Growing eucalyptus coppice for firewood

[sandspider]

As mentioned in the past on here, I've been planting various tree species in South Wales with the aim of coppicing them for firewood. (Eucalyptus, poplar, willow, alder, sweet chestnut, ash...) Just a few of each at this stage, to see which do best, make the best logs, etc. I started this about 6 years ago, and of the various trees I planted, eucalyptus has grown the fastest, by miles.

 

So, I planted E. neglecta and E. nitens seeds in Feb 2017. I chose these as they were supposed to grow quickly, be frost tolerant, and coppice well. Nitens is supposed to grow huge (~70m) and neglecta a fair big smaller - up to 10m ish. I wanted to plant the smaller ones close to a power line, where I didn't want the huge nitens to get too close as they grew.

The seeds germinated quickly (in a heated propagator) and grew well. I potted them on once, then popped them outsite for a few days, and planted them out into a grass paddock, with minimal preparation - strimmed the grass off, put down weed membrane, and planted the small, semi hardened off eucs in holes in said membrane. This was in June 2017.

 

They kept growing well - but though these species are supposedly cold hardy, the supplier didn't mention they were only hardy when semi mature - so I lost a few. April 2018.

 

 

By November 2018 the survivors were maybe 2 - 4m tall. And thickening nicely.

 

For comparison, this is an alder, planted as a whip in Feb 2017 at the same time:

 

I felled the first euc in Jan 2022, so nearly 5 years old. Though I can only see 4 growth rings. Decent size anyway.

 

Felled an even bigger one in Feb 2022, and thought I'd see if I could rive it. Answer yes, but it's hard work as the wood is so fibrous (see broken mallet!) and won't dry straight. Euc side branches as wedges, they take a good hammering surprisingly well.

 

Surviving tallest eucs (E.nitens I think) now 8 - 10m tall.

 

Felled the tallest, centre of pic above.

 

Approx 25cm across the base, 10m long. still Feb 2022.

 

So, did they resprout? Yes, they all resprouted, though one only weakly. Several resprouted then the new foliage died back. Of the 4 that I felled last year, only 1 still has regrowth - shame. Possibly because the new growth was frost nipped, or I cut them at the wrong time (too early), or I cut too high / too low, or didn't cast the right spells... I've cut another one or two earlier in April, and right down to the lignotuber - this is supposed to help, we'll see in a few months time.

 

This one sprouted fairly well, but the growth died back:

 

Survivor at top of pic:

This was September 2022.

 

Logs! I got a decent amount from the few trees I felled (not all the logs in the pic, maybe 1/2m3), plus lots of reasonable sized branch wood for early fire growth. Burns nicely (after ~9 months in the polytunnel), and smells of eucalyptus oil. The bark is quite thick and moisture tight, so worth striping / splitting.

 

I planted out a few more small eucs this morning to fill gaps / make a bit of a windbreak / where the coppiced ones haven't come back. Watch this space to see if they survive! Supposed to be cold at night, but no frosts. 50 mph winds though, and loads of rain. Fingers crossed.

[Steven P]

The watering can confuses me, are you out watering the trees with that?....

 

 

I think I said in the last post the I am not convinced that a fast growing tree puts down enough 'tree', so you might get a nice big tree, the energy stored in it won't be as much as a slower grown tree - I think. However it will still be creating a store of energy to burn. On the other side though they should dry quicker than slower growing trees so harvesting to burning in a season and not several seasons? Good and bad points. Interesting post and good to see it working - will see next winter if you are complaining of being cold I guess?

 

 

 

(saying that I have just 'planted' 60 willow sticks with the intention of some fire wood in 5 or 6 years time also - planting being "shove the stick in the ground an hour before it rans and hope for the best" - some are surprisingly sprouting!)

[AHPP]

Interested to see whether the euc wins in the long run. Like it might yield 100kg in year 10 but not regrow where a native coppicer could yield 50kg in year 10 and then 50kg in years 20, 30, 40, 50 etc. Likewise 50% of the eucs could die from frost where 90% of willow survives.

 

Have you got numbers?

[Bolt]

4 hours ago, sandspider said:

So, I planted E. neglecta and E. nitens seeds in Feb 2017. I chose these as they were supposed to grow quickly, be frost tolerant, and coppice well. ph winds though, and loads of rain. Fingers crossed.

 

Can you recall where you got the seeds from.

 

I was thinking of getting involved with nitens, after @Big J raving on about them (not that the poor little things stopped him flitting off to Sweden).

 

Cant work out if seeds are more trouble than they are worth, and so just stick to plugs instead. 

