Badgerland

You can get them from most decent garden centres or on line. Usually get 2 types: one lot comes as a powder, which you can just dust over the roots with. The other sort is soluble and you water it on. I tend to use the powder.

As far as I am aware, the mycorrhizal fungi sets up a symbiotic relationship with the tree, helping the tree to take on more nutrients. It’s why it’s a good idea to reuse some of the original soil if you’re transplanting a tree into a larger container. The naturally occurring fungi is already in that soil, so all you doing is transplanting some of it with the tree. I’ve found it really helps with the shock of moving the tree or other garden plants as well.

For what it’s worth, and only based on my limited experience…… I’ve rescued a similar sized acer palmatum from my sister’s garden when she had it block-paved and it’s survived perfectly. The guys that “dug” it up were not gentle with how they did it. In fact in the end I think they dug around the edge of the root ball as best they could and then lifted it from the ground using chains tied onto the bucket of the mini digger. (Unfortunately marking the bark and snapping a couple of side branches off in the process.) The root ball ended up being about 4 foot across max, but only 8-10 inches deep. I simply tidied up the damaged roots and moved it to its new location with the help of a friend with a telehandler. From my years of growing bonsai, mostly from collected trees, the main thing is to add mycorrhizal fungi to the roots before backfilling with decent soil/sharp sand mix. I sprinkled 2 packets of Q4 rootmore (bought from local garden centre) over the roots and then carefully backfilled with the soil mix. Again having grown bonsaiI it’s essential to get the soil down between all the roots, so no air pockets are trapped. Best way to do this is get a pointy stick (technical jargon!) and poke it through the roots to work the new soil into all the gaps. Then give it a really good dowsing of water. Again it helps gets the soil in amongst the roots. For mine, I didn’t bother anchoring it in any way. As far as I was concerned it was a free tree and if it survived then great, but if not then I’d lost nowt. As others have said, if it’s got to come out anyway, then you might as well give it a bash. Incidentally, I didn’t bother reducing the top growth at all as it was going in a relatively sheltered spot. I have been amazed how it’s settled and given it’s only been in its new spot for 5 years, you’d never believe it’s been moved. Maybe I got lucky!? Good luck!

My usual supplier in West Sussex is having some health issues, so I’m desperately looking for some 8 foot long coppiced chestnut poles, between 7-8 inch top diameter. Clean as possible as I have to split them into at least quarters or preferably 16ths. Need about 25-30. Am based in mid-Wilts so West Sussex is about as far as I want to travel to collect. Anybody out there able to help please?

Don’t know if anybody’s mentioned it already - tbh I couldn’t be bothered to wade through 7 pages of posts as ironically I’m on a short tea break! - baking powder in hot/boiling water will remove all the crap I find. Might need to do it several times if it’s really bad. Bicarbonate just gets rid of the smell.

Thanks Squaredy Yeah. Took me 7-8 years to get around to working out the method through research and trial and error, but have been making small numbers of them for the past 5 or so years. They’re based on a traditional West Country splint baskets but modified to suit modern use. The old ones were 3-4 times the weight of one of mine for a similar size basket! I’ve tried various woods in the past mostly in an attempt to get the weight down. Surprisingly Wellingtonia works quite well, but does tend to be both soft and at the same time a little brittle. Western Red Cedar is also pretty good and gives off a lovely smell as you’d expect. Sweet chestnut makes a very durable basket but is a bit of a b…..r to work without it splitting. Cricket bat willow seems to be the near ideal material. Not really tried any other willow to be honest, but I suppose other types might work.

Thanks Stihl123 I think I might have sourced some now, but it’s good to have a backup plan. I’ll give them a ring to sound them out for the future to see what they’re able to supply.

pm sent.

As title says, I’m after a small amount of cricket bat willow for basket making. Can be flexible on the size, but preferably 4-5 foot long lengths x 12-24 inch diameter. Might consider other sizes - it just depends on what’s about. The sizes I’ve quoted allow me to break it down into smaller billets on my Logosol farmers chainsaw mill before it goes over the table saw. The finished splints are between 2.5-1 inch wide x 3/16 thick x 8 inches long once they’ve been machined down so the wood does need to be clean and free of major knots. (Smaller ones I can usually work around.) I’m based in mid-Wilts so local would be preferable, but appreciate I/the timber might have to travel. Thanks in advance Dave

I’ve been buying coppiced chestnut poles from a chap in West Sussex for the past 15 years or so, but of late the quality has been going down hill rapidly and the spec is often way off. So the time has come to try and find a new supplier. (I know it’s not a great time to do so as everyone I speak to seems to be inundated with orders!) Ideally what I need (about once a year depending on orders) is up to a lorry load of 12.5 foot long poles with a top diameter of about 5-6 inches. Alternatively I’m happy to take smaller numbers of poles cut to 8ft on an as-I-need-it basis if that helps cash flow and order turnover. Ideally the poles need to be as straight and clean of knots as possible (or as much as nature allows!) as a lot of my work is split by hand into as many as 16 pieces out of one round. If you want an idea of the sort of stuff I make visit www.greenmanwoodcrafts.co.uk I’m based in mid-Wilts so within 2 hours drive is worth considering.

