Study at home

[haforbes]

Hello,

 

I'm trying to get some information on arboriculture courses that are available for home study. I'm 23 and currently manage a 1100acre hill farm due to my father taking early retirement. I currently have my cs30/31 and as far as my experience goes I have done a fair amount of logging and winching of all the fallen timber I get around the farm but I want to learn about keeping trees healthy rather just chopping them up for firewood. How far is it possible to go with home study but without on the job experience? Is it possible to get to the skill level to go self employed without doing an apprenticship or full time study? As neither of these are an option for me, being tied to the farm pretty much 7 days a week. One thing I am going to look into is to find a local tree surgeon that will give me some work experience maybe 1 day a week to see how I get on. Any advice is welcomed! Thanks

 

Also, does anyone have any experience with these people Horticultural Correspondence College home learning courses | RHS Level 2 Certificate in Horticulture | RHS Advanced Certificate in Horticulture | RHS Diploma | Master of Horticulture | The Principles of Gardening | Organic Gardening | Gardening quali ?

[arbclimber]

Where abouts are you based mate?

[redmoosefaction]

I think Myerscough (or something like that) do correspondent courses.

[scottythepinetree]

Myerscough do a foundation degree course (fdsc) but it might be a bit much if you have no other experience. did the RFS cert in Arboriculture before I started anything practical years ago and found it gave me a great boost when I got around to the practical side.

 

I was still pretty clueless though when I started working. Luckily, the bloke I worked for back then seemed to have a limitless knowledge of tree care and I learned heaps from him. My point is there is only so much you can learn from a book. It's only when you get out and see how these things apply in the field that the knowledge really sinks in. It would certainly help you no end to find someone who knows what they are at to teach you on the job even if it is only one day a week. At the very least it will help with whatever course you decide to do.

[JaySmith]

Myerscough do the RFS level 2 Cert Arb via distance learning but it won't start again until September I think. The HCC gets some good reviews from others who have done it

[haforbes]

Thanks for the replies. Im based in Devon, Dartmoor more precisely. I guess it's about balancing practical with the theory when learning these things

[arbclimber]

Imo go for the RFS Cert. Wouldn't bother with RHS quals as they are really gardening based and although to a certain extent do cover trees, 90% of the course would be irrelevant to you.

[haforbes]

Is there any books that anyone would recommend to get me started?

[arbclimber]

Is there any books that anyone would recommend to get me started?

 

I'm not really an expert, as far as literature goes I would say Hamadryad knows his stuff. He'll prob read this and give you a few pointers.

 

If your tree ID isn't great i'd suggest some kind of field guide. Failing that, wait till you know what course you are doing and get the reading list.

[scottythepinetree]

Not sure if they still do it, but I think Newton Rigg used to run the RFS cert as a part time course, where you do a week in a class 3 times over 6 months. At least they ran one here in Ireland a while ago. Was really helpful at keeping me motivated and helped a lot with my confidence to do the exam as any issues or questions I had while studying were dealt with the next time we were in class. Really recommend this route if you can find the time.

 

Modern Arboriculture or anything else by Alex Shigo will cover quite a lot of the theory side of the RFS. Should be able to get a few from the book section of Honey Brothers website. Can be a bit pricey though, but worth it if you are serious.

 

Definitely get a good field guide preferably one with photos as the illustrated ones tend to lead to a lot of mis-identification. Once you have it get out and about trying to identify a few trees.