hazel plantation

[hedgesparrow]

just been given a overstood hazel wood which has some big stuff 6inch dia. now i am coppicing for stakes and binders has birch inbetween and there are firs just up the track. what i want to know is the hazel is dry will bend but not supple like normal also has a green tinge on outside of bark.

not a nice brown or silver colour. any idears please and what can be done.

[Graham]

Cut for stakes and firewood. Regrowth should be good for binders.

[Rebel_Commando]

Cut for stakes and firewood. Regrowth should be good for binders.

 

What Graham says....Plus green tinge sounds like algae/slime mould/lichen growth due to damp/too shaded because of being overstood possibly?

[Daniël Bos]

Strange thing is Hazel, the colour of the bark seems to be somehow indicative to how useful it is. I've seen brown, dark brown, silvery, white and flaky, purpleish etc. And all seem to have different bending characteristics.

The purple stuff for example seems to snap earlier, even if it was grown in the same wood and is the same size. I've seen identical sized in both girth and length, stools right beside eachother but different tinge to the bark behave consistently quite differently.

Never seen green other than algeal though...

[hedgesparrow]

i think that maybe what is the problem it is so dark no light getting in to wood even for a normal overstood on due to firs up road which are big so sheilding out any light from the south. need to get it thinned out so some light can get in. just needs the firs dropped but have to wait as for timber production. still its a coppice i can get materials out of.