Species Growth Rates

[Jamiedc]

hello all

i'm new to here, and to woodland management

 

i'm about to plant some trees for shelter, mainly visual for a house site.

 

i've got some beech and some lodgepole pine and i've not had any joy online r.e growth rates.

 

my gut tells me the pine will grow quicker, but I cant be sure.

 

any advice would be much appreciated!

[Stubby]

7 hours ago, Jamiedc said:

hello all

i'm new to here, and to woodland management

 

i'm about to plant some trees for shelter, mainly visual for a house site.

 

i've got some beech and some lodgepole pine and i've not had any joy online r.e growth rates.

 

my gut tells me the pine will grow quicker, but I cant be sure.

 

any advice would be much appreciated!

How old are you ? I say this not disrespectfully but just to point out you may not see the benefits in your lifetime , dependent on your age .

[Crtj]

On our small lot we wanted a quick shelter belt to protect the orchard and the bees. We went with a double row of willow and a double row of hazel + hornbeam (the latter more for its keeping the leaves on property than growth rate; hazel and willow covered that).

 

Since it's a windy site putting up a textile windbreak fence to the north of the young plants helped a lot with establishment and growth.

 

This was 10 years ago. It worked out very well. The h+h are now 12-ish ft tall,and the willows double that, with some having been harvested for small logs in the last few years.

 

 

[Stoke Wood Project]

Lodgepole pine can snap easily, probably not great by a house

[Stere]

Lodge pole pines can grow fairly rapidly alot faster than beech i reckon.

[Khriss]

More to the point, what soils are they going into? You cannot plant anything anywhere. Beech particularly. K

[Stere]

The beech will be ok as long as not too waterlogged in winter (heavy clay)

 

 

[Guest Gimlet]

If you like beech, grow hornbeam instead. Near identical in appearance and habit but grows faster.

 

I wouldn't use any sort of pine for screening, at least not on their own. When mature, most pines will be fairly sparse at ground level with the screening vegetation up at roof level where it does little good. I might add a specimen to a mixture of species though, for aesthetics. 

I think that is the answer with screening: use a mix. Block planting one or even two species can be boring or oppressive and few single species ever possess all the qualities you need. So mix them up. Looks nicer, works better and will be far better for wildlife and biodiversity. 

 

Think about the seasons too. I had a hedging customer who asked this question and they had a balcony outside their first floor kitchen which they wanted to provide with light shade and mutual privacy for them and their neighbour in summer when they would be using it, but they didn't want it to be dark and oppressive in winter. So they went with two or three strategically positioned birches. They'll grow quite quickly and provide attractive leaf cover in summer and interest in autumn but let light and air in through the winter. 

 

Basically, screening is more about landscape design that will function year round and into the future, than choosing a couple of do-it-all species.  

Sometimes with these things, it pays to employ a landscape designer. It's a long-term commitment so you really only get one chance to get it right. 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Gimlet

[AHPP]

Leylandii.

[MattyF]

Pines will give you low cover if they have enough space and you have no Deere or livestock on them and you don't formative prune.