5 Weeks old and 6" growth!!

The healthier trees are now showing approx. 6 inches of growth in the top 3-4 shoots that we left on the stems. All other shoots were stripped off when approx. 1" long, although I did snap off a couple this week, and it was easier when approx. 2" long, so next year I'll leave them a little longer before stripping the lower shoots.

A few plants have something eating the leaves, not sure what it is yet. more investigating to do. Looks to be an insect of some kind as there are holes developing in the middle of the leaves.

3 Weeks in the ground.....

Every one of the 200 whips have budded to some extent. Above are images of the most healthy plants. Buds are upto 5cm long.

As I'm planning to grow these for firewood/logs, I've stripped all buds from the stems except for the top 7-10cm . This leaves 2-4 buds per plant. Seems this encourages all the energy to go into these ones rather than trying to grow 20 or so along the length of the stem.

I lifted the rabbit guards up, but not off the stems and stripped the buds by hand. that way I could drop the guards back down without damaging the top buds.

1 week old....

Buds starting to appear already. I'm planning to "Pollard" rather than "Coppice", which means that after year 1, I will cut the new growth back to the top of the whip, rather than to ground level as you would if coppicing. For pollarding I understand that I have to remove all buds except for those at the top 2-3". This is easier when the buds are 2-3 cm long and can be snapped off by hand (pic to follow in a couple of weeks!).

The advantage of pollarding for me is that I will be cutting the stems at 2-3ft from ground level when mature, rather than ground level. Saves the back injury! Also, should help keep the bunnies off the new growth as it'll be higher off the ground. I am slightly concerned about the deer though......

1 Year growth on pollards (c) The Willow Bank

Planting Willow.........

Willow at 1m spacing with rabbit guards ready to slip over. I found that prepping 10 holes was easiest way to make progress.

1)  Make 10 holes
2) Push in 10 whips & firm around them
3) Drop on 10 rabbit guards
4) Move onto the next 10

Here is a close up of one whip. About 12" is below ground.

And here is an image of the 200 whips planted in 2 rows. 1 metre spacing between plants and 2.5 metres between rows to allow the jeep drive between them.

I had to trim back some of the trees along the ditch line so they didn't overhang the new willow.

Willow arrives......

2nd March 2017 - 200 x Willow Whips arrived by courier, 2 days after dispatched form the UK. Have removed from packaging and placed the bases in a bucket with 4" of water as recommended. Looking forward to planting at the weekend.

I've welded up this tool to help with the planting. 12" spike at the bottom, buried into the ground in this pic!

Roll on the weekend.................

What to plant...........

My first thought was a forest, ideally of native fast growing trees. Birch seemed like a good option. I conducted some research, and spoke to some people who already have such plantations and it seemed to involve a wait of 10-15 years for any significant timber to be produced. On top of the delay, I'd have to replant any trees I cut down for fuel. I looked into other varieties such as poplar or eucalyptus, both of which have phenomenal growth rates, but suffer the same problems in terms of delay and re=planting. While a forest might be an idyllic proposition, it wasn't necessarily going to solve my problem.

Over 10 years ago I spent several months working for a Biomass heating company, selling woodchip boilers for commercial applications such as hotels and leisure centres. There was a lot of discussion at the time around growing and harvesting willow for woodchip. The idea was to "coppice" the willow thereby allowing multiple shoots on a 3-4 year harvest rotation (Short Rotation Coppice SRC). The willow in question was required to have relatively thin stems so that machinery could process it. I conducted some research and discovered that by choosing the right variety, and managing the growth/harvesting slightly differently, 3" - 4" stems could be achieved, which would be ideal for log production.

Both "The Willow Bank" (thewillowbank.com) and "Mammoth Willow" (mammothwillow.co.uk) in the UK have excellent information on different species of hybrid willow, as well as planting and growing guides. Mid February I "bit the bullet" and sprayed 2 long strips approx. 100m each along the bottom edge of the field. It seems that lack of competition from other plants/weeks/grass is a major factor in strong willow growth, so I prepared 2 tracks, approx. 1 meter wide, and 2 metres apart. The recommended spacing for willow for firewood is plants in double rows at 60-70cm spacing's. and rows at 1.5 metres apart. I wanted to drive the jeep between rows and be able to access both sides of the trees (for harvesting), hence the single rows and wider tracks in my case.

Willow Planting Guide (c) Mammoth Willow

From the information provided on various websites I selected a single variety of Hybrid willow, Dasyclados, which seemed to grow a thicker stem than most other varieties, ideal for logs! I figured at a 1m spacing I'd need 200 plants. Willow is provided in slips/whips which are basically a section of stem cut to length. They are generally available in 1ft. 2ft or 3ft lengths. Research indicates that longer the whip, the better chance of good establishment, so to maximise my chances I orders 200 x 3ft lengths from The Willow Bank. The other order I placed (on ebay) was for 200 rabbit guards, as I've got bunnies everywhere! It seems that rabbits love the taste of willow, and I wasn't about to provide a costly snack for the little furry fellows........

The goal:

 4 Year Old Willow grown in Ireland. 

Welcome to my blog!

I have embarked upon a project to plant willow (Short Rotation Coppice SRC)  for log production at home in County Wicklow, Ireland. We heat our (remote rural) family home with a boiler stove, and my hope and aspiration is to become self sufficient in terms of fuel for heating. I plan to track my progress here so that it may act as a guide for others considering similar ideas!

First some background. We moved into this house in 2015. It was constructed in 1979 so required some upgrades! We externally insulated the property, installed 12" of attic insulation and new A rated doors and windows throughout. We installed a boiler stove as the main source of heat, with a back-up high efficiency oil boiler for back-up. We also have a pair of solar thermal panels on the roof to provide hot water during the summer months.

The house came with a 3 acre field which I struggled to identify a good use for. Sure, I could rent it to a local farmer, but the rent would be minimal, and there would be the privacy factor, having someone else coming onto our property. late in 2016 I settled on the idea of growing trees for our own use. what to plant was the next question................