 2007 saw Hull and the Humber badly flooded in June and large parts Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire under water  in July. Cairn Wood is between the two in North Nottinghamshire and there was local flooding on both occasions. The ground was saturated for over 2 months before drying out and cracking. Unsurprisingly the trees did not do very well. 

The North End of Cairn Wood Autumn 2007. 
The labels actually refer to later planting patterns. The cardboard around the original Eucalyps can be 
seen in the area marked 1d: The green strip under the "llow" part of the label are  my seedlings

Unusually the Eucalypts came in cell trays, which were left due to the complicated logistics of returning them.  I had also bought seed of several Australian Eucalyptus species these were potted into the trays when they were emptied.  The small amount of the small remaining stock of cells, was bought off the importer. Much to his relief as he was not going to restock them, and did not have commercial quantities. The seedings then got planted out over the winter.  They went into the green strip in the photo next to the cardboard  squares. While this planting had been going on the original willow continued to be cleared and the clearer areas were sub soiled. The aerial photo is from after the subsoiling. 

Survival rates were not good, poor drainage and soil quality were blamed. Trenches were dug across a part of the sub soiled area over the winter of 2008. The soil piled in between and surviving but not thriving  Eucs were transplanted into the ridges, in the area marked 1e: old euc. These trees did very much better for a couple of years.

 

April 2010. On the left canes mark where seedlings will go. Ahead are bought in broadleaves and the previous years Eucalypts. 

               

May 2010 Eucalyptus nitens.
On the right are frosted E. globulus. 

Trenching the whole area was not considered feasible. Surviving seedlings were transplanted so their area could be subsoiled later and the seedlings were planted between already dug trenches next to the ones that had already been transplanted. 900 seedlings were planted in rows adjacent to the stream. The winter of 2009 saw quite a bit of snow and with nothing else to eat hares in particular helped themselves to the more palatable species. They bit off everything sticking out of the spirals and left most of it. E. gunnii was the only one they actually ate in quantity, most did not recover. The frost sensitive E. globulus much favoured in Portugal died, not unexpectedly. I always thought there would be some species I would lose to the cold. Looking at temperature records, most species would survive 20 years. 8-10 year rotation had been hoped for.  

2010 The missing Eucalypts were replaced with Alder, Hornbeam, Downey Birch and in particular Ash. Many of the ash were transplanted natural regeneration from across the site. A central strip was planted with a range of Eucalypts. Most of the original transplants were doing well.

Many will remember the severe winter of 2010/11 there were two occasions of -18C temperatures and two weeks when the surface temperature failed to get above Zero. Prolonged cold weather is very bad for Eucalypts they do not have a dormant period merely slowing down. By March 2011 it was obvious that no above soil eucalypt growth had survived. It was time for a rethink.      

Dead Hedging.

 Dead Hedging

A bundle of waste.

On Sat 16th Oct I went on a Small Woods arranged visit to Rawhaw Wood in Northamptonshire. Hugh and Carolyn have been exemplar coppice workers for many years, making a living from the 35 acres of neglected Hazel coppice they took over 30 years ago.  They try and coppice 2  1 acre areas each year.  They sell almost all their produce and waste little.

Images of good hazel coppice and it's products are easily found on the internet. The activity that particularly intrigued me was their dead hedges. Deer are a particular problem. As well as the ubiquitous Roe and Muntjac deer the Rockingham Forest has herds of Fallow deer which can devastate coppice regrowth. A herd of 20-30 Fallow Deer were seen circling the wood waiting for us to leave. A novel approach to fencing has developed over the years.

As a coupe is felled a dead hedge is created with unsalable material. This keeps the ground clear and prevents the need for fires.

The starting point of a Dead Hedge.

