New oaks & briars- advice needed

[Mr. Ed]

Hi all

 

We had a few acres of 12 year old ash which was very sick and we’ve knocked and replanted with a mixture of Oak, Birch, Syc, Scots Pine (using government money to do). The planting was not a happy story - a cluster**************** if truth be told - but most of them survived the first summer. The brambles/briars/blackberries are about to go gangbusters and we’re nervous about the fate of the trees (especially the very weedy looking oak whips (is that the right word?) that went in). Our “expert” wants to go in with a load of glyphosate to do the briars.  We don’t fancy that at all (in as much as we’re managing it at all, we’re doing so for “The Nature” rather than the timber) and are thinking about trying to organise the manpower to do a couple of trampling, hand-cutting exercises this spring and summer. 
Does anyone here have much experience of such a situation?
 

We’re going to be cursed as idealistic townies in any case! 
 

cheers

 

 

ed

[dumper]

Get a decent brush cutter and a flail pedestrian or tractor, then carefully cut around the trees, leave some where the trees have failed, cut carefully by hand round the actual trunks,with a hook. It’s going to take along time first time round but gets quicker the more you do or spray in a afternoon with glyphosate!

[Mr. Ed]

I’m not sure if I’d trust myself with a brush cutter in there - the rows are a bit irregular and the wee fellows are really hard to identify. 
 

they did a bit of glyphosate last year and they got several trees as well - amazingly effective at killing stuff isn’t it? 

[dumper]

So mark the ones you can see and call the trees you don’t first thining, you will need to thin anyway if the bramble is taller than the trees you have left it too late. just have to take the hit and mow the tree. at the stage you are replant is easy and you can chose species that have done well, don’t think there is a method to save all the saplings, you will need to carry this operation out for next few years if the trees are not regular rows might as well cut into rows and beat up to make numbers back for your grant or you will just be making life difficult,  a weekend with the mates playing in your plantation could be called fun depending on bq and beer but not for many weekends over next five years 

[openspaceman]

I do various bit of volunteering with groups from geriatrics to students, mostly "vegetation management".

 

Firstly volunteers are treated the same as workers so all the groups have public and employer's liability insurance. If there are strangers coming then a risk assesment should be briefed. Another notable feature is most are only issued with shears, secateurs and hand saws because they tend to socialise and work close together. Hooks need a decent riskzone, as do motor saws and brushcutters.

 

The discussions seem to centre on facebook, I miss out on that, and seem to attract a decent number of locals. Indeed since covid people have been turned away when numbers got too large.

 

Personally I prefer to use a brush cutter and if the brambles and clematis are up in the trees use a mulching blade.

Edited February 11, 2023 by openspaceman
typo

[petercb]

Brushcutter with mulching blade for me too.

[coppice cutter]

Firstly, oaks are incredibly slow, but they are also incredibly robust.

 

I planted around 3,000 of them, and for years you could see anywhere that the oaks were as it was bare looking. But now they're getting in to their stride and they stop for nothing.

 

I have bramble which I actually planted purposefully a few places to provide an understory and it's worked out in all but one area as the trees had a head start, and even when the bramble spreads it is being controlled by light availability.

 

I assume your problem is that the bramble has the head start, what with the area having been planted previously and it's now having the opportunity to choke the trees, especially the slow growing oaks.

 

I'd target any whips that are in danger of getting dragged down in to the mass of bramble and cut around them with a brush hook. Also, anywhere that you can see a bramble root feeding a lot of growth, get in with the brush hook, or billhook for extra reach, and cut if off flush along the ground.

 

That'll hold it back for a year or two, which is all you need to do until the trees get in to their stride and then they'll do the rest.

 

A big bramble clearance I think is unrealistic by the sound of it because even with the best will in the world you'll end up damaging too many of the new trees/whips.

 

Possibly even more than the bramble would take out if left alone.

Edited February 11, 2023 by coppice cutter

[Brushcutter]

Anybody near you do hire of a bsc flail mower. It's about 1m wide and will make your life so much easier. 

[headgroundsman]

Did you put guards round the trees? I controlled a lot of bramble by riding round with a 4x4 quad. I also planted a couple of acres of trees next to a couple of acres of wild flower meadow. I was reluctant to use glyphosate but now have found a happy accident. By spraying early in the season I am getting volunteer Oak trees and wild  flowers doing well where i have sprayed and am now doing this for that very purpose

[Mr. Ed]

No guards - we're behind deer fences and there's no bunnies to speak of. It's hard to imagine even a wee tractor running a flail being happy in there to be honest - the rows (which do look a bit irregular) are basically in between the old having-been-knocked ash planting, so we have lots of stumpy bits as well as drainage ditches everywhere.

 

Coppice Cutter - that's the sort of advice we were looking for - thanks. We have no illusions of getting rid of it all (time will do that as they grown. It's just the first few years we're concerned with, to let these poor runtish fellows have a chance of growing.