[Dan Maynard]

4 hours ago, Steven P said:

fast growing tree puts down enough 'tree', so you might get a nice big tree, the energy stored in it won't be as much as a slower grown tree - I think

I guess that broadly a fast tree has more leaves earlier. More leaves should mean more energy captured.

 

I do agree there's something in it though, willow or lime say will grow faster but then be lighter when dry than something like ash - so you need a bigger volume of willow wood than ash to end up with the same weight of wood and hence same heat from your fireplace.

[sandspider]

16 hours ago, Steven P said:

The watering can confuses me, are you out watering the trees with that?....

 

 

I think I said in the last post the I am not convinced that a fast growing tree puts down enough 'tree', so you might get a nice big tree, the energy stored in it won't be as much as a slower grown tree - I think. However it will still be creating a store of energy to burn. On the other side though they should dry quicker than slower growing trees so harvesting to burning in a season and not several seasons? Good and bad points. Interesting post and good to see it working - will see next winter if you are complaining of being cold I guess?

 

(saying that I have just 'planted' 60 willow sticks with the intention of some fire wood in 5 or 6 years time also - planting being "shove the stick in the ground an hour before it rans and hope for the best" - some are surprisingly sprouting!)

 

I did some watering of newly planted trees with the watering can, not the big ones in the pic! Once the eucs are about 3 foot tall they generally look after themselves with minimal effort on my part, even in the very hot dry summer we had a couple of years back, and in the frosts.

 

The neglecta (slower growing of the two species) seem to make denser wood, unsurprisingly. The euc wood does burn nicely, not quite as long as ash perhaps, but still a decent log. I don't burn just euc though, I haven't planted enough - yet. Plenty of ash dieback round here. I've also planted a few hundred willow over the past 6 years - in the same way as you! Most have taken, but none are big enough to harvest yet. They are easier than euc to propagate though - chop off & stick in the ground! (Or just leave cut stems on damp ground!)

[sandspider]

16 hours ago, AHPP said:

Interested to see whether the euc wins in the long run. Like it might yield 100kg in year 10 but not regrow where a native coppicer could yield 50kg in year 10 and then 50kg in years 20, 30, 40, 50 etc. Likewise 50% of the eucs could die from frost where 90% of willow survives.

 

Have you got numbers?

Interesting thought. The eucs grow much faster than native species, but coppicing success hasn't been great so far.

 

I've planted about 20 eucs out so far, though some only this month. Still have a few small ones in pots to put out somewhere. I've coppiced 5 now, but one only a week or so ago. Of the 4 coppiced last year, only 1 is still showing growth (and that's a bit brown towards the centre). Though all showed regrowth initially. As said, this may be due to my technique not the fault of the trees... I'm hoping the one I cut most recently will do better - I did coppice it later in the year after all frosts which is supposed to help. And I've not lost hope that one or two of the older ones may still come back.

 

I've coppiced one willow that was here when we moved in - it's a huge multi stemmed beast next to a stream and it just keeps on growing. Having said that, it's probably 20 years old, and still the coppice wood is mainly good for kindling and small logs, only a few bits as big as the smaller euc logs.

[sandspider]

12 hours ago, Bolt said:

Can you recall where you got the seeds from.

 

I was thinking of getting involved with nitens, after @Big J raving on about them (not that the poor little things stopped him flitting off to Sweden).

 

Cant work out if seeds are more trouble than they are worth, and so just stick to plugs instead. 

 

Think my seeds came from here:

Eucalyptus Seeds from JungleSeeds

JUNGLESEEDS.CO.UK

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For Koala Bear lovers

 

The seeds were easy to grow, especially if you have a propagator. Though as above, they're not frost tolerant when young, and JS don't make that clear. (Though I see they no longer sell E. neglecta seeds, maybe that's why...) I have no experience of plugs, but seeds worked well for me with fairly minimal effort.

[sandspider]

11 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

I guess that broadly a fast tree has more leaves earlier. More leaves should mean more energy captured.

 

I do agree there's something in it though, willow or lime say will grow faster but then be lighter when dry than something like ash - so you need a bigger volume of willow wood than ash to end up with the same weight of wood and hence same heat from your fireplace.

 

It's definitely not as dense / long lasting on the fire as oak. But it grows so much quicker! I'd say it's a bit less dense than ash? Still longer lasting / denser than softwoods. Very fibrous wood.

[sandspider]

There's this place too, selling larger eucs and offering some advice. Very expensive compared to seed though.

 

Buy Hardy Eucalyptus Trees Online Directly from the Grower

WWW.HARDY-EUCALYPTUS.COM

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At Grafton Nursery we grow all of our Eucalyptus trees in Air-Pot Containers using Peat Free Compost. Free advise...