Short Rotation Willow Coppice Year 10

Last weekend I got my next section of willow cut. That makes for 4 years in a row I've cut a section. 

This time I didn't log it up straight away, instead I've kept it in long lengths. That way I have other options of what I can do with it. It's a great resource that I can use for building temporary structures around the smallholding, or the children can use it for building dens. 

Short Rotation Willow Coppice - Managing 1 & 2 Year Regrowth

 Back in January I cut the next section of willow coppice. When I did this I also decided to tackle the job of managing the regrowth on the other sections I had previously cut. 

The maintenance for the willow doesn't take long, but it is essential it's done every year to keep it growing just how I want it. 

Short Rotation Willow Coppice - Managing Growth

So I had one more job to do on my willow coppice and that was to manage the growth that came back from last years cut. 

 Each stool had put up loads of shoots, which might be ideal depending on what you're after. But as I want to grow this for firewood I'd rather have a few good stems where the growth could be directed to. 

So in this video I show what I'm taking off each plant to grow on, there are a few risks involved (rabbits or deer could eat the remaining shoots) but hopefully this will direct the tree to grow a lot stronger and have larger firewood for me to burn in a few years time. 

Watch the video and let me know what you think. 

Short Rotation Willow Coppice - Year 8 & 9

So I started my adventures with willow in 2014. The idea was to start to produce a bit of our own firewood in a sustainable way. 

I did the first proper cut of it last year (2022) and had some good results. This year I decided to film it all and show the work involved. 

It didn't take long to chop it down and log it, then I got the children to help to move it the day afterwards. A nice job for a warm and dry winters day. 

I'd say we got a builders bag full of wood, maybe a bit more. This was from about 30 trees spaced at 1m apart. 

I'm looking forward to managing this in the coming years, it seems like an incredible renewable resource. Hopefully it'll produce even more as time goes on and the roots get established. 

Watch the video and let me know what you think - do you think it's worth it?

Do you grow and manage any wood for firewood with coppicing or pollarding?