Short Rotation Willow Coppice - 8 Years In
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2024
- I planted this patch of willow coppice about 8 years ago. This is the second section I'm cutting for firewood. It'll now fall into rotation to be cut again in 5 or 6 years.
Honestly you won't believe how excited I am by this! It's great to see it start producing and to be honest I think it's better than I was expecting.
I'm really looking forward to this developing as time goes on.
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Good to see you using a cordless chainsaw 👍 It always feels a bit “wrong” using petrol to chop down sustainable wood on our doorstep but I’ve finally bought a cordless which I charge from solar and then chop up the logs on a circular saw when it’s sunny 😎
P.S. always nice to get the kids helping 😊
Getting some solar is big on my list, we just haven't had the money to invest in it yet (trying to pay off "the big one" first). Be great to charge the tools like that.
I haven't used my petrol saw much since having this one, but the thin blades are super easy to damage so I've got through a fair few!
I've found that a small woodchipper is valuable for the arisings that are left. I get several dumpies of willowchips a year when harvesting, and use them for my paths, composting & bed mulching. I also build with willowchips by mixing with limecrete and packing it into removable shuttering ply forms. Plaster over it with lime or clay and it's strong and warm. Willow makes strong framing for wattle & daub too.
My brother hires chippers and the like and I have mentioned to him how I'd like a small one if he gets one in part exchange. I hate wasting the tops like that and you're right there are so many uses for it. I'd love to make some bio char from it and a friend has a big saucepan like thing for making it in huge quantities. I sometimes use the willow in the garden for poles, but we always strip it first so it won't grow.
@@englishhomesteadMy chipper's the smallest Forest Master 4 stroke. The wheels and balance are a bit shite when moving it around, but for £500 at the time and a few mods, it's well paid for itself several times over. Yes, biochar is also a product I've made from the arisings. I run dry bundles through on my bench saw before charring, but need to break the charcoals down further. I'm considering putting it in my cement mixer with a few round rocks to moosh it down.
@niallwildwoode7373 a chipper like that sounds ideal. My trouble is I need a few more sheds to store infrastructure like that, hate leaving stuff outside.
@@englishhomestead I cover my chipper with an upside down builders bag strapped down with a few bungee cords to stop it flying away. Keeps it dry.
We also have a willow plantation, circa 200 trees on a 5 year rotation. We get anything from 1 - 4 inch logs (approx) which is fine - as mentioned, no splitting required and it's to supplement other larger logs anyway! We also have a small Forest Master chipper but unfortunately it gets clogged easily by the small whippy brash :( Handles other tree species OK, just doesn't seem to like thin willow.
Thanks for showing PPE Kev 👍
Great video overall, really enjoyed it. Good sustainable stuff
I'm so paranoid of chainsaws, my brother would disown me if I didn't wear the full gear (he was a tree surgeon). It doesn't take long to slip on the leggings, even if I'm just making a couple of cuts I'll still put it on!
@@englishhomestead Very, very important, it only takes one slip
That's it, and chances are it wouldn't just be a little cut. I'm lucky to have been taught by my dad and my brother, got me into good habits early.
@@englishhomestead What chaps are you using? I * really * need to buy a pair ready for this year's felling. Any recommendations?
If you cover the ground with wood chip 9 inch deep everything will grow 3 times faster after three years. I have a Bramley apple in 12 years is 10 meters wide . Placed wood chip around but off the trunk .and I’ve pruned it every year. Fascinating to watch.
Wish I could get that much wood chip! I'd like a chipper here for the brash. But can never get any tree syrgeons to deliver as access isn't great for most of the year. Always thought it was a cool method ever since watching a online documentary called "back to eden" years ago.
@@englishhomestead Elaine Ingham says you can use all sorts organic material. Cardboard ,coffee grounds from Costa coffee , grass cuttings, fallen autumn leaves from a nearby wood. I believe in variety . On my allotment it’s very apparent the veg ,fruit, and flowers are very robust.
Don't take biomass from woods unless you own them leaves and fallen wood is vital to the life cycle of natural woodland.
But I agree a variety of sources is good I use alot of horse manure as I have horses here but always mixed with a well rounded compost.
We live next to dense wood so we can collect leaves blown out of the woods but never remove any biomass directly.
@@FreeSpeechXtremist this is always my argument against no dig gardening, a lot are just importing fertility for short term gain.
Hopefully my management of this willow coppice will keep things moving okay, even with me removing the firewood.
