Starting to Replant at Cairn Wood.

Starting to Replant at Cairn Wood. Nov 2021

There has been enough rain to start planting. As November has started there should be no risk of the soil drying out. A certain amount of work had gone into digging holes to take the trees about a month before. (Blog post Oct 9th 21) This made extending the depth of the holes much easier and the clay that came out broke up much more readily. There is only a small area being replanted where Ash are dead or dying. The few healthy Downey Birch and Hornbeam are being left, while the Italian alder and Aspen are being pollarded. This gives the new trees some shelter while they can have plenty of light. Ash that are not dead are being left. They will probably be dead in a couple of years with Ash Die Back, any that survive  deserve to have their genes in the next generation.

The area being planted. The stumps are Alder most of the other trees
 that can be seen are dead and dying Ash.

The area had been planted in the winter of 2009/10. It was shallowly subsoiled in 2008 but is the lowest part of the wood next to the stream, and appears to be the least productive area. Eucalyptus rodwayi and London Plane are going in. They are from seeds sown the previous winter, and transplanted into plastic containers with a capacity just under a litre. The hope is that they can get some root growth before the soil gets too cold.

The E. rodwayi have been grown in cones that thread had been wound round. They make a deep and narrow root space. The planting holes are made an inch or so deeper than the "pot" then a trowel's worth of real soil added, and worked in with the trowel. The soil is also worked into slits in the sides of the hole to give the roots a way into the clay. 

The London Planes have lost their leaves, but may put on a
 bit more root growth. They have been grown on in cut down fizzy drink bottles. There is a difficult balancing act, between firming in and compacting the soil making it so compact that the roots can't penetrate into it to make them wind firm and collect water and minerals.

In the picture there is a little bit of grey clay in the pile on the left of the "pot". This is a lime rich small lens in the red clay. Below the red clay it forms  a slatey limestone the Blue Lias. I think how well the clay drains depends on depth to the Blue Lias as moles and earthworms cannot make holes in it. Encouragingly I feel that planting here is easier now than when I first planted here 12 years ago. There is more dark soil at the surface formed from the leaves of the trees and weeds that have grown in the mean time. There are the roots of the original trees which will help with the drainage.  It will be interesting to see how the new trees cope.