28 replies to this topic

[Rasher]

Hi.
Are any of you growing willow for firewood. We use a logburner to heat our home and we're looking into planting willow for fuel. The places we've looked at getting it from say we need to plant so many trees each year for 4 years and then we will have a continuous supply.
I just wondered if anyone had done it and what the results are like.
Thanks.

[Cornish Gems]

We haven't done it per se as we are only into our second year of planting, but we read up about it and it seemed to tick a lot of boxes. Willows like water (and we have lots of it) and they can make a bit of a windbreak which we thought would be good for the raspberry bushes. Plus of course we thought the idea of a woodburner was one of the best ways of providing heating. Now we discover that there are various useful pieces of equipment one can make with willow. Indeed, the only negative thing we learnt about them was that their propensity for searching for water could mean that they would break into a water pipe/drain.

[Rasher]

Great to know others are trying it. I'm pretty sure we'll go ahead with it. could you tell me what time of year you planted yours and what was involved. Thanks.

[Cornish Gems]

We literally pushed the spade into the ground, slipped the slip in behind it, pulled out spade and heeled the soil back.

The first lot we did at this time of the year having bought them on eBay, then we did a second lot in the next spring and finally a third lot when we had that heatwave earlier on this year!

Having done some reading up on the subject, we actually bought some last autumn (again from eBay) and put the slips into black flower buckets filled with sand. Then kept the sand moist over winter and those were the ones we planted out during the heatwave. We were really impressed with the root systems and they are doing extremely well and looking a lot healthier than the second lot we planted.

[Rasher]

Sounds like your well on your way, I've emailed 2 of the people selling them on ebay asking for more details about when is best to plant them but neither of them have replied yet so your info has been really helpful.

[roger]

Hi can you not cut your own slips willow is very easy to propagate when helping a friend some years ago we cut a willow hedge back & pushed the trimmings into the ground 6 months later new hedge or have I missed something

Roger

[Cornish Gems]

Yes you can depending on the species, we cut some for our first lot after 1yr and they have taken nicely.

We cut one length from each willow and then cut it in to 1ft lengths we then planted them in sand in flower pots as described previously.

They have taken extremely well.

[Rasher]

Thats nice to know.

[roger]

Hi
Cg how long to root in pots in your poly tunnel, another profit line ?

[Cornish Gems]

Roger - they rooted over the winter - but we have yet to find a profitable market for them.

[Romany]

So are you lot talking about coppicing willow?

I have one willow on my land which isn't doing much to soak up the recent deluge . Good idea about hedging/windbreaks, might do that this winter, would give me a bit of privacy as well lol. I'm also thinking of a willow dome or similar to house a composting loo, anyone tried that yet?

Romany

[Cornish Gems]

Well - we are. At the same time we have been looking at various trees we have in the field corners as they look as though they were coppiced at some time.

[roger]

Romany did you mean willow dome or composting loo have been  trying the latter out for last year

 

roger

[Romany]

Roger,

Willow dome over a composting loo is what I was thinking!  How have you got on with the compost loo, and how high have you got it off the ground?

 

With regards to fuel:  I have lots of Ash saplings that I want to transplant, could coppice them as well as Ash is fantastic firewood even when green.

 

Romany

[Thegreatescaper]

Another fantastic and little known use for willow is to root cuttings. You cut a branch that is approx one inch in diameter into one inch pieces, fill a container with them and cover with water for 24 hours. The water is then used as the water in which you root your cuttings or water your cuttings with. I have had fantastic results using this method. This water also works wonders if you water your seeds/seedlings with it. A word of warning though, willow spreads like nothing else which can be a positive or negative thing depending on your situation.

 

Romany, with regards to your ash saplings, please keep a very close eye on them. Chalora (ash die back desease) is decimating our ash trees. If you notice any sign of it I would remove and destroy the offending sapling immediately. It is caused by a fungus and without swift action it could rapidly spread throughout your stock. On a more positive note due to the way that ash trees reproduce some may be resilient or even immune to it, so hopefully it will not be as destructive as dutch elm desease was (although the wood I am currently working in has elms that are much larger than they should be able to become with this desease present, so hopefully that situation is improving.). If you end up with trees like this they could become very valuable, as as you state ash is a fantastic wood and for much more than just burning.

[Romany]

Thank you TGE, I wasn't aware of this disease so I will check the saplings before I move them.  They are actually self-sown and some of them are quite big, so hopefully they are ok. 

 

They do seem to self-sow quite freely and I agree, ash is useful for more than just firewood, it is a lovely timber.

 

Romany

[Thegreatescaper]

The fact that ash self-sows so easily is the one thing that may save the species as it increases genetic diversity. Unfortunately the desease can be hard to spot at this time of year as it is much easier to spot when the tree is in leaf, both by the crown dying back (leaving bare branches above the crown) and necrosis of the leaves (localised areas of dying on individual leaves). It can be diagnosed by the sight of lesions on the bark usually where twigs meet branches and where branches meet the trunk but this can be quite difficult although its usually easier in saplings. The size of the tree unfortunately doesn't provide any protection, however we are now not destroying infected adult trees as we discover them as the desease has spread way beyond our worst nightmares and by leaving them hopefully as they seed over the coming years a resistance or immunity may be built up. We can only hope that this happens, the desease  has decimated the ash stocks of Denmark, killing over 90% of them.

[roger]

romany

 

compost loo is upstairs in toilet room,  standard wc in bathroom for non commited depositers!!!

 

it works fine no smell empty about 7 to 10 days , two pallet sized composting boxes 1st not full after nearly a year

 

wood chips for cover. would recomend the system

 

roger

[fiveoaks]

I'm growing willow for fuel down in Essex if anyone is interested. So far I have 500 in rows of 100 They have been sown on 100 gsm weed fabric, makes a huge difference to the growth rate I also have another 100 grown straight onto grass, they are growing much slower I'm about to plant another 300 in the next week or so

[Rasher]

is there any chance you could post some pictures.