2018 was not a great year!

You will see form my earlier posts that I planted my 2018 willow by using cuttings from the 2017 willow Year 1 growth. Overall my 2018 willow have not done well. I'm not sure if this is because I used my own cuttings, which were thinner than the cuttings I originally purchased, or if the cause was the unnaturally dry summer we had in Ireland in 2018.

I would estimate that only 60% of my 2018 trees survived, and those that did only recorded 600mm growth at most. This is against 6ft growth the previous year.

For 2019 I am going to revert to purchasing 200 cuttings from my original supplier and plant these. This is partially a necessity as there is insufficient year 1 growth in the 2018 crop to replant.

Last weekend I strimmed the grass from the area that I'm going to plant. next I'll spray it to clear the path for my cuttings in March.

Interestingly, the path I cleared for 2018 planting is now visible on Google maps satellite image:

2018 planting line prepared

It's the line that is shaped like an ice hockey stick just below the hedge line. The 2017 planting line is between that and the hedge. The straight lines in the middle of the picture show the electric fence I've installed to keep the deer out.  

Last years willow Vs this years willow!

When I received the advice to fully cut back the willow growth after year 1, I was far from certain that it world work. The theory is that it allows the root systems further development  and that growth rates would significantly increase after this.

The pictures below show the year 1 willow beside the year 2 tree. Bear in mind that in December, both were the same height as the year 2 were cut back.

Year 2 on left, Year 1 on right

Year 2 on right, Year 1 on left

The year 2 plants have almost 1m growth, whereas the year 1 plants have about 200mm. Surprisingly, the Year 2 whips have increased in both height (from 600mm to 1m) and girth (from 12mm to 25mm) quite dramatically.

As you can see, I had to look after weed control again. An afternoons strimming followed by weed killer did the job.

Now that I have two double rows, I can see the plantation taking shape.

How long does it take for Willow to root?

I always wondered how long it would take for the willow whips to develop roots. As an experiment I popped a few 1ft sections into the pile of grass clippings in the garden on 23rd December 2017. Exactly 4 months later (23rd April 2018)  I removed them and you can see clearly that several white roots have developed. There is also good leaf growth on the top of the stem. As they were only sitting in the grass clippings, it was easy to remove them without damage.

Amazingly, even  one that was upside down has rooted (on its top and buds are developing!!

Pollarding after year 1 and replanting. 

With some free time coming up to Christmas, and the weather behaving, I took the decision to pollard my 1st year willow, and utilise the cuttings to plant year 2.

Pollarding was easy, just cut everything back to 2-3" from the main stem.

This left me with a wheelbarrow full of willow whips varying from 3ft to 6ft long 

Planting the second row involved the same procedure as year 1, with one exception. My whips were  not as thick as the ones I purchased in 2017, so they were unable to support the rabbit guards on their own. I solved this problem by purchasing 200 x 1m long bamboo sticks on ebay. With each new whip I installed a bamboo stick alongside and then slipped the rabbit guard over both. This will also help the lighter whips grow straight for the first few months.

As I had to wait a week for the bamboo to arrive, the rabbits decided to treat themselves at Christmas, and attacked approximately 10 of my newly planted whips. They bit them off about 6 inches up the stem as you can see below (also evidence of their crime left on site!).

Thankfully I had some spare whips, so I replaced the damaged ones and installed the rabbit guards to prevent any further damage. I noted also that my soap has by now all washed away, so I will have to install more before the leaves come out to keep the deer away.

I now have 2 pairs of double rows with a wide gap between them so I can drive the jeep down the middle, and hopefully harvest from either side. I plan to plant additional double rows every year until I can harvest the first set.

The only expense this year was a little weed killer, rabbit guards and some bamboo sticks.

Willow are now dormant so I'm preparing for next plantation. Dec 2017.

As you can see in the picture below, the willow is now dormant. All the leaves have fallen, and the branches closely resemble the original whips that I bought. I suppose they should, as that's what they were! In the background you can see a yellow stripe which I have sprayed, ready to plant next years rotation. I plan to plant another 2 rows with 100 trees in each, entirely from the whips I trim off this years trees.

Interestingly, the tops of most of the whips, above where the branches have finished, appear to have died. I guess there is no need for life beyond the uppermost branch. the pic below shows this quite clearly. 

I have now erected a tall electric fence to keep deer out. As there is no power nearby, I selected a 12v battery fence and installed a solar panel to charge the battery. so far so good! This also means that I can have animals in the rest of the field without risking them eating my willow, which is apparently very appetising to most animals. The fence cost me €50 for posts, €120 for energiser and tape, €25 for isolators and €75 for a battery. Total € 270. I had the solar panel lying around. 

Regrowth since deer attack.

