growing trees from seed

Rjas

Im looking for information on growing native irish trees from sctatch, either from cutting's or seed.For reps and the new agri-enviro scheme most of the tree planting is to be done with native trees oak, ash ,birch, are a few.i was hoping to grow about 1000 trees of say 5 types.Where is best to get da seed and how should you prepare the ground. i got plenty of time on my hands

blue5000

I got a lot of small ash trees which germinated with a crop of corn a few yrs back. You need to get them before the crop is sprayed for weeds. They usually grow near mature ash trees in hedges. Acorns can be picked up in oak forestry, October is probably the best time, put them in a bucket of sand and forget about them until they come up. This could be 2 yrs later.
Thats all my experience of germinating trees.

The_Conductor

You could always ask whether the Coillte Nursery would do a deal on 1+1s or 2U1s (a lot younger than they'd normally sell them at). For species like birch even a 1 year old whip would be fine- other broadleaves would really need to be older with more established root systems.

You can buy certified seed with reasonable enough provenances online- seedrack is a good start- or even if you have a word with the forestry nursery- they may sell you some.

johno2

I like to use cuttings instead of seeds. You get a higher success percentage and it takes less time to get to something that could reasonably be called a tree. Some native seeds take a few years to germinate. It you take maybe 10-20 slips from a large tree it will do hardly any damage at all. You'll increase the success rate quite a lot if you steep the cuttings in willow water for 24 hours before planting.

Make up a batch of willow water as follows: Cut about 1 liter of young willow twigs, chopped up small. Pour 4-5 liters of boiling water over them and allow them to sit for 24 hours. Remove the twigs by straining through a colander or something. The water has now removed the rooting hormone from the willow bark and you can use it to treat your cuttings.

Soak your cuttings in the willow water for about another day or so. Don't submerge them, just soak the bottom half. I use a section of twig with 4-5 buds on it. Cut the stem diagonally just above the top bud and another cut horizontally below the bottom bud. Use a secaters, a knife or scissors never gives a perfectly clean cut. Stick the cuttings into decent soil, potting compost with a pinch of sand in it is good if you can afford a batch of it, topsoil will probably do if it's not too clayish. I leave about 1/3 of the cutting over the ground, bury the bottom 2/3. Keep the soil dampish, but don't ever over soak it. You want to force the tree to root by keeping it slightly short of water.

This works exceptionally well with horse chestnut, but it's not native and I don't think it'll cover you for the REPS. If you get the cuttings in the next couple of weeks I think you'll have a good chance with Ash and Oak too, not sure about Birch because I've never tried it. Willow is very easy to grow from cuttings during any part of the growing season, you don't even need to soak it in willow water first.

Best of luck,

johno

The_Conductor

If you're going down the road of taking cuttings- your success rate will soar- if you-

1. steep the cuttings in an antifungal solution (the nurseries used to use Captan when I worked there- but that was years ago)
2. use a rooting hormone (you can pick up a small pack of Seradix even in the likes of Woodies and its ilk these days).

S.

bogtotty

Not wanting to hijack the thread, but I'd like to ask a related question. I have a load of ash and sycamore saplings (probably about 2000 of them) that I've been gathering from seedlings in our garden over the past 4 years. Up to now I've been keeping them in individual pots but they're starting to get too big and too numerous. I got some 5-litre poly-bag pots for some of the larger ones as a stopgap, but they're not really sturdy enough and I'm running out of suitable space to store them. I don't want to plant them permanently just yet as we're probably going to be moving house and I'd like to keep them for when we're settled.

My question is what is the best way of continuing to grow the saplings so that:
1. they don't become rootbound?
2. they don't need thousands of rigid pots?
3. they can be easily transferred in about 2 years time?

Any tips gratefully received.

The_Conductor

It depends on a species- but you'd really need to be permanently planting most broadleaves at this stage- as they don't develop root systems in the same way as conifers- and may not develop a lateral (or even a tap root) after a certain stage.

Just out of curiousity- 4000 is quite a collection- is there a particular reason you've so many?

Personally- if I were you- I'd PM the original poster- and come to some arrangement with him- I'm sure rehoming a thousand or so in a manner where they became part of his REPS programme- would happily satisfy everyone?

bogtotty

smccarrick wrote: »

Just out of curiousity- 4000 is quite a collection- is there a particular reason you've so many?

Personally- if I were you- I'd PM the original poster- and come to some arrangement with him- I'm sure rehoming a thousand or so in a manner where they became part of his REPS programme- would happily satisfy everyone?

We have two acres behind our house bounded by hedgerow which is full of mature ash trees and has some sycamore in there too. Our back yard is fairly big and covered in gravel. Every spring since we moved in (4 years ago) the gravel yard becomes a mini-nursery for seedlings - they pop up everywhere. As we have a lot of pets, I don't like to use weedkiller and so do all the weeding by hand. And I can't pull up a tree seedling without wanting to repot it, I must have a bit of a Buddhist in me somewhere.

I don't want to rehome the seedlings/saplings. Like I said, we'll be moving in the next 2 years and I'd like to re-establish a similar hedgerow wherever we end up (probably within a 20 mile radius so would like to use local home-grown stock). Large scale farming has destroyed most of the old hedgerows where I live and wildlife has suffered - I want to do my bit.