 Two rows of vertical stakes are hammered in about a foot apart, horizontal bundles of small brash are placed in between. Subsequent bundles are put on top working out so the bundles gradually can become more vertical, but are inclined away from the direction of build. At the same time the stakes are inclined towards the building front. A fresh pair of stakes is hammered in through the base of the hedge at an angle so the two ends protrude beyond the hedge. The stakes are kept parallel and about a foot apart.  Another bundle of twigs is pushed between the stakes, and the process repeated while there are still stools  to cut in the coupe. 

Adding brash to the advancing hedge front.
It is worth noting how close to the ground the stool at the bottom of the picture has been cut.

The process is slow and labour intensive. It would not be practical in most situations. Where there is a growing supply of suitable material very close at hand it makes sense. The coppicing work can be close to the hedge front, and the area is kept clear of rubbish making working easier. If the time it would take to remove the rubbish, set a fire, and build a fence is considered, it becomes a logical proposition. The environmental, habitat, and satisfaction benefits then come on top.

A Dead Hedge that is about 4 years old and has served its purpose protecting the Hazel behind it.

  

Eucalyptus Silviculture.

 Eucalyptus Silviculture.

On 13th October 2021 I attended a course on the management of Eucalypts. There was a presentation at a hotel in the morning and a walk around the planted forestry of a former RFS president in the afternoon.

The majority of the 14 delegates were forestry consultants or managers, but I was pleased to see there were two other small non commercial woodlands represented. The morning session concentrated on the potential productivity of Eucalypts, in terms of dry matter biomass it easily exceeds other plants. Proper planting, aftercare, and thinning could all contribute to greater success. Most filing paper in the U.K. is from eucalyptus fibre from Portugal. The bad image that Portuguese Eucalypt plantations have is at least partly due to poor management. There is so much that that the local price can be low so stands are not thinned in a timely fashion. Lack of light causes lower leaf loss and the build up of a flammable layer. Low prices caused a similar neglect of British conifer plantations in the 80's and 90's and led to the poor state and the disease susceptibility of many conifer plantations in this centaury.  

9 year old Eucalyptus glaucescens, with 1 year old row thinning coppice.
 

Eucalypt timber and pulp are widely used in other parts of the world, it is ideal for plywood or CLT (cross laminated timber) but there are no English production plants and a huge amount of available material would be needed. Like so much of the U.K. forestry industry. There are not the economies of scale available elsewhere. For fuel wood and biomass it is by far the best, but a limited and low value market.

The estate we visited was in south Yorkshire on fairly light land. The preferred species was E. glaucescens  which does not do particularly well with me. It was confirmed that my woods are too wet for E.glaucescens. It is the most widely available Eucalypt it is less palatable and more frost hardy than the species I favour. It also photosynthesis  when the temperature is above 2C while dalyampleana, my go to Eucalypt,  stops at 5C.

E. delegatensis and E. dalrympeana
 from the same seed batch.

There are two photos of saplings, they can be seen to be totally different and from the same seed batch. I had always assumed that the odd different seedling in a seed batch was a hybrid. I seems that they can be different species and are due to incomplete cleaning of equipment at the seed company. The photo without the tube shows the yellow nature of the leaves that had formed within the tube. The speaker preferred mesh guards, the seedling duly fell over when the guard was removed but was held up by the time the photo was taken. 

It was comforting to find that many of the things I do are actually worth doing and I am not as mad as I sometimes seem.  The main learning point was that good silviculture is the same for almost all trees. The difference between Eucalypts and temperate trees is that light is the main determinant of the growth of  the later, while for Eucalypts  it is water availability, and they are very efficient at using it.  

Birch and coppice regeneration under 9 year old thinned Eualypts.

Eucalypt canopy leaves hang vertically to maximise light usage, so much more light reaches the ground, in the summer, than in other broadleaf woods.  

One of the reasons Eucalypts are not a wood of choice for carpentry is the are very hard when dry and blunt tools quickly. They are also too hard to take a nail. Something I need to test. The heart wood is fairly durable while the wide soft wood, which is visually indistinguishable is not, Something else to test.

In all a very instructive day.

