The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Renewables => Topic started by: Creagan on December 14, 2015, 06:17:31 pm
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Thinking of planting a boggy bit at the bottom of my croft with a woodfuel crop, probably willow.
From what I can gather, pollarding offers better protection and easier harvesting.
So why does coppicing seem to be more common?
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It's easier to reach for the coppicing if the pollards are high and pollards are more susceptible to wind damage
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Coppicing is used in livestock fields so the new growth is above neck stretch level, whereas coppicing is more for well maintained woodland cropping, or for boggy areas where taller trees wouldn't have secure enough roots. Coppiced oak was used in times past in England to mark the parish boundary, and remnants of this can still be seen in some of the giant old oaks in hedgerows, where the trunk is further round than the height of the top would suggest it should be.
We have used coppicing and pollarding together, alternated, so there is room for more top growth - the coppice new growth fills the spaces between the pollarded trunks, which gives the pollards room to expand higher up. It's fine until a sheep gets in and chews off all the new buds from the coppiced plants so they die :(
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Wind damage could be an issue up here. Perhaps I should coppice the trees around the edges of the planted area, and I could pollard the ones nearer the middle? Would have to give some thought to how I would rotate that though.
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With willow, if it falls over, it just roots along the length of the trunk as it lies. Produces more stems but not in neat lines.
For boggy and windy together, I would just coppice. You can always change your mind later on once the trees are established - you would leave one shoot per coppice stool to keep growing into a taller trunk then chop the top off. Willow never grows all neat and tidy like hazel.