Made A Start

[Blakloks 5]

Nobody was bothering their arse on our syndicate about adding abit of cover to our hardwood it's so i took the bull by the horns and bought some snowberries and planted them today to try and get summit established as I'm told the spread quite readily hope it works waste of a drive at the minute

[Born Hunter 17,788]

All too common on the smaller DIY syndicates, people not seeing any further ahead than one season. Just enough work to get you through the coming season is fine but with a bit of extra effort and thought with mid to long term plans really does make a difference imo. fecking sad really.

 

Anyway, all the best and let us know how it goes.

[Blakloks 5]

Cheers mate. That's my thinking looking at the bigger picture I mentioned this 2 years ago that's 2 years of cover growing we've missed!!!!

[Born Hunter 17,788]

We've one spinney that shoots well but by December is all but dead, it just has NO bottom in it. I've tried to get some bramble in it but that failed. I'm thinking of suggesting laurel but dunno about that really. Similar situation in another spinney, really dense trees covered in ivy, some of these should really be layed to thicken the bottom up and thin the top out a bit. But that's a job I can do with no expense.

[Gkeeper111 22]

Well done mate. Snow berries are very good, they usually take 2-3 years to get to a decent size but they sucker well. The best method in any dense woodland is to fell/lay trees. I find that so many shoots I go to complain about no ground cover in their woodlands and yet non of them dare cut/lay a tree. Yes a tree takes years to grow and establish but one can improve the

woodland habitat for not only game by making some clearings and letting natural regeneration take place.

 

People need some balls at times!

[Blakloks 5]

The wood is actually quite open and bare below the canopy they trees r about 4-5 metre in height but its by no means a dense wood it's actually quite cold up there so no birds really bother with it so I'm just trying to get it going! Do snowberries sucker after the first year?

[Gkeeper111 22]

What tree species are they? How old are they? How close together are they on average? What plant species are in the wood currently?

 

May be able to help further if I know that lot.

 

Snowberries will send up shoots from the bottom of the plant in the first year but they won't start spreading untill year 2/3 onwards. Take the top off them when they get to your required height and they will bush up abit more.

 

Cheers Gk

[Blakloks 5]

I have no idea what species they are bout they are around 10 years old and are planted 2-3 metres apart I'd say right, now there is just grass growing in parts noticed wee green leaves espousing up from the ground about an inch or 2 high in various places prob weeds or something in no plant expert to be honest

[Gkeeper111 22]

Yeah so it's a new plantation woodland and the only way you will get useful undergrowth growing in between the trees is to spray off blocks of the grass and either replant with bramble cuttings or let the weeds establish themselves. The cuttings should then be covered with branches cut off the bottoms of the established trees. Piles of this brash also should be piled up down the runs to create cover for game. You may have to get ahold of some fir branches. You will be surprised how much you will need to have any real benefit.

 

You could also lay some of the trees as they are the perfect age to lay well and create more cover.

 

The grass has dominated the woodland most likely because the trees were planted on a grass paddock in the first place. If you wanted to spend some money you could buy shrubs to thicken up the bottom.

 

If you have any established hedges bordering the woodland make use of them and thicken those

up also as I suspect the birds tend to stay to those than the plantation.

 

Hope that helps!

[Blakloks 5]

Cheers! It sits at the top of a hill so I reckon it needs shrub/hedge plants to provide more warmth its to open and the wind rattles right through it