![]() ![]() The ability to coppice is far more common in broad-leaved trees than in conifers. However, coppice shoots of most species seldom grow to the dimensions of trees grown from seed, so the system is used to produce small-sized material. Coppice regeneration has an advantage over seedlings in that ample supplies of carbohydrates are available from the parent stool and its root system, so new shoots grow very vigorously from the start. The coppice system relies upon these methods of vegetative production after each stand of trees has been felled to provide the next generation. Coppice shoots growing from a sweet chestnut ( Castanea sativa) stump in Sussex, UK. Before that I will give a quick rundown of some of the energy budgets involved.įigure 1. In this paper I discuss the coppicing practices needed to maximize yield for use as a furnace fuel. That is the principle the details vary, depending on climate, species, soil, marketable product, etc. These sprouts are again harvested in 3 to 5 years, and so the cycle is repeated indefinitely. The dormant buds at the root collar zone in the stump are thereby excited into maturation, and in the early spring they call on the sugars stored in the intact root system and grow swiftly into strong water sprouts. ![]() After 3 to 5 years the growth is harvested during the winter as close to the ground as possible. Juvenile vigor, a quickly closed canopy, and intense competition induce great height increments in the spring this is followed by substantial increases in girth later in the year. During the last few years there has been an awakening of interest here in coppicing techniques the reports call it silage sycamore, puckerbrush, short-rotation, and mini-rotation forestry.Ĭoppicing consists of growing nursling trees very densely–a 4 × 4 ft spacing is not unusual. By coppicing we can certainly achieve an annual increment of 5 to 10 tons/A immediately, and we can confidently expect that by normal agricultural programs of selection and mutation engineering we can raise that to 20–30 tons/A within a decade or two. Under normal forestry management today we grow an annual increment of the order of 0.5–10 tons of wood per acre the national norm is 1½–3 tons/A. It is a technique of woodland husbandry which has an unbroken history in Europe that goes back at least 5,000 years. Geoffrey Stanford, in Agriculture and Energy, 1977 INTRODUCTIONĬoppicing is almost unknown in the USA. ![]()
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