The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Land Management => Topic started by: Taliesin on November 09, 2016, 08:34:46 am
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We are installing a post and wire fence around the boundary of our land to prevent the local red deer from feasting on a newly planted fruit trees. I've been offered some untreated hybrid larch, pointed and peeled for a good price. The option is to go for chestnut brought in at double the price. It's a big expense for us and I need to get it right to save money down the line. Anyone here with experience of using untreated larch in the round for fencing? How susceptible it is to rot, especially at the point where earth meets air?
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should last 8 or 9?
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Pressure treated pine in contact with earth in even vaguely damp conditions is more like 7-10 years.
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you can get pressure treated with creosote which claim 25years (fence n forget and jacksons, IIRC) - though they're about 3 times the price of regular pressure-treated posts. As for the regular (green) pressure treated - I think countrywide were offering some with 15year guarantee? - can't seem to access their website ATM though so can't check. Or there's the cheap & cheerful pressure treated from the local agri-merchant - which start to go within 5 years here in wales.
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I read a forestry commission document about using untreated posts ... I'll try and dig it out.
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Here: http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fctg002.pdf/ (http://www.forestry.gov.uk/pdf/fctg002.pdf/)$FILE/fctg002.pdf
They talk about using untreated timber as temporary fencing as it's available on site. There is a table on page 5 which lists the durability of untreated heartwood of different species. Larch is moderately durable at 10-15 years. Note that this is heartwood though - the sap wood will only last 2-5 years, if that. So it depends on the posts in question really.
This is something that I've been thinking about as I am cutting several larch trees and was thinking if I could cut myself some fencing poles for temporarily fencing.
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Thanks for the responses. Having investigated further I'm reluctant to go the pressure treated spruce root. Apparently the new treatments used, even though better on the environment, don't penetrate the timber so well. Regarding larch, without using creosote (which I won't do) the hybrid larch will have a significantly shorter life in the ground. In the end I've chosen to for with untreated chestnut. It's double the price of the spruce though should last a long time in the ground untreated. It's not a job I wish to do again if I can help it.
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Modern pressure treated timber is only lasting me about 3 years before rotting.
Yes its safer for the environment - but hell they need to cut down alot of trees to keep up. ;)
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Stand the posts in creosote and engine oil before use. :)
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Modern pressure treated timber is only lasting me about 3 years before rotting.
Yes its safer for the environment - but hell they need to cut down alot of trees to keep up. ;)
Those post 3 to 9 inch dia poles are forest thinning cuts more often than not so it's not as desperate as it first appears .
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" Those post 3 to 9 inch dia poles are forest thinning cuts more often than not so it's not as desperate as it first appears ."
Not here in the Brechfa forest area- they clear fell the lot and if no good for fenceposts then they wrap the lot like a xmas tree cut it into 12 ft lengths and send it for biomass- wonder what the energy conversion is if they burn this stuff green!
Regen
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" - wonder what the energy conversion is if they burn this stuff green!
Regen
A few years ago a friend of mine I was living with went lambing on a craft on one of the Hebrides. After bottle feeding the stragglers, months later they were sent for biomass because it wasn't going to be worth rearing and finishing them for meat. She and the farmer were pretty sad and everyone struggled to believe you could make energy from burning dead sheep (surely the energy needed to dry out the matter would be more than that gained!?!) but apparently so.