[Creagan]

Hi Stereo,

Success may depend upon where you are.  All I can say is that at 800 ft in West Wales Vilminis slips were a total waste of time and did not achieve even 50% of the growth rate achieved in the Midlands.  Ash planted at the same time did better as did alder and sycamore.  Rowan, hazel and thorns are much slower but the star for us was Eucalyptus, which after 12 years are nearly 15 metres high with 250mm diameter trunks having outgrown the local sitka.

For firewood I was looking at larch but this has been knocked on the head by Phytophora and with ash dieback attacking ash the fire wood choices are reducing rapidly.

Regen

Interesting, I haven't heard of planting Eucalyptus. We have a few acres split into two quite different sections- the lower half seems fairly fertile but the upper half is just heather, and quite exposed. There is a flat section at the bottom which is pretty damp so I am thinking of planting that with willows. Maybe I should be putting birch up the top, it seems like that sort of landscape. We also have a couple of semi-mature Ash and Sycamore around the place.
When it comes to producing firewood, doesn anything come close to matching willow?

[Stereo]

Probably not much comes close in terms of volume of wood but willow is never going to be the best firewood, especially on an open fire. All dry wood pretty much burns and gives out energy equivalent to it's weight more or less. So, a cube of willow is going to weigh much less than a cube of oak and therefore give you less heat overall as it will burn faster due to the lower density. If you have a good stove with good air control, willow will be as good as anything apart from maybe need re-fueling a little more often. You must also keep in mind that lighter woods will season far more quickly than dense woods so that's an advantage.

But growing oak for firewood is not really a goer unless you are planting for your grand-children and harvesting the stuff your grandad planted! It's also more valuable as a timber crop anyway.