Thanks for the heads up. I'll get in touch with them.

Fair enough. Good to know.

So do I take it spares are still available then? Must admit that's always at the back of my mind with regard to older machines.

Yeah, there are a few about on ebay I've been watching. Unfortunately I'm not very familiar with Multico or Sedgewick machines so not sure if they're any good or not, or what sort of money was realistic. Some seem very reasonably priced others pretty steep. Was hoping somebody on here might have had some experience over them and be able to advise on what's a sensible price. Yes. After experience with lighter machines I'm defo after a heavier type.

I've got one of those already that I use for mortising posts for cleft post n rail. Brilliant for what they do and if it died on me tomorrow I'd be out there getting a replacement without any hesitation. The problem i have with them is the risk of tear out and the lack of accuracy. I'm after something more precise.

As title says, I'm currently on the look out for a morticer as my old Record one has died. Single phase as I can't be bothered with hassle of invertors (if that's the right techical word) to allow me to use 3 phase machines. Budget of no more than a grand including delivery. Will mostly be used for gate making in air dried oak or sweet chestnut. Have seen a few Multico and Sedgewick examples recently but don't know much about them. Any advice gratefully received.

The bigger stuff is in a different part of the wood with a decent track nearby. Besides, the bigger stuff is well spaced out so plenty of room to manoeuvre. Unfortunately (read sods law!) the smaller acacia is in a sod of a part of the wood with lots of smallish multi-step ash to negotiate. The farmer's getting somebody in next winter to do a proper thinning so they can cut in better extraction tracks. For this year I'll just buy a small number of stems off him that are right for what I make. Drop them in the next 2 weeks and extract as and when I can get there.

Thanks for the offer. I may take you up on it, but I've a few other possibilities locally that are worth exploring.

What a brilliant looking bit of kit! Not seen that before. Yeah, I reckon that would do the job, but unless you hire them out (which I assume you don't) I can't justify that sort of outlay for the amount it would get used sadly. (For 11.5 months of the year it would be sat in the workshop reminding me it wasn't getting used enough.) I do know somebody from back a while who might have a tractor winch so will give him a call. Thanks for that idea.

As it is at the moment I don't think I could get a tractor any closer than 50 yards. It's not been thinned for a good while and it's a case of wending your way through/around them. Thought of possibly winching them out but I don't think you'd get a straight pull. I think there would be too high a risk of snagging up on the other tree butts. But having said that I've no real experience of this method. Just going on what I've seen done elsewhere and the little common sense/logic that my single brain cell can muster.

Not sure. I'll have a look into it. Thanks. Yes, getting a quad in wouldn't be a problem and with a logging arch might do the job. Skidding them out would work so I don't think it would need a 2nd arch. I do have to cross a small brook - only a couple of feet across but with banks about 18 inches high. Could build a make-shift brash bridge to get over without damaging the bank I guess. The biggest issue is the wood hasn't been thinned for 60+ years so there are a lot of smaller trees to navigate around. That's why I was looking into the iron horse. I used to have a small compact tractor with a home made skidding plate that would've been ideal but alas I had to sell it to raise funds a few years back. Ain't it always the way!

Morning all. I've a small number of chestnut and acacia poles to extract from a friends wood in mid-Wilts and I'm trying to work out the best/easiest way to get them out. The smaller stuff would be 12-14 inch top diameter at the most and longest lengths of 10.5 feet. Access (through the winter/spring) isn't great but I reckon an iron horse might do the trick. The farmer friend can drag the bigger (24-36 inch dia) stuff out in the summer months when the ground dries out enough. If somebody has one, what would be a rough day rate for doing it? Probably only be looking for a single day and get whatever I can out within that time frame. This is why I need somebody relatively close by to make it worthwhile. Have even considered hiring one for a week instead and recall that there used to be a company in Scotland that hired them out, but I don't think they exist anymore or at least I can't find them. I've tried contacting Riko about hiring one but just got an unhelpful generic reply that didn't answer my enquiry. Cheers Dave

PM sent

Yeah. I've had this happen a few times before with WRC that was cut for cladding by a local sawyer. It was cut in the summer and I just assumed it was due the wood drying too quickly resulting in the cell walls collapsing. I've heard that eucalyptus can do the same thing but not actually seen it. Would be interested to know the genuine reason as I use WRC from time to time but this would wreck the end product.

Yeah, I just bought some of ebay for £8 for 1.5kg bag. Seller was ropfei97. But to be honest there were lots to choose from.