It’s early November, and tree planters are just getting busy. So where do you get your trees from? There are plenty of reputable tree nurseries around and, if you are buying from them, there are a few considerations to bear in mind. One principle applies to all: buy local and try to make sure that your tree nursery sources its seed and nuts locally too. You may want to take their advice on what’s best to plant on your plot –factors affecting the choice of tree include soil, drainage, aspect and altitude.
But assuming you know what you want to plant and where, you then have to decide whether to buy bare-root stock or cell-grown plants. There’s a relatively simple calculation to make: the fewer the number of trees you are planting the more worthwhile buying better: and that means cell-grown trees. They come in a plug of soil, having been grown in root-training trays – and they tend to have good root development. The other bonus of cell-grown plants is that they can be supplied – and planted – at most times of the year, so long as the soil they are going into is moist. This year has been particularly awful for seedling establishment (I have lost quite a few in the drought).
Two of my home-grown trees: a tube-grown hawthorn and a cell-grown Scots Pine, ready for planting.
If you are planting in bulk (hundreds or more), bare root stock will be cheaper. You can expect to lose more, because one tends to notch-plant for speed (pushing your tree-planting spade into the ground and levering it back and forth a couple of times, then wedging the seedling in and firming down with your heel). The other point to note about bare-root seedlings is that nurseries won’t supply them until after the first hard frost, when they are easier to lift from their beds – and that may mean waiting until December, when planting days are even shorter than they are now.
Left: bread tray full of hazelnuts grown in cut-down recycled tree tubes; right: a root-trainer tray
I only plant-cell-grown trees now; and I plant in the hundreds every year. But I keep the cost down by growing as many as I can from my own seed or nuts – from trees I planted less than ten years ago: it’s very satisfying, apart from anything else. The training containers I use (above right) are long-lasting and effective, but quite expensive in bulk; so I now also make my own trainers using cut-down old tree shelters (above left) – killing two birds with one stone. I fit twenty-five to thirty of them into an old bread tray, and use a mix of soil-based compost and my own leaf mould. These have really good root development and will grow quickly into strong, healthy trees. I can now produce a few hundred seedlings like this every year. It’s a win-win.
So, I’ve been out planting already – but I’ll still be ordering a couple of hundred trees in from my local supplier.