Chubbs

Hello all I need to reduce the crown of a mature sycamore on my boundary and do some general pruning. Is it ok to do it at this time of year or will it 'bleed profusely when spring comes and the sap rises? I've heard conflicting information. Many thanks for your help with this.

Thanks for the info. John. If we can get 2 to 3 loose cubic meters per year, that should do us, we live in a 2 bed bungalow and only heat 3 rooms, all our hot water is from stove top too. We have 480m of established boundary hedge we will manage each winter which should yield 1 meter or so as well. Thanks for sending the link but I couldn't access it for some reason. The figures you quoted should come in useful, it's good to have a rough idea of yields-again it difficult finding the information. Thanks again

Hello John K, thanks for the advise and information. It will be a 3/4 acre site and the intention is as you suggested to selectively thin as certain trees are a suitable size or becoming a problem shading others. The 'useable' timber would be nothing large but big enough for fence posts and small round wood carpentry projects, the rest to fuel the house stove. There have been several replies to my post advising to plant the trees in blocks-I had not considered this, thinking a mixed positioning of species would be more resilient some how, this is also the reason for including 8 different species what with the various diseases coming to the UK. I assumed it would be a good idea to spread the alders around due to N fixing? Not included common alder in the mix due to site not being wet and hear that grey alder will cope with drier conditions? The site is 181m above sea level and it does get pretty windy here (until our boundary hedge gets taller) the soil is sandy clay loam, well drained with no standing water, been used for sheep grazing at least for last 10 years, it's flat and diverse with plenty of clover etc. Oaks, ash, beech and hazel seem to do well around here although ash die back is here. I've also read that an ideal spacing would be 1.8M each way for coppice plantings, does this seem sensible? Do You work in forestry? Many thanks for your help with this.

Ok thanks Rover, will investigate Robinia

Ok Treeation, thanks for the tips, Will definitely seek out a local tree officer, had not thought of doing so.

Hi all, really appreciate your experience and advise here. I'm planning a 3/4 acre coppice for firewood and useable timber around the smallholding in West Wales SA44, I've chosen 8 species for diversity and resilience against disease; Sessile Oak 20%, Small leaved lime 15%, Sycamore 15%, Italian Alder 12.5%, Hornbeam 10%, Red Oak 10%, Grey Alder 10% and Sweet chestnut 7.5% My main concern is the viability of Italian and Grey Alder for vigorous regrowth after being cut as there's very little information out there of which is contradictory. All the other species are supposed to coppice vigorously and are suitable for our site although maybe a little cool for chestnut, hence the low percentage. The alders are attractive due to speed of growth along with N fixing but I will need all species to coppice well due to the limited area I have for the coppice. Any help much appreciated