It's been 4 weeks since my deer attack, and the regrowth/recovery of the plants is amazing. Somebody described it very well as "They just want to keep on growing, don't they?". As you can see in the pics below, where the deer have snapped off a branch (the thick stem central in picture), the regrowth in leaves and shoots has been vigorous. Almost 6 inches in some places.

Regrowth on a snapped off stem.

Regrowth over 3 snapped off stems.

Also to note that hanging soap bars on the trees has worked 100%. no more deer damage since soap was installed!

6 Months Growth, and 1 deer attack..

It's now 6 months since I planted the 200 whips, and despite a dry start to the summer, many of the trees have flourished. Around half of them have between 1m and 2m growth on top. The other half have between 500mm and 1m growth. I've shown some of the larger ones below up against a jeep to give an idea of scale. (Note the jeep has a 2" lift kit and big tyres fitted!)

1.5-2m growth

Interestingly there are around 10 trees which have developed floral-like leaf growths in random places. I've never seen this before, and can't find much info on it online. Some of them grew at the top of the whip, others are midway along the new growth. I've added a picture below!

Floral Pattern

Now for the bad news, after 6 months of being left alone, the deer have finally discovered the plantation. I noticed around 10 trees that had long branches stripped of leaves and snapped in two.  There are 3 or 4 where the deer have eaten most of the growth back to the original whip. I'm not sure if these will survive, time will tell I guess.

Deer Damage

Some online research suggests the deer hate the smell of  soap, so I found a box of old soap bars, split them in half and hung them like Christmas Tree decorations on every third or fourth tree. This is a temporary measure until I have time to put up an electric fence. It will be interesting to see if the soap works in the meantime!

Soap Deer Deterrent!

Update- 2 weeks later, and no additional deer damage despite a noticeable increase in deer around the area. Soap seems to be working for now!

Guide to establishment costs.

Someone asked me recently about the costs involved in establishing my coppice mini-plantation. I guess there are 2 sides to the costs, 1) the monetary costs and 2) the effort required (I value my time!).

1) Monetary costs:

I decided to plant 200 trees per season until the first 200 are ready to harvest. 200 x 3ft long whips cost me Stg£268 (Approx. €300) delivered from UK to Wicklow.

200 x rabbit guards cost me €54 + €4 postage (via address pal) = total €58.

Weed killer application x 2 (one before planting one since) costs approx. €5.

I required a spike tool to make a 1ft hole in the ground for planting. I made it myself, but buying might cost someone €30 from a metal fabricator.

Total establishment costs to date are approx. €400.

That equates to €2 per tree.

However as I plan to use cuttings from the existing trees to plant 200 each year for the next 4 years leaving me with a total of 1000 trees, the average costs drops dramatically as follows (for 5 years):

1000 x trees €300 (only pay for first 200)
1000 x tree guards = €290
Weed killer = €50

Total Establishment Cost for 1000 trees = €640 or 64 c per tree.

In subsequent years, the costs essentially drop to zero.

2) Effort required

I will deal here only with the effort required for establishment, harvesting is an unknown quantity at the moment!! The various steps with timescales are as follows:

1)    Weed killing 2 strips, 1m wide 3-4 weeks prior to planting - 1 hour
2)    Planting 200 Whips - 6 hours
3)    Stripping lower buds from stems - 2 hours
4)    Weed killing follow up - 1 hour
5)    Mowing - 1 hour.

Total time input to Date: 11 hours.

A repeat of this effort will be required until I have the full plantation established, after which harvesting will be the main annual effort involved.

Other factors may include a potential loss of income from the land, the reverse of which is the potential saving on buying fuel to heat our home. Our field is small (approx. 3 acres) and was lying idle anyway. It is probably too small for a local farmer to be interested in leasing. I view the log production as the first step to perhaps more self sufficiency projects in the field such as an apple orchard, a large vegetable plot etc.

3 Months old now and growing strongly.

Top shoots are approx. 2ft (600mm) in length and plants look very healthy. Weed growth in some areas is as tall as the stems so I am glad I chose the 3ft whips to plant. Shorter whips and possibly their top growth could have been overshadowed by weeds otherwise.  Ferns especially are a problem. I plan to mow the worst of these back next week as I'm reluctant to spray in case any drifts onto the willow leaves.

Out of 200 whips planted only 4 have failed. They are randomly dispersed so cannot come up with any specific reason for this, but I will replace them next winter with shoots cut from healthy trees.

Here are 2 pics of the rows with the grass / ferns mowed. The planting lines have been treated with weed-killer earlier in the season and are still fairly weed free, with the exception of the occasional fern. Before mowing grass height was up to 16" (400mm) and ferns were up to 3'4" (1m) tall.

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................