Thinning.

[woody paul]

Just out of interest when would you carry out first thinning of hard woods planted at 3m spacings. 

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, woody paul said:

Just out of interest when would you carry out first thinning of hard woods planted at 3m spacings. 

It's a piece of string question. Firstly what do you aim to achieve by thinning?

 

Traditionally we planted close and first thinning was detrmined by yield class, of which top height is a good indicator.  This varies with species.

 

The thing about Tuley tubes and 3m spacing is that unless there is  some natural regeneration of other species in the matrix coming on behind the planting then

 

1 apical dominance is lost sooner (no need for the tree to grow tall fast so it branches out)

 

2 large lateral branches develop early in the absence of pruning

 

So you end up with branchy stems of limited value and no decent trees to thin to.

 

If you have pruned them so branches are in a 4" core and a clear  6 metres of butt my guess would be around 50 years for oak

[Mark2]

It’s also important to close the canopy as soon as possible!

Major ground vegetation growth coused by to much light can be a serious problem not least for access, brambles, hawthorn, blackthorn,sallow ect. When you see the weaker planted trees beginning to die, and the lower branches on the dominate and sub-dominate trees dieback from lack of light, that is the time to think of first thinning’s.

[spuddog0507]

if planted at 3mtr proberbly at about 30 years but will have a lot of top in them , if they had been planted at 1.8- 2mtr would of made better trees and thinned at about 12-15 yrs would of been a better option,,

[woody paul]

Area I am talking about was planted 30years ago on grant scheme so 3m was the spec.

Have been sided up when needed, block planted with sweet chestnut , oak ash beech and lime so right mixture but all about same height and girth. 

The odd oak amongst lime and chestnut so was going to coppice around them and see if they take. 

[woody paul]

Area I am talking about was planted 30years ago on grant scheme so 3m was the spec.

Have been sided up when needed, block planted with sweet chestnut , oak ash beech and lime so right mixture but all about same height and girth. 

The odd oak amongst lime and chestnut so was going to coppice around them and see if they take. 

[woody paul]

Area I am talking about was planted 30years ago on grant scheme so 3m was the spec.

Have been sided up when needed, block planted with sweet chestnut , oak ash beech and lime so right mixture but all about same height and girth. 

The odd oak amongst lime and chestnut so was going to coppice around them and see if they take. 

[Mark2]

What height are they ?

[woody paul]

They must be 12m high. 

[Mark2]

Thanks i’d love to see a photo it would make an ole man happy !