Too young to coppice?

[spandit]

When I planted my woodland, I put in a lot of alder as its preference for wet ground, quick growth and suitability for coppicing made it an ideal choice.

 

However, although the the growth in 3 years has been rapacious (noticed today for the first time that the tubes have started splitting in places)

 

 

some of them have fallen over as the big leaves and large canopy make an ideal sail and it gets quite windy here at times:

 

 

What I'm thinking is that I could cut these ones off at the base and replace the tube/stake to promote more upright growth - they're pretty healthy so guessing the roots are doing OK but are they likely to survive such an extreme prune? Won't be doing it until the winter, in case you were wondering... Wasn't expecting to be cutting my own firewood quite so soon!

[Goaty]

My experience with alders is they do get top heavy and buckle with green growth. Speaking from nurseryman experience and what I do in plantations is skin them up with a hard prune. In this case just leave 6-8 balanced young shoots near the top. This takes the weight off and then the wood hardens, leaving a firm stem to grow from. Encouraging upwards growth.

Alders are short. Lived pioneer trees that are among the first to establish a new woodland. They benefit from close spacing to compete for the light, hence your "fat layabouts"

Yes you may get away with a hard fell. But really the trees in the picture could do with a couple more years really to ensure vigorous regrowth, alder can grow from a piece of root that is cut off and left in the ground where a tree has been lifted on nurseries.

 

Oh and rabbits aren't to keen on alder bark once it starts to mature.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Arbtalk

[spandit]

But if the tree is already leaning, won't it always have a bend in it or do you think it will be pliable enough to straighten up?

[Goaty]

Try it, you should get the feel or breaking point, sooner rather than later as greenwood will soon be hardening. Then will snap too easy. Those that break cut back and see how they go.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Arbtalk

[Stubby]

Could you not stake them till they harden up ?