Catalogue
Planning a Woodland ...
For a natural looking wood, do not include too many species. For best results, grow plants that are going to enjoy the conditions that you can offer them. Look around your area to see which species grow well. Some do not like certain soils, i.e. Sweet Chestnut on heavy clay.
Many trees are planted at 1100 per hectare to attract grant aid, and the wood will establish, but this spacing is too wide to grow quality timber without careful management. We advise to plant outside rows of small trees and selected hedging at a much closer spacing to warm the wood and encourage wildlife.
Natural woods don’t start, for example, with pure oak at the woodland edge as well as pure oak at its heart. This would give a boxed effect. Ideally a wood needs to be tiered, starting with hedging on the perimeter, with lower growing species for the next couple of rows. The body of the wood is then filled with the oaks and ashes which we associate with our native woodlands. The domed effect of this method of planting creates a more natural appearance, but it does need careful planning especially for narrow belts of trees.
Protection for the saplings is essential; rabbits can wreak havoc, so we advise the use of a 60cm tube to protect the juvenile trees. Protection from hares requires a 75cm tube and deer, well this increasing menace is causing a headache. Tubes up 1.8m are being used, but what an eyesore, and also not good for tree quality and strength of the ensuing tree. Fencing may be possible for larger areas, but remember not to fence the rabbits in ! We find that herbiciding is necessary during the establishment years to prevent smothering by rival plant growth. Recent trials have proved that clean trees not only establish faster, but grow away faster, with fewer losses.
A word on rootstocks …
The East Malling and Long Ashton (EMLA) research stations released a series of rootstocks which are now the benchmark for English nurserymen. They are virus free and of the highest quality stock available.
The rootstock will determine the ultimate size of the tree and therefore, to a certain degree, a tree can be tailor made for the size of your garden. EMLA 106: giving a tree of ultimately 12-15 feet, EMLA 26: a tree of 8 - 12 feet and EMLA 27: a tree of 6 – 8 feet. Most varieties are available on EMLA 106.
and on pollination …
Our list of varieties come in three groups (E) = Early; (M) = Mid; (L) = Late. Ideally, trees should be matched for pollination with another variety from the same group. The following combinations giving ample pollination are E and M, or M and L. Please note that the combination of E and L are inadvisable as the flowering periods are so far apart. Everything else is up to the bees and the weather.
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