Great family work. Good tunes!
Thank you! Yes I love getting them involved, it's good for them to know where their heat comes from and be a part of that system.
You have a great set of kit there what with a dumpster, excavator and 3 children to help too :) I'm pretty sure over here it's all on 5 year rotation.
Do they do much of it over there? You seem pretty wooded anyway, they manage it well?
Yes for the kit, makes everything easier. Mad thing is most of the stuff at this age doesn't really loose value and comes in so handy when needed.
@@englishhomestead was talking to local farmer friend just a few weeks ago about your place and he was T he one who said they do it here too for biomass. Think there are grants available to get started.
Great to see Willow on a short rotation used like this. If i may make a tiny H&S comment, don’t raise the chainsaw to cut any higher than your shoulder. Cut the tree at the base and then cut it into smaller pieces when on the ground. Need to keep you around to bring up the little gang of homesteaders you’re raising there! 👍
Yeah, I mean there's no way I can deny what you say, my only excuse is doing it this way saves my back a whole lot. But you are right. I need to make up another saw jack, this one is falling apart, then I may be more inclined to use it. I think having the trees so tight it's nice to have them drop straight down, but you're correct, I could just do it a bit lower. I have a video from this year where I use the same method! The battery saws do promote a bit of bad use as they're so light, you kind of think "it'll be okay" but they're just as dangerous.
Thanks and thanks for watching.
Great video! And I especially love the music! 🎉
Thanks! It's so hard tk get the right music for the video!
I'm just about to start this in Australia with Poplar, I looked at Australian native trees, but I really wanted deciduous trees for easy handling, and Poplar is easy to start from cuttings.
I almost put some poplar in here to try it, but had read it was slightly harder to coppice. If you do it would you be starting new trees each time?
There's a lot of poplars dotted in hedges here, a throwback from when there was huge profits in growing it for matches, but then, pretty much overnight, the price dropped. There was whole fields of it that farmers grubbed up.
@englishhomestead I know where I can get some willow cuttings next winter to get started. The weather is already getting warmer, 27°c today, but was only 15°c a few days ago , I don't know if cuttings will take if they already have leaves.
@@darrenchapman7203 I think the key with most willows is plenty of moisture in the soil.
Finding some that grow well locally is probably a really good shout. Are willow native in Australia? Sorry showing my ignorance,
@englishhomestead there is the Australian Willow, I don't know if it's a true willow or the early settlers just thought it looked like one.
@englishhomestead Just out of curiosity, I thought I would share my findings , I did some more research. regarding using Willow cuttings in Australia, I discovered it has been illegal to transport or cultivate Willow in several Australian states, including my home state of South Australia for a few years, lucky I did so more research including telephoning the Department of primary industries, it turns out that Willow, especially hybridised variates have become invasive throughout NSW and Victorian rivers and creeks, it makes it difficult , the traits that make a tree ideal for coppicing are essentially the same ones that make them invasive in a new environment, Poplar is less of an invasive issue but also less efficient, however as I already have around 100 trees, Poplar maybe my best option, Australian native trees such as Tasmanian Bluegum do coppice however they also shed copious amounts of very flammable bark twigs and leaves that can take years to compost.
Have you thought about moving the firewood up to the house as long lengths then doing the cutting to final size next to where you are stacking to dry?
Yeah, I think if I didn't have the children then I might do that. There's also a big part of me that knows if I don't do it there and then it can be a lot less likely to happen. So it's a way of me completing a job knowing how my weird mind works. This year I ended up logging it and probably leaving it too long in the coppice as the field was so wet. But I did leave myself a load of stakes to use in the garden (once stripped of bark) and these are way easier to move and gives me a longer window of use with them.
Can I ask, what size of land is your woodland and are you using it to heat the house and water.
I didn’t even know what coppicing was until an hour ago, really cool if you want to be non-reliant on utilities.
So our area of coppice isn't huge, a hundred metres but 10 maybe. And this doesn't provide all our firewood, although if we had more down, a few acres, then it probably could go a long way towards it.
We have giant oaks here that always drop some branches and I'm a carpenter that ends up with a lot of waste wood. So that helps. We tend to do anlot of our heating off wood. But have oil fired central heating for the upstairs of our house and hot water. We have a stove we can cook on but also an electric stove as well (we cook all our own bread year round and the stove makes the house too warm unless it's cold out).
