The coppice1/29/2024 ![]() So it usually makes sense to wait until it's grown a bit larger.īen Law, one of my mentors, suggested waiting until the stem was of a size useful to you. The thing is that it's rare that you'll get much useful material from a 1, 2 or 3 year old seedling/sapling. But I've also had many plants inadvertently coppiced by wildlife when they were quite small - species like pecan, oaks, hickories, mulberry, etc. It is a good idea not to do this indefinitely though as it can be hard on the stool's long term health. I regularly do this with vigorous species like willows, poplars, dogwoods, from which I want small diameter materials from. Many species will successfully resprout when cut after even just one year's growth. I think there were a lot of great responses to this question so I'll just a few thoughts.Īs with everything, the answer depends - on species, age, site quality to a degree (available sunlight, moisture). I will post next year about how that goes. I will probably be cutting a few black locust stems this winter on my current property that are around 7-8 years old, 16-20' tall, 3-4" diameter. I have driven by this property and can confirm that 10ish years later they are now 25'-35' tall and although hard to determine from the road I would estimate the larger stems at 8-12" diameters. So from 2 70 year old black locusts sprouted a thicket 80 feet by 80 feet with a stem every couple feet that grew to 12' tall and 2-3" diameters in the first year. The sprouts were coming off of roots anywhere up to 40' from the trunks and they were in close proximity to each other, mostly just a couple feet apart through the whole thicket. The next year there was - as you assumed correctly - a black locust thicket, almost impenetrable, which grew to 12 feet tall in the first year. On a previous property I cut down a pair of black locusts that were around 70+ years old. My experience is on the other side - it is never too late to coppice black locust. I don't yet have experience to say how young or how small of a diameter a black locust can be successfully coppiced. The beech hedges up and down the country are good evidence of this! I believe the same might be true for silver birch but I don't recall where I read that. Actually, beech will coppice quite happily provided it is cut when it is young. In terms of trees that do not coppice well, I only know of two native species in the UK: beech and silver birch. If the trees were smaller, I would wait until all the leaves have dropped. The hazel still has a few leaves but I am not worried as the trees were very large ("overstood") and I'm sure they have a lot of energy in the rootsystems. I've been cutting hazel coppice for a month now here in Pembrokeshire. Whilst I wouldn't want to cut in Summer, I would gladly cut from October through to March - although better not to cut once the buds start opening as it will really drain the energy from the tree. I've heard people say you can cut hazel all year round without causing it difficulty. ![]() Some species, hazel in particular, are less fussy about when you can cut them. They were talking about fruit trees, roses and shrubs but it applies equally to deciduous trees! I've also heard people say "prune in Summer to restrict growth, prune in Winter to promote growth". It's getting ready to put on new growth once the weather is warmer. The tree stores its starches in the root system during this period and is reabsorbing the nutrients from the leaves as they decompose. You should cut back a tree, be it for coppicing or pollarding, in the Winter once the leaves have dropped and 'the sap is down'.
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