Dave.G.

We have a navara at work and i quite liked it so we had a look at a couple but thought we had better look at the others so tested an l200 4work (non wide boy) and bought it. everyone has there preference but the l200 seems more comfortable, less bouncy, more leg room,better mpg and much better off road than the nivara. I got mine for camping trips and general family use plus occasional shifting logs and brash, and it fits the bill perfectly.

I wasn't really thinking about the direct result of soil compaction but more about the resultant damage to mychorrizae and other soil organisms as a result of soil compaction. Sorry if I didn't make that clear. If these organisms are so easily unbalanced (damaged) then it seems to me that carrying a couple of ton of mulch over ground certainly isn't going to do any good. 1 trip in a tractor and trailer or 5 trips in a quad or 20 trips with a barrow, surely it amounts to the same compaction. I'm not trying to make a point just airing my thoughts

I attended a lecture a couple of years back about veteran trees and the comment was made that "if you drive a quad bike through a woodland the damage to the soil will still be evident some 50 years later". The comment was off topic and it wasn't until after that I started thinking about this and my own mulching practices. So it was with this comment in mind and the thoughts of the transfer of disease through wood chip that I cut back on mulching. I still mulch some trees if access is suitable and I am not suggesting anybody should stop rather its just another thing to keep in mind. From my own very small scale trials newly planted trees will benefit greatly the bigger the weed free area around them, a tree in a border will always establish better/faster than a tree in a lawn with a little circle of mulch. But to try and replicate this in a woodland takes a lot of chip and thats allot of wheel barrows.

Tribaltree was that you and a mate rec climbing the oak in the park in Moreton today? if not it was someone with some nice shiny kit

Dave Oakman Thats exactly what I have always done. sprayed new plantings in the belief that it was the right thing to do and the "safest" option and if I had access to some composted woodchip then a quick couple of shovels seemed to do no harm. Then started thinking about the damage to the soil by driving a trailer of woodchip through the woods and so cut back on the mulch. Now after following this debate the advice seems to be cut back on the glyphosate as well. As Smc says above there are times when we have to spray unless anyone can come up with any other ideas.

Have you used one? I have. It won't kill perennial weed and you wouldn't want to try and drag it around a new tree planting site. but great for killing annual weeds on gravel paths etc.

very impressive unless of course your son is 24 years old

I have been watching this debate with great interest over the last few days and very much agree that we must think long and hard before reaching for the pesticide bottle. But what alternative is there? I know that my employer will not stand for 40% losses on my planting schemes and as I have posted elsewhere on this site I have inherited an equisetum problem and if I am now not to use glyphosate (which I used because I was led believe was "the safest") what should I use?

just when we were all getting ready for santa putting out mince pies etc you were going through that!! glad to hear she's on the mend and hope she gets some extra prezzies from the sales.

Congratulations!!!. Best wishes to all of you

10 year old Ardbeg and a mince pie. Some hay and a carrot or two for the reindeer

The beer cans etc is bad enough but to kill two deer just for the fun of it. you do all that work to encourage people outside and into a nice area. why cant they just stay inside and play the latest kill em all game on the xbox, while drinking them selves to death and leave the countryside and woodland to those of us who know how to enjoy it, manage it and respect it.

Both my two have had a upset stomach, both started about 1am and carried on for about 24hrs. Not as bad as Josh tho by the sounds of it. Glad to hear he is on the mend

i'm in. and i'm in warwickshire.

just trying to work out the boundary.

Trying to find out exactly why Cymag was withdrawn or even banned but i can't. I think from memory it was because of secondary poisoning which you don't get with the new Phosphide gases

Not sure why any pesticide is revoked, can't find any reference as to why. I agree about government approval but if we use 'stuff' outside approval then should we broadcast it on a forum? We all cut corners but where do we draw the line? If salt is OK why not diesel? Amcide was recommended to me earlier this year for the control of horsetail (equisetum) and i found out where i could get hold of it and was very tempted but i made my choice and feel that everyone else should be aware of the facts before making theirs

Has Kerb been taken off the list?? if it has i missed it. I cant get on the PSD site at the min.

Paulsbrash We seem to be talking at cross-purposes, when in fact I think we are largely in agreement. My intention was not to debate the usefulness or otherwise of methods of stump killing, but rather to highlight the requirements placed upon us, as professionals, to work within legal constraints. The Pesticides Safety Directorate states that all pesticides must be approved for use. (The word 'pesticide' is used to encompass all 'cidal' chemicals, including herbicides, insecticides, fungicides etc.) Where substances not specifically designated as pesticides are used within that context, their use is covered by the 'Commodity' guidelines. Salt used to be covered by these, but had its approval revoked some years ago. Books like 'Silent Spring' highlighted the desperate need for the use of agrochemicals to be regulated. Hence the amount of legislation we now work within. We do not need to give ammunition to outside bodies, who may be looking at this forum, to be able to accuse us of behaving irresponsibly, or not adhering to rules already set. The PSD website can be accessed via defra's homepage. Also useful is 'Extoxnet', from Cornell University in Michigan. As a point of interest, high numbers of bird fatalities have been linked to salt use on roads. While it has long been thought that this is simply down to them being run over, it is now considered likely that salt toxicity may also be to blame. The only reason we use salt to keep roads clear of ice is that we can't find anything cheaper. If anyone doubts the harm caused by salt, just take a look at the grass verges in spring. I hope that this doesn't sound too angry. I can't help but resent being accused of making statements that are 'poorly researched or debateable'.

No I definitely meant pesticide. Sorry if I appear to be on my high horse but from a legal point of view if we are found to be using pesticides off label then we are opening ourselves open to criticism or possibly prosecution.

Ammonium sulphamate is definitely banned, and as such it is an offence to use/store/sell/import it after May 2008. With regard to some of the other comments in this forum, it is also an offence to use any substance not approved as a pesticide by the PSD for the purposes of killing stumps etc. As such, salt is not an approved pesticide, nor chain oil, or any other of grandma's old recipes. For the record, ammonium sulphamate is very toxic to wild birds.

Well said kipperfeet. The loss of the middle year is a great loss indeed. Sounding like the old man i am, i had to have a years industry experience before i could get on a ND college course and after a years theory we went out into the industry for a year. Employers paid us peanuts and they got willing labour and updated with any new techniques we could pass on. Then it was back to college for our final year. Now its straight from school into college two years later walk out with an ND an a few days experience. The College gets paid by the number of students through its doors and therefore the bar is set very low. I've had students work for me that wouldn't know which end of a rake to hold but there are some folks out there that want to learn and we all have to start somewhere. Sorry if this turned into a rant

Best wishes to Chris count me in

Hi all, another Dave here. Bin watching the site for a while and thought i had better join in. Started in Arb many years ago before becoming lazy and moving in to horticulture now head gardener on a large estate near Banbury. Once a tree hugger always a tree hugger it just hurts more when you climb

New to forum. First response, so here goes... Sleepers shouldn't have poisoned the soil, as we used to use them for rootzone protection on construction sites. Tree possibly could be suffering from phytophthora - yews are susceptible. The tree might recover over winter and then become stressed again over summer. Try sending a sample of tissue away for analysis. Feeding and decompaction is always a good idea. There is a chemical control for phytophthora in nursery stock - don't know how well it would work on a mature tree.