This might be a silly question but why couldn't/wouldn't you send the willow through a wood chipper and just shovel the woodchips into your wood stove? it would need a finer grate but the harvesting would be a lot less work. Over here in Canada we have electric woodchippers that can do up to 2" diameter that are under a couple hundred bucks canadian.
Not a silly question at all. It would need a biomass boiler for that. In the uk they're not very popular and the ones that can be used in houses are generally fed by pellets. Im not even sure theres a domestic one ive seen over here that would be capable. You'd need a big area to dry the chip and store it as well. Houses in the uk aren't huge. I might chip this years brash for using on the garden for paths and the like.
@@englishhomestead Why would it need a biomass boiler? I've seen people run woodchips and wood pellets in their standard wood stove - all they did was add a grate with smaller spacing to hold the chips better.
@popandbob logs are so much easier to manage, our stoves aren't very big and you'd have to get them very hot before the chip would burn effectively. I've not seen the modification you mention on any stove over here. You do get sawdust burners for workshops, and one day I'd like to have one if I build a bigger shop here.
Rather than cut them all off at ground level every 5m or so cut off a good trunk at about 6ft and try to establish pollards. They produce loads more wood at much shorter intervals once established as they get more light. After a few years you will be able to dispense with the ground level coppice and use the land for something else.
As others have said, a wood chipper is great for dealing with the whips. Chips are great for mulch, pathways etc.
I'm not sure that pollarding a tree provides any more wood than coppicing it as I celar whole sections. It would keep it up and away from deer damage though so certainly worth considering. I might have to put a row in and compare it with some coppiced trees. I have a big willow alongside these that needs pollarding back this year (or maybe next). I need some good sized branches ideally.
@@englishhomestead your current coppice setup is crowded and will only produce so much as the more it grows the more crowded it gets.
You can definitely experiment as you can choose a few good plants and cut them high and leave them standing above the full cut plants around them. Another approach would be to cut back half the willows in an area to give the rest more room to fill out.
If you have an old established willow definitely pollard that back you will be amazed how fast it grows back and how much it produces.
Pollarded older trees is the reason for my initial comment. I have 4 big willow pollards and each tree produces in 2-3 years at least what you harvested from the coup you cut in the video.
Good luck with it 👍🏼
@eckythump6429 thanks! Yeah the regrowth I'm limiting to just three shoots (or that's the plan anyway). I'll hopefully get my brother over with the pollard (he was a tree surgeon) and film it. We did it about 8 years ago and there is so much growth from it. A good few months worth of wood for the fire.
I think I probably did sneeze these in a bit. The advice was 1m square (or a yard) but I think wider would have been better to allow for a mowing machine between them when they were young. I'm due to do this years cut now my business has gone quiet. I'll try to film it again and it should show the previous two cuts and how they've grown back.
Thanks for posting, there are very few videos on SRC for home use out there... Still experimenting with ours here. Did you plant through a membrane?
I planted a little bit through it then decided to just plant and hope with the rest. I think that's why it's taken a bit longer to establish. It really doesn't like competition. I have taken a fair few poles for my scouts over the years as well for when we do cookouts, so that might have slowed it a little as well.
We have different willows which we ended up having to prune heavily last September and chopped into logs. I never realised that it is such a good fuel. I’m considering planting more as it is so easy to grow. What time of year did you cut yours? I think if I’m doing it again I’ll do it once the leaves have fallen off.
I cut mine a few weeks ago this year, if you click on my channel it should be one of the more recent videos, my editing has got better so I hope it's more punchy! I've been pleased with this little patch. I want to put in more willow, but maybe basket willow this time.
What species of willow?
@jonathanblanchard6480 the first batch was hybrids Q83 and Chinese, but then I bought a selection of hybrids grown for rapid growth and just mixed them up. I honestly cant tell huge amounts of difference between the trees, location seems to affect them more (the ones on the outside do better where they get more light). Hope this helps.
Nice job!
Could you be a bit more specific about the particular hybrid willow you are using?
Any info will help. Thanks.
I have it on one of my replies to a xomment on here. I'll have to dig it out again.
My advice would be to get a few different varieties and then see which grows better and propergate those from cuttings.
If you visit my blog and search for hybrid willows there's a few posts where it talks about what I planted.
Do research on biomass willows. Many are hybrids developed from Salix viminaliis, and only have numbers assigned to them. Salix alba varieties are large growing and fairly fast.
Thank you for the information. You’ve given me a new path to explore. 👍
What are the names of the songs?
