It'll be a miracle if they do root. We planted some rooting willow twigs last autumn - they didn't survive - ravaged by wind and sheep. The sheep we've now cleared off and the effect of the winds will be lessened by tying them to fence posts. I have some reservations about the wisdom of encouraging trees to root next to fence posts - but we'll worry about that if any survive.
I've planted sixty 'trees'. If one survives I'll be delighted. If more survive I'll make a new log basket.
But can you plant pine in the same way? I've just about exhausted planting spots, but I'll find space for a couple of pines if it looks like they might stand a chance.
6 comments:
Good time to plant willow, but not sure you'll have any success chucking pine shoots straight into the ground without a couple of years of nursery treatment. Ask www.TreesforLife.org.uk
MtB
Yep, willow offcuts are called sets, and may turn into willow trees. Pine offcuts are called sticks. You'd need to plant cones or seedlings for pine (as for other conifers). As for where you plant them, Scot pine doesn't like boggy places so much – they can grow in poor soils but don’t like the damp so much (fairly drought tolerant which is why you can find them in rocky places without much soil). Lodgepole pine is better on boggy ground(its a non-native species, but then most of the trees you’ve been planting wouldn’t choose to live that far north of their own volition). For shelterbelts, as you might notice on your way to Wick, Sitka spruce is very popular, mainly because it grows fast, into a more or less unpenetrable hedge. This link is pretty helpful handbooks.btcv.org.uk/handbooks/content/section/3575, though as you know the normal rules do not necessarily apply round your way.
Thanks Rebecca - that's a good link - BTCV have a lot of good stuff on the web.
According to various sources I've found on the web you can get pine to root from 'sticks'. It's hard work, they need rooting compound and lots of tlc but it can be done - (and I'm gonna try). Interestingly - cuttings from pine species display the age of their parent plant - so in some commercial forestry it's common to propagate from pine cuttings cos the resulting wood tends to be denser.
There's also a lot of beech hedging in Caithness.
Mike,
I'm sorry, but Trees for Life website aint all that useful and I can't sit around all day waiting for them to personally answer direct questions. It's a shame they don't sell trees - it's surprisingly difficult to find sources of native saplings and even things like hazel will grow better if they are produced 'locally' - rather than Englandshire where there are lots of nurseries selling this stuff.
Just been rhodie bashing in a peat bog which was planted (and recently mostly cleared) with scots pine. The trees that remained seemed pretty healthy to me - maybe not great timber, but happy enough despite pretty squelchy conditions underfoot. Actually that's the second bog I've worked on that was planted with scots pine - it must have been the trend earlier last century. So maybe there are some variants that will tolerate wet conditions.
Whatever you do, don't plant rhodie though!
Three cheers for the rhodie bashers! I would never plant such evil.
Ooh, that'll teach me to be facetious. Be interested to see how you get on. Would still aim for dryer bits when you get round to planting - bog woodlands are a fairly unusual (and usually protected) habitat - probly because of local site conditions or longer-term variation in climate (and hence bogginess). V. interesting to get into the history of such places. And indeed, yay for rhodie bashing!
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