12 acres. Tree plan.

80sDiesel

2024 Updates

I am hoping to remove the remaining stakes this autumn . The trees gain better strength without them. The tree shelters will have to remain in place for a number of more years. That surprises me as their lifetime is 5 years but the trees need more time to grow. I am guessing the growing area ( 350 metres above sea level) slows their growth.

Gloomtastic!

^ Brilliant. Well done you, major kudos! 👍

brianiac

Thanks for the fantastic thread.

I have a few acres that i had rented our for grazing for a number of years but have taken back under management. I have a notion for the 15 ac field to be a wildflower meadow. Can i get your thoughts on management please?

currently: Some dock/nettle/thistle that were regularly sprayed off by the farmer. Ryegrass predominantly. lightly (he says) fertilised over the past 6 years or so

notion is :

never fertilise

try not spray - will attempt to walk with the slashers and knock back weeds once the flower heads are finished

this year i will try get a cut of silage before end of may (is this realistic?), happy to for someone to do it and have the silage for themselves. Unsure if this is a runner. ie silage wont be god enough/quantity enough to justify someone doing it.

While i have come across suggestions to try take a hay cut in late july/early august, biodiversity ireland suggest last week august/early sept for hay. Again, happy for someone to take it if they pay for the work. q: will a farmer be interested in this?

purpose is to reduce fertility somewhat before...

Then seed yellow rattle in patches throughout.

wildflower seeding after this.

future management - no animals grazing. early cut of silage in may, hay in early September.

Did you spray the land off before seeding the wildflowers? was chain harrowing enough?

i got some wildflower seed from sandro as i converted the front lawn a number of years ago and i was very particular about initially spraying and then burning weed seeds. Took well but dont want to do on a 15ac field for obvious reasons.

I came across a uk website that suggested getting hay made from a wildflower meadow to spread on a project site as it will contain wildflower seeds that will get incorporated to the new site. Any experience of this?

Great projects and love to hear people doing these around the place.

80sDiesel

Hi.

Remember the end goal is a species rich meadow with around 80% native grasses and the rest native flowers etc.

The 12 acres and another parcel I am starting this year were semi-improved upland meadows. So they had some fert applied but never to my knowledge reseeded.

If yours has ryegrass it is called improved grassland. I have only have knowledge and experience in enhancing semi improved meadows.

For improved meadows, I believe you would need to spray off the whole place and reseed with native grasses and flowers. If the farmer was regularly spraying for docks etc, the land may be very high in fertility so that is also an issue.

I would suggest trying the farmers main forum and inquiring how to go from ryegrass to native.

10-10-20

Great thread @80sDiesel ! So how many trees were planted in what acreage and what do you reckon was the success rate with them?

80sDiesel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121769939#Comment_121769939

I would say my success rate after installing the tubex guards was 80%. The loss was mainly attributed to the fact that I had a farmer graze sheep as I was also enhancing the meadows so needed them. The sheep would occasionally rub against the stake , knock it over and a hare,rabbit,deer would eat at the exposed bark and kill it. Then the odd one didn't grow probably due to frost etc. But without animals I would have gotten over 95%

I still may lose a tree or two each year until they are no longer reliant on the stakes and can withstand sheep rubbing their arses against the tubes.

But I planted enough so not too bothered.

minerleague

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121761528#Comment_121761528

You wont have wildflowers if you cut in May surely as they wont have gone to seed or is that just for this year?

brianiac

thanks for response.

The land has been fertilised regularly for the past couple for decades and i think its pretty fertile. My intention this year was to take a couple of cuts to reduce the fertility in the field before attempting to sow yellow rattle into it. I am hoping to cut as early in the year as i can get away with - and that a farmer might feel its worthwhile cutting and baling the grass.

So i actually converted my lawn to wildflowers a few 7 years ago. My own management wasnt great at times as we were renovating the house for a year and various paraphenalia were sitting on it etc but got the seed from Sandro in wildflowers.ie. I completely burned everything off with round up (boo hiss) and sequential flaming of anything that popped up for 5 months until march/april time and sowing happened. looked amazing year one, less riotous now but definitely have a wide range of wildflowers though some creep of grasses i'm intending on whacking. His management specifically talked about starting from a blank slate. And also he specifically directed me to cut and remove cuttings twice a year - once in april/early may and again in sept.

If late may i might agree with you but my understanding is that this early cut will remove grass (and wildflowers) reducing the grasses fertility/vitality and then the wildflowers will be better able respond to that haircut. Now i could be wrong. I have seen videos related to yellow rattle where they suggest only one cutting a year is required when established however they often describe allowing some livestock to graze for a period over the winter months. I believe this is so there isnt a dense hatch lying on the ground, any seed would be exposed to sunlight and the periodic removal of grass (which will have grown overwinter though wildlfowers typically not) to further reduce fertility.

minerleague

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121776317#Comment_121776317

Would agree with last paragraph about letting light cattle or sheep in to graze off aftergrass before winter. This would be what would have happened years ago on traditional hay meadows. Don't know if your set up for that.