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 Post subject: Coppicing
PostPosted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 3:11 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2007 6:46 pm
Posts: 27
Location: Arlington Heights,ILLINOIS
I am really interested in becoming proficient at the ancient woodland practice of coppicing — the yearly pruning of particular species down to the ground in winter to yield vigorous, straight-stemmed growth in the spring.

My research has revealed that coppicing never took hold here when the first colonists settled — the abundance of forests provided more than enough raw building material, so the practice simply was never implemented here. And that's why landscape/garden centers/nurseries as a general rule aren't entirely familiar with the practice.

The objective is to build my own wattle fence to protect a simple, small vegetable garden from rabbits using either willow, ash, blackthorn, or hazel. Being in Chicagoland, I want to use whatever native species is the closest to any of these shrubs.

The beauty is that there isn't any rush. It can take 5-6 years to grow and harvest enough stout yet flexible wood for my purposes, but it's the yearly cycle of pruning them in the winter, watching the results in the spring, choosing which ones to prune again the following winter (and which ones to let go so their straight rods grow taller and stouter), so that I have a constant yearly supply of varying thickness to suit any need (replacing rotten fencing, making trellises/arbors/pole bean supports, etc).

Interested to hear if anyone has tried or is currently practicing this technique!


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 Post subject: Re: Coppicing
PostPosted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 6:06 am 
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Joined: Thu Dec 01, 2011 9:20 am
Posts: 3
My personal coppicing has some leading principles. Reduce wood in the late autumn/winter. Season wooden for just two years. Just about all trees have a similar fuel value per kg at 18% dampness. Just about all parts of the tree tend to be usable (tiny limbs make great kindling). Wood must be burned in a closed woodstove (effectiveness 70% in addition).

I started during the winter associated with 05/06, utilizing hand tools upon trees with up to 7” size trunks. Mainly alder, using the odd birch as well as brown. The actual trees were each area grown as well as overgrown hedgerow. We were known to cut in order to cord length in the field and do my personal logging in the woodshed. For the winter season associated with 06/07, I used the gas power saw for my personal area function as well as an electric chainsaw for my personal woodshed signing. I've just purchased an electrical sawbench for the woodshed, which should be much faster than the electric power saw.

My goal is perfect for a 5 12 months coppice rotator as well as first year regrowth in the Alder appears really guaranteeing.

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