Marko

Well that's the six years up of this trial. A write up is on http://www.rustical.co.uk/woodstuff/growing-firewood-year-six-update/ Spoiler alert - Euc wins for 'grow your own' firewood logs for wood burners, hybrid willow wins for branch logging / biomass for wood boilers.

There is an update on http://www.rustical.co.uk/woodstuff/growing-firewood-2018-update/ Euc is winning (on this moss ground). I have put some into a clay soil this spring to see how it performs on that.

I haven't. I was waiting for someone to invent a small scale, cheap method. I guess if it was easy it would have been done by now. Still hoping though and still really interested. The coppice would make perfect feedstock so I do need to explore this properly.

Bought as seed from abroad. This batch was not particularly easy to germinate even in commercial propagators but in recent times the seed compost has been questionable so it may not be a viability problem. I probably got less than 10% germination.

Just posted the 2018 update on www.Rustical.co.uk In summary the Eucalyptus is leaving everything else in its wake! Phenomenal growth. Its hard to beleive this was just a seed in a packet this time four years ago.

Didn't work for me; lots of mould even with our strong westerlies blowing right through them. Back to IBC's and the like for us.

Tom, I grow trees as a crop for for biomass but also receive some arb arisings delivered in ad hoc whenever convenient to the arb guys. The more arb arisings I receive then the less I need to harvest from my own crop as my end market doesn't change. So for every ton of tree removed from an urban setting, the equivalent is saved in a rural setting. I very rarely see this taken into account when environmental calculations are being made. Maybe on the great scale of things it is incidental but I am fairly sure my model will not be unique.

Wood chunks come into their own for use in wood boilers (especially top loaders) and wood fired pizza ovens - a niche market but, as postage is prohibitive, one that anyone with a branch logger can provide to local customers. The willow below was cut and chunked this this week. I am hoping that someone invents a practical (ie profitable without grants) small scale charcoal process as this would be the perfect feed stock.

I agree but I will leave it to see if it is a continuing problem. At the moment it seems to be confined to stools on the periphery but, as they are falling into wind, I think it is more to do with weight than weather. In any case the Euc is outperforming the hybrid willow in terms of speed of growth but it remains to be seen how it coppices.

A quick update after an interesting development with the hybrid willow. To recap, we have a trial plot of hybrid willow to see if we can grow nice sized firewood logs on established stools rather than harvest them for biomass woodchip or wood chunks. A few stools are 'failing' with nothing more than the weight of the branches. On a brighter note, the pollarded ash is doing well. The picture is 1.5 years of regrowth on the trees pictured on page 1 with the hens. A bit of a write up can be found on http://www.rustical.co.uk/woodstuff/growing-firewood-2017-update/

Do you share the batteries with other units? would you stick with Husky if you had to buy again? Ta.

Recommendations and thoughts appreciated for a battery saw for coppice work (4" - 8" poles in the main) and occasional hedgerow maintenance. I can't think that the batteries would be used for anything else so the full set up of charger, batteries and saw would be just for this task. Stihl, Makita or Something else? Top handle or rear handle?

There are two ways to fix the gender pay gap at the BBC. They have chosen to run round giving pay rises to women. Anyone with their own business would have reduced the pay of the men. Public money is a wonderful thing.

Not a fan... but the hens love it so it is worth growing it just for them.

The stuff we have around here (a regular 'crop' is dug out of really top quality moss land after being hit with a plough as the land shrinks or the drainer. The oak is like rock, sparks fly (even after a long bout of pressure washing) and chains don't last long at all. It will be inetersting to see how you get on with yours.