Orchard 6: Coppicing

Within two months of moving in, our Tulikivi wood-burning heater had been installed in the house (see separate post). In a somewhat quixotic move, I decided to try growing trees for coppicing, “a traditional method of woodland management….many trees renew growth from the stump or roots when cut down….after a number of years the coppiced tree is ready to be harvested, and the cycle begins again” (slightly edited Wikipedia excerpt). This is really long-term planning: these trees would first be cut for firewood at least 10 and maybe 15 years after planting! Thereafter, cuts would happen every 5-10 years, depending on the tree (it’ll attain suitable size faster than the first time because the root systems are already fully established). So this is mainly for whoever succeeds Beth and me at this place.

After a lot of research, I ordered trees that seemed to strike the best balance of growth rapidity, suitability to our environment and climate, and available BTUs when burned:
15 Black locust (robinia pseudoacacia)
10 Oregon myrtle (‪umbellularia californica‬), aka California bay laurel)
5 English oak (quercus robur)

I planted these small (8-15" above-ground) in open areas in the orchard in March, after “hardening them off” in the greenhouse and on the back deck for a couple of weeks.

On 20 April 2011, a hard frost killed about half of the black locusts. In February 2012, I transplanted the remaining seven black locusts to the far NE corner of the orchard, where their propensity to expand won’t impact many other plants. They are growing quite vigorously.

All five of the original English oaks will make it, though they grow more slowly than the black locusts. One of them even survived having its top half cleanly sliced off by an errant scythe blade—by me—when the plant was only 10” tall! I’m not sure what its final form will be, but it will be different than classical oak form, and I’ll be the cause.

Two of the 10 Oregon myrtles look pretty good, but the other eight never got over the hump. Four died, and four others are alive but have added almost no mass, girth, branches, or leaves in over a year. This may be due to cracks that riddle the orchard floor in the dry summer months: perhaps the root systems are stymied by air in the cracks? But that wasn’t a problem for the black locusts and English oaks, which were planted in the same area.

Given the black locust and Oregon myrtle casualties, I planted some other trees for coppice in January 2012:
5 Oregon ash (fraxinus latifolia)
5 Big-leaf maple (acer macrophyllum)
These aren’t doing particularly well, either; 3 of the 10 are dead, and 2 others are unlikely to make it.

Overall, the coppicing has been my least successful undertakings here at Terribly Happy; I’d grade the overall progress as a C- or C. Fortunately, this is also one of the least crucial undertakings here: firewood is one thing the Pacific Northwest won't run out of any time soon.