Ohhh, now you've asked me something. I'll have to look back at the original file I made. The song will be from Epidemic sounds which is the program I use for music.
Hello, just new here!
May i ask you how many square meters of woodland you got for growing firewood ?
Thanks in advance
With the willow it's probably only 5 lots of of 5x6m, maybe a little more. It won't keep us in wood, but it'll help each year.
@@englishhomestead Thank you very much for answering, want to buy ground to plant my own woodland, and wanted to know how much ground i have to purchase!
So thanks again to give me a answer in such a short time, Sir!
Greetings from the Netherlands 👍
@@verdikulk6193 I think to supply our own firewood completely we'd probably need a good few acres covered and cropped every few years. I'm a carpenter so produce plenty of wood anyway, and we have big trees that drop branches. Your choice of fire will make a huge difference as well (we have two and the one eats wood), and the soil you're growing on.
What we produce here is only a small amount of what we use.
@@englishhomestead Okay, so that means to be self sufficient you need at least about 1000 square meters of ground, and a good mixture of wood species to cover your needs ?
How much wood did you get and from what size of an area?
So the area is about 6m by 6m with trees spaced roughly a meter apart. From that I'd estimate I got a builders bag full of logs. But it depends how small you're willing to go. I wish I could find a quick way to make up bundles of wood with the ends, they'd be great for the pizza oven then,
@@englishhomestead Go out and get some woodland craft books if you haven’t, they may be able to tell you about how you can do that. I have heard of it being done just can’t remember how I’m sorry. Hope you can find out!
A lot of work for little harvest, motor chain and tractor. Better wait, and cut side sticks to start fire and harvest main stem on 15 years.
It's not much work really, and good exercise, imagine having to pay to go to a gym! I don't want to have to split any of the wood if I don't have to. Also this way I'm not burning much fuel to harvest it.
@@englishhomestead
Imagine to go to a gym, I also cut trees and use even thin branches with the same argument.😂
More if I bring the little branches to the communal collecting point I have to pay.
@@andreheck9545 I try to use as much as I cut as possible. We have a clay pizza/bread oven and the small sticks are ideal for getting that to temperature.
What size were the whips you planted
Like 12 inches long 1/2" in diameter.
well done, nice video. How many trees would you say you need to supply you with a year's firewood. i know it's dependant upon size of house, insulation etc but i'm planting willow for future firewood, but only have enough space currently for 500 trees until i clear more ground. i'm also using weed cloth to reduce root competition of the ridiculously thick grass & rushes that i have up here in the highlands which i'm hoping will increase growth speed. - cheers Leigh
Such a good question. And such a tricky on to answer. So many variables though. I'm still struggling to work out how much firewood we need each year from what we collect and harvest.
The weather here in herefordshire can be variable in winter, and when we have two fires running we burn serious amounts of fuel. But that's so winter dependent. Some winters we just keep the one running in the evening and barely touch the pile. Others I get worried in February we don't have enough stored (we've never run out though - the advantages of being a carpenter and always producing some each week as well).
The section here produced about a builders bag full. But trees grow fast here so that's one variable. It's said a 10m by 10m cant planted at 1m spacing will produce 1 ton every 5 years. This was cut a bit later and is a bit smaller but we got a builders bag full. Then it's a case of scaling up, but that would be from about 500 trees I'd guess.
So an 1/4 acre would be 10 sections, producing 2 ton a year from two sections (if it grows well).
It also depends how small your willing to go with the wood. I'd love to use the brash more, we have an outdoor mud oven and I know it would be perfect for that if I could find an easy way of binding them that didn't take loads of labour.
Sorry to come back with such a vague answer.
