More Experimental Propagation

Collected beechnuts

Beechnuts separated from their casings

As well as mushrooms, we've been collecting beech mast, noticing that this year, some beech trees have produced none at all, while others have a deep layer around their trunks. The first lot collected needed a helping hand with the nutcrackers to get at the seeds inside, but the second lot have opened as they dried out, making the job of extracting the seeds much easier. They need to be kept cold in order to germinate, so will be stored in the fridge until November, and then mixed with some damp compost and put back in the fridge until they sprout. A proportion  will be planted out direct in the wood and be protected with tree tubes from the deer, and with luck,  woodmice, squirrels, and rabbits as well;  the rest will be potted up and grown on, to be planted out in a year or so. A slow process, but arguably better than  buying in 'whips'  with a dubious provenance.In about a 100 years time there should be a very well established Beech Wood at Old Copse. We've also collected some hazel nuts that escaped the squirrels, which we'll leave in a dry place until they ripen, then plant them in pots, and see what happens. There are also a few cherry seedlings to grow on. These were collected  near a couple of  fine specimens on the Ride -side.

Drying out collected hazelnuts 

There are also about a dozen thriving oaks ready to plant out in the wood, and more growing on at home. These were  raised from tiny seedlings collected from the Ride edges , where oak trees are not wanted . We'll plant these out  to make an oak grove on the SSSI side of the wood, once the Scots Pine thinning operation  has been finished, and the ground cleared.




It's interesting how our ideas of woodland management changes as we respond to growing knowledge, both theoretical and practical, and careful observation.  Our management plan for OC2 says that we would clear fell an acre or so in the birchwood and then replant with a variety of other broadleaves.  However, once we  had a really good look at it, prompted by the felling of birch to make a new track through the top end of the wood, we could see that this part of Old Copse is in fact already quite diverse , with a lot of natural regeneration . All we really need to do is to protect and encourage what is already there. Our next task in this part of the wood is to halo thin around the oaks, beech , and then spot replant  where necessary with broadleaves that we've raised ourselves.

Finally, a photo of our latest woodland volunteer. A keen digger who enjoys the outdoors.

This project's called 'Australia'