Hi [member=168592]Greenwood_Pete[/member]
Just read your intro and I see you do woodland work including coppicing. When we moved to our smallholding in Scotland over 20 years ago, there was one tree, an ash, which promptly blew down in the first storm. Since then we've planted hedges right around the place and areas for coppicing, a wildlife strip and a tiny woodland.
My question is about coppicing. We planted up a small area, surrounded by various willows as wind breaks (it's
very windy here), with ash and hazel. We have cut back the willows every now and then when they start to keep out the light, and we're in the process of doing that at the moment. The ash are now coming on for 25' tall. When we planted them there was no ash dieback, and
we have none here. However, the fact it's around makes us nervous of coppicing or pollarding the ash in case spores get in. What would you advise we do?
The hazel trunks are less than 3" across, but the plants are healthy and strong, with their first catkins last year. They are too small to coppice yet, so what size would you advise they need to be before we do it ?
Oh by the way, welcome to TAS