                                                                 

 

     

Potting on Part 2

 Potting on Part 2

Part 1 dealt with potting on cell grown bought in trees, Sessile Oak and Douglas Fir. The same is true for seeds I have sown  and pricked out into cells. 

Eucaltypts being potted on from cells.

Photo on Left  Eucalyptus dalrympleana being potted on from 200ml cells. They are being potted in into home made extended "cells". The idea is to get the trees to have a deeper and larger root system. They then, hopefully, can better survive any dry conditions which might occur during establishment.  

The Eucalyptus seeds had been collected from trees in the woods. Eucalypts can readily hybridise. Bought in seed produces the odd seedling which is obviously different. That I have described these as E. dalrympleana means the seed came from a tree that had dalrymleana like characteristics. The card tubes are made from card my wife has been given. Using card I am hoping I will be able to plant the whole tube making planting easier, and it will rot allowing the roots to spread out.  If it rots too quickly the trees may have to be planted out prematurely. These trees are smaller than ideal and will be brought  inside so they can grow over the winter.

Tiawania going into disposable pint pots.

The other seedlings currently being potted on are Taiwania cryptomerioides. This is an obscure tree which is hardly grown in the U.K and will be the subject of a post on its own. These and the E. dalrympleana were sown late spring. The Tiawania  are not going to be big enough to plant out next spring and will give me something to plant the following season.

The pint pots had to be bought for these, they have had holes drilled in the bottoms. I didn't have sufficient ones to reuse. There are also a few "industrially compostable" ones   collected at a festival recently. About 7 years ago I collected used "compostable" pint pots from an event at Westonbirt. The idea being to plant the whole pot, they were used for at least three different trees over three years and they were still as sound as the day they started. I have planted a couple of the new compostable pots into larger pots to see if they breakdown quickly enough for whole pot planting , am not hopeful.

"Compostable" plastic and paper cups
 being tested.

The mixture used for potting on is about 1/3 compost, 1/3 sand and 1/3 soil from Pit Wood. For the conifers  Ericaceous compost and lime free sand is used. I try to get the soil from an area where similar trees have been growing. The idea being that relevant mycorrhizal fungi will be present. It is also cheap!

 

 

Preparing for Planting at Cairn Wood

 Preparing for Planting at Cairn Wood

The boundary wire. The height of the surrounding weeds
 can be seen. The area inside the wire was sprayed in the spring.

The strip of land next to the stream was the first substantial area to be cleared of willow and the first to be systematically planted. It was planted with Ash some bought in and some regen transferred from else where on the field. Hornbeam, Italian Alder, and Downey Birch were also planted. Downey Birch was planted as the birch most suitable for wet areas. It is a relatively slow grower but has grown very slowly. The Hornbeam grew well the first few years but is not bulking up now. The Italian Alder has out grown the others and is shading out trees under it, so it has been topped. All the ash  has Chalara most are dead or dying, some more slowly. 

When most of the Ash at the site was replaced ,because of the disease in 2016 and 2017, some areas which had significant numbers of other trees and could not subsoiled were left.  Many were of local regeneration from boundary apparently healthy trees, it was hoped they may have some tolerance. The dead ash will be removed and replaced with Eucalypts and London Plane. They may do better in the heavy clay, I am confidant they won't do worse!

An area for planting

Two small areas (very small areas in forestry terms) have been surrounded with brash to keep the deer out.   2m lengths  of chicken wire, that were surplus to a friends requirements  have been suspended from a rope, above the brash. 

A dug hole

Because the ground is so heavy planting is difficult. The recent rain now means that a spade can be put into the ground and holes have been dug. The spade has also been put in at right angles around the hole to help with drainage any provide weaknesses for the roots to get into.

The soil from the hole has been left to one side where it will hopefully break up a bit. Otherwise back filling the hole is a case of one lump or two. Another reason for choosing cell grown trees, establishment of bare rooted trees was not great, in the early stages of the wood. Root contact with the soil can not have been good. The hole will also fill with water and enable a trowel to dig a deeper hole for the incoming trees.