Purchasing 25 acre oak stand in France

[sandspider]

If you can get out a deep chunk of ground with most of the roots I can't see why it wouldn't work. You'd leave some deep holes and need to thin the oaks in their new home in future. But can't hurt to try?

[JonnoR]

3 hours ago, sandspider said:

If you can get out a deep chunk of ground with most of the roots I can't see why it wouldn't work. You'd leave some deep holes and need to thin the oaks in their new home in future. But can't hurt to try?

I'll take a crack at it and report back!  Thanks!

[headgroundsman]

Why not lift them as saplings and either plant in guards or bring on in pots

 

[headgroundsman]

I planted 2 acres with a friend 6 years ago and as i use a machine to tow me around i was having problems with long grass wrapping round my wheels so very reluctantly i sprayed a path with roundup early spring. I discovered a happy accident, the grass died off before the wild flowers came through and lots of oak saplings cropped up too. So now i am doing an area each year and marking the trees when i see them. The wildflower meadow next to the trees is mostly grass and the areas i have sprayed off has great burnet 4 feet tall and a few other wild flowers i do not recognise coming in too

 

[Peasgood]

3 minutes ago, headgroundsman said:

I planted 2 acres with a friend 6 years ago and as i use a machine to tow me around i was having problems with long grass wrapping round my wheels so very reluctantly i sprayed a path with roundup early spring. I discovered a happy accident, the grass died off before the wild flowers came through and lots of oak saplings cropped up too. So now i am doing an area each year and marking the trees when i see them. The wildflower meadow next to the trees is mostly grass and the areas i have sprayed off has great burnet 4 feet tall and a few other wild flowers i do not recognise coming in too

 

Roundup is said not to have any residual effect but experience very much suggests otherwise to me. It might be worth trying a selective graminicide such as Fusilade (just kills grass) as you could be suppressing other "wildflowers" with the Roundup.

[headgroundsman]

3 minutes ago, Peasgood said:

Roundup is said not to have any residual effect but experience very much suggests otherwise to me. It might be worth trying a selective graminicide such as Fusilade (just kills grass) as you could be suppressing other "wildflowers" with the Roundup.

My experience says otherwise. I have been using glyphosate since it first became common on farms and i like it . I have also used it in my veg growing area with no adverse effects. I have used it very carefully to produce a magnificent wild flower verge by getting so on rubber gloves and just rubbing the leaves of what i wanted gone. No wildflower seeds sown but loads of flowers this summer. Even the council mower went around my verge as the flowers were about 3 feet tall.

 

[Baldbloke]

I was thinking no ..    I would go for some Alder on the river bank .

Will Alder grow in warmer Central France?

[Mick Dempsey]

1 minute ago, Baldbloke said:

Will Alder grow in warmer Central France?

Yes, plenty of it here.

[Peasgood]

14 minutes ago, headgroundsman said:

My experience says otherwise. I have been using glyphosate since it first became common on farms and i like it . I have also used it in my veg growing area with no adverse effects. I have used it very carefully to produce a magnificent wild flower verge by getting so on rubber gloves and just rubbing the leaves of what i wanted gone. No wildflower seeds sown but loads of flowers this summer. Even the council mower went around my verge as the flowers were about 3 feet tall.

 

You had best make the most of it while you can then because it will be banned soon.

[headgroundsman]

Just now, Peasgood said:

You had best make the most of it while you can then because it will be banned soon.

Thanks for reminding me about fusilade we used some in early 90s on couch grass in potatoes. It was a complete failure but the rep said it was probably due to the length of the couch grass rhizomes. They gave the farmer the cost of the spray back but nothing for the lost of yield in the spuds and the hard work separating them from the couch grass. It came up the harvester like a carpet