Collecting Alders

 

Today I collected the first trees for year 11.  As I have mostly swamp left to plant; I have decided to come to this rapidly reforesting valley, on the edge of the moors, near Tavistock, to collect Alders.

You can see just how thickly they have seeded themselves here, from the above caption.  So they defiantly could do with being thinned out.  Very leggy ones, however are not very good and are best left.  The trick is to get them just before they get over shadowed, whilst they are still strong and bushy.  Leggy ones (if I get them at all) are generally planted two or three in a hole and  even then they often don't grow.

The ground here is so wet, that the young trees often just lift out, if gently pulled, with a great soggy root-ball attached, but some need to be cut round with the spade.

 The next thing I do is to trim off any leggy bits, down to nice strong buds.  I want the trees to be vigorous from the first year and not having to support allot of unnecessary branches after having their roots cut and disturbed.  I like to trim the trees back to just taller than the Summer height of the vegetation, where they are going to be planted.  In this case; these are destined for a reed swamp.  The reeds are about 0.7 metres high, so I'm cutting the Alders to about 80cm.

Keeping the roots from getting dry is crucial for success.  A large plastic bag, such as an old compost sack or heavy duty bin bag is best.

 A few bin bags full of young trees will fit nicely on the back of my motor-bike, tied on with bungees, but I will be able to collect loads more, when I have a car.

 Stashing Trees

 It is very important to hide the trees well.  I take them straight from where I collected them, to where they are going to be planted, put them in a quiet part of the site and them cover them in whatever bits of vegetation I can find.  In this case grass.

 Like this; they are unlikely to be seen by anyone and less likely to dry out.  Shown here; they are not immediately obvious.  Usually I would hide them better than this, but no one comes in here, but me and the odd ornithologist.  After all; it's a swamp.