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Author Topic: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?  (Read 15798 times)

alang

  • Joined Nov 2017
  • Morayshire
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #15 on: November 29, 2017, 12:46:32 pm »
We are at 1,000' and grow nearly all types of willow, except some of the really delicate ones.

Thanksfor the great tips. Can you advise which varieties to recommend for firewood logs?
I'm not scared to be seen, I make no apologies. This is me!

Dav275

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Dumfries & Galloway
  • www.woodwallart.co.uk
    • WoodWallArt
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #16 on: November 29, 2017, 01:31:10 pm »
Thanks doganjo.     Appreciate it.  PM sent.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #17 on: November 29, 2017, 04:30:47 pm »
We are at 1,000' and grow nearly all types of willow, except some of the really delicate ones.

Thanksfor the great tips. Can you advise which varieties to recommend for firewood logs?




When we got our first cuttings they were from my Dad's collection.  He wasn't embarrassed at all to filch cuttings from anywhere and everywhere, including places he shouldn't have done, where the varieties were printed on the tree labels!  I can say that now as my Dad is long gone.  I brought back 60 different varieties from the farm, all neatly labelled, stuck them in a 'v' slit trench and left them to grow.  A couple of years later, Mr F came along to plant them out, didn't notice the labels so they were lost.  So, I don't have a clue what they're called.   if you can cover postage I could take some 3' cuttings from the sturdiest trees, the ones we use for firewood, then you could increase your stock by taking your own cuttings the following year.
Because willow grows fast, the wood burns quickly, but's great for getting the fire going, and brightening up the flame from harder woods (don't use Lawson Cypress - it burns black)
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

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Glencairn

  • Joined Jun 2017
  • Dumfriesshire
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #18 on: November 29, 2017, 07:38:46 pm »
AlanG / Dav275 if either of you don't have any success with the willow you've already been offered, I have a white willow in my garden that I could take some cuttings from that might be worth a try.

alang

  • Joined Nov 2017
  • Morayshire
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #19 on: November 29, 2017, 07:45:21 pm »
I have just pm'd Fleecewife about her kind offer. Thank you for your offer to Glencairn
« Last Edit: November 29, 2017, 08:50:08 pm by alang »
I'm not scared to be seen, I make no apologies. This is me!

Dav275

  • Joined Nov 2015
  • Dumfries & Galloway
  • www.woodwallart.co.uk
    • WoodWallArt
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #20 on: November 29, 2017, 08:01:54 pm »
Thanks Glencairn.     Very generous.

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #21 on: December 07, 2017, 11:39:23 pm »
Buy the 1 foot cuttings . plant them through a sheet of weighted down thick cardboard to supress the weeds.
 Take some cuttings off these original saplings  to make the next years cuttings as it will help the original saplings develop good roots .  If you have the land ensure you can get a tractor & trailer down between the rows for harvesting time .
 
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #22 on: December 07, 2017, 11:42:18 pm »
I planted about 60 whips in a boggy area hoping it would help to dry it out and feed the goats. However, it seems that deer like them as well.  I have 2 left


 Hares love to eat them as well   chomped off at 4 inch above the ground spiral tree guards help for the hares but you'll need something more substantial for deer .
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

sandspider

  • Joined Aug 2015
  • Bristol
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #23 on: October 01, 2018, 12:01:50 pm »
Buy the 1 foot cuttings . plant them through a sheet of weighted down thick cardboard to supress the weeds.
 Take some cuttings off these original saplings  to make the next years cuttings as it will help the original saplings develop good roots .  If you have the land ensure you can get a tractor & trailer down between the rows for harvesting time .

I planted willow through cardboard, but once the cardboard rotted, I had a job to keep the beds anywhere clear. I basically gave up. Next time, I'd maybe use weed membrane instead. I'd rather use cardboard than plastic, but I can't get any more cardboard in between the willow stems...

cloddopper

  • Joined Jun 2013
  • South Wales .Carmarthenshire. SA18
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #24 on: October 02, 2018, 03:22:13 pm »
Cut each square cardboard sheet about 2 x 2 foot .

 Make a neat hole in the middle with a 2 inch hole saw cut from the middle tot he edge  so you can slide the sheet to the stem,  open it up as you turn it side ways and slide it forwards  till it goes neatly round the trunk/stem , add a second sheet  but put the slit at 180 degrees to the first.

 Or
I know you don't like the idea of plastic.
  However ….20 inch  roundels cut from swimming pool liner  with the hole in the middle and split from the hole to the edge can easily be draped round the stalk like a cape so the edges of the split overlap by about 4 inches at the outer perimeter .  They should be re-useable for the next 30 years if you buy that sort of pond liner.

 I got the last 3.5 mtrs of heavy butyl rubber pond liner with a 30 year warrantee off a 4 mtr roll for a knockdown price one winters day from a local garden center.

Weigh them down around the outer edge with a bit of soil on the edge
 To get a reasonable small hole in a roundel , I simply folded the rubber roundel  into 1/8th sections and cut off the pointed end 1 & 1/2 inches back from the tip using  a Stanley knife on a block of wood with a new blade fitted for the job .
Strong belief , triggers the mind to find the way ... Dyslexia just makes it that bit more amusing & interesting

sandspider

  • Joined Aug 2015
  • Bristol
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #25 on: October 02, 2018, 03:45:02 pm »
Thanks.

I've done that before too, but I wondered if it was stopping water getting to the roots?

The supposedly porous weed membranes don't seem to let much water through, nor does heavy cardboard until it starts to break down. I imagine pond rubber would be even worse, though it would indeed last longer... I suppose it would be OK once the root system developed enough to reach water in the soil outside the covering of the rubber?

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
    • ABERDON GUNDOGS for work and show
    • Facebook
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #26 on: October 03, 2018, 08:56:11 pm »
Buy the 1 foot cuttings . plant them through a sheet of weighted down thick cardboard to supress the weeds.
 Take some cuttings off these original saplings  to make the next years cuttings as it will help the original saplings develop good roots .  If you have the land ensure you can get a tractor & trailer down between the rows for harvesting time .
Don't buy any - I have loads - PM me name address and I'll post them out.  Send post costs to Cancer research and I'm happy
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
    • ABERDON GUNDOGS for work and show
    • Facebook
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #27 on: October 03, 2018, 08:56:44 pm »
Thanks doganjo.     Appreciate it.  PM sent.
Did I send you some?
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

alang

  • Joined Nov 2017
  • Morayshire
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #28 on: October 13, 2018, 07:50:12 pm »
Been away from the forum for a while for personal reasons and just starting to catch up with all things going on.

In order to protect the whips from rabbits and deer would it be advisable to use the tube tree protectors on the whips? I can get a few of these from a friend who works in forestry.
I'm not scared to be seen, I make no apologies. This is me!

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
  • Qui? Moi?
    • ABERDON GUNDOGS for work and show
    • Facebook
Re: Best size of willow cuttings to plant?
« Reply #29 on: October 15, 2018, 05:33:43 pm »
Been away from the forum for a while for personal reasons and just starting to catch up with all things going on.

In order to protect the whips from rabbits and deer would it be advisable to use the tube tree protectors on the whips? I can get a few of these from a friend who works in forestry.
I've never had a problem with animals eating my willow - I wish I had because I put in far too many and they are unmanageable now (any takers for bits to plant or long whips please feel free to pm me - central scotland), but  they did destroy my fruit trees.  It wouldn't do any harm to protect them though.
Always have been, always will be, a WYSIWYG - black is black, white is white - no grey in my life! But I'm mellowing in my old age

 

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