thanks for the reply. i knew it was a difficult question but i read these thing about 10mx10m and 1m spacing, but then other articles contradict that and say you need at least 2m spacings, so its hard to know. ive already put 100 trees in this summer and in spring i've laid enough weed cloth down to put another 400 in but i still worry that wont be enough and i'll need to think about putting in a more efficient heating system like a rocket mass heater or masonary stove. i'll probably have enough wood to last me the 5 year wait till the first cut as i'm renovating an old farm and cutting all my own wood with a sawmill so i have a lot of waste and i need another 25 - 50 tonnes of log deliveries to get the wood for everythng i need so maybe another 40 builders bags of scrap there. i suppose it'll be a trial and error, but its better to plant too many than too few and need another 5 year wait for them to grow again, so i'd better try to get more ground cleared to put another 500 in making a total of 900 in spring. The grass, nettles, thistles etc up here grow so thick that the willow hardly grow at all due to the competition as i pushed a few just into ground without weed cloth and theyre about 1ft high whereas some of the ones with the weed cloth grew 7ft from being cuttings in june until now which is amazing. when you think that being firewood sufficient could save you £40k - £80k over 20 years then it seems a logical thing to do although the government is wanting to get the highlands & islands off of all fuels and be totally dependant upon electric within the next 5 years but being as this is the place most liekly to have extreme weather and downed power lines, then i'm simply not prepared to be reliant upon someone else providing me energy when it could be -12c in winter. i'm currently in a static caravan using LPG and the price hikes are taking the money i have to renovate the house and putting it in greedy service providers, so this is why i'm doing this. i only have 3 acres total and dont want to use it all up with firewood, but if need be then i;ll have to do what it takes - cheers Leigh
@@leighrawnsley2266 It's always tricky with spacing. I'd be tempted to say plant it at a spacing you can get a machine in to cut around the stands until it's established - but you said you're using weed matting so might not be too bad. They start to grow all shapes and directions anyway, so you wouldn't get in there for long. My brother was a tree surgeon for years so for this long in my life I've never bought firewood, but I certainly have worked for it! I worry they might try banning it at some point in the future, but I planned the renovations of this house around being able to heat it off grid (I'd love to go further but budget stopped us for now). We have an oil burner as well but only top up the tank every few years.
Great video and info. Did you pay much attention to particular species of willow that might be best for firewood? Or just any willow?
Also, did you consider hazel?
I bought a selection of hybrid willows to see which would perform better. In the end the hybrids (for firewood) have all grown about the same amount.
I did, I planted some further down. It's established well and I feel there is far more use for the hazel, especially when I consider the hedges and things to maintain around here. But it is slower to grow. In an ideal world I'd have a few acres of woodland to coppice!
Thanks for your replies - really helpful info.
@@emmaslow no problem 😊
How does the willow go as firewood? Is it any good or is it difficult?
So long as you have a high efficiency stove it's fine. On an open fire it burns very quickly. I quite like mixing the willow in with some "better" stiff like oak and Ash. In all honesty I think willow is underrated.
@@englishhomestead There are many kinds of willows. Which one did you use?
@@franek_izerski I had a selection of hybrid willows (for fire wood) from world of willow. I had laid them out so I could tell which was which, but they've all pretty much grown the same rate.
@@englishhomestead I don't mean cultivar but species. There are several kinds of willow that are not suited to coppice or have various qualities that make them more or less suited for firewood. Do you have a latin name?
@@franek_izerskithis was the first batch I planted and the second was a selection of other hybrids. Hope this helps. www.englishhomestead.com/2014/04/hbrid-willow-coppice-two-plots-planted.html?m=1
7 years is a bit soon to cut down. Wood burners need logs, not twigs! Rotation should be at least 12 to 16 years for coppice logs.
This is short rotation willow coppice. Different trees work on different rotations. You can see the range of sizes at the end, with willow this is fairly common practice. The idea is tk have logs that don't need splitting. With a good log burner with a high level of control you can burn smaller stuff fine.
@@englishhomesteadyeaah, no splitting!
@user-hu9ci2iy8h saves so much time having wood you don't have to split.
So presuming your 30 - 40 years of age and you live till 70 .. if you do a harvest per section every ten years then youll get another 3-4 harvests per section before your dead. Not on this planet for very long are we 😂
Life is short, but also you plan for those ahead of you!
When this is up and running it should be one section every 5 years, I've split it into 5 sections so I'm hopeful I'll harvest one section a year, although I might give it a years gap when I've harvested the 5th. I'm 40 so might get another 6 to 8 harvests. But also it's kindof beautiful and if (when) we get goats it'll provide forage and I'm always taking sticks for my scouts for when we do outdoor eating and cooking. So lots of layers to what it is. This year I'll use some of the whippy growth for my binders when I'm laying hedges, saves me buying much in.
@@englishhomestead good man it's always good to see people using nature in a positive way! Too many lazy mindless humans on this planet now that don't like getting their hands dirty 👍🏻
Smart arse, get your own channel and let's judge your progress,
@gedhuffadine1873 thanks, like with most things in life this is a bit of an experiment, but one I've really enjoyed doing.
Why are you being a dick ? The mam shows his hard work and beautiful life , I dare you take a video of your own life and out it on RUclips you loser , wish good thing for people not dying !smh