Aspen experience (or Poplar)

JohnBoy

JohnBoy

Well-Known Member
Does anyone have any aspen on their farm?

We are going to plant some trees this spring to replace ash cut down due to dieback.

Looking for a variety of native trees and would like some faster growing trees to get things going.

I only recently discovered that Aspen is actually native to Ireland. It's a relative of poplar and spreads via suckers like poplar does.

Anyone here have aspen or Poplar on their land?

Are the roots and suckers a pain in the proverbial?
 
Deerehunter said:
Have some here, the timber is brittle. The mature trees are all gone now, they fell or trunks cracked half way up on gales over last 20 years. Still have suckers coming up in the garden. They can grow up quickly as getting energy from main plants. They can come up nearly 50 feet from main tree.
Click to expand...

Sounds like the sort of tree youd be trying your best to keep out of the place . A weed .
 
JohnBoy said:
Does anyone have any aspen on their farm?

We are going to plant some trees this spring to replace ash cut down due to dieback.

Looking for a variety of native trees and would like some faster growing trees to get things going.

I only recently discovered that Aspen is actually native to Ireland. It's a relative of poplar and spreads via suckers like poplar does.

Anyone here have aspen or Poplar on their land?

Are the roots and suckers a pain in the proverbial?
Click to expand...
We used to grow Poplars and sell them as eight foot high plants.
In the Seventies during a fuel crisis ( Yom Kippur war ) Oak Park decided to investigate Biomass and Dr Michael Neenan did the work and when he retired he cooperated with us to grow the trees and sell them . Basically we got bundles of Poplars about a foot long tied them in bunches of 10 and threw them in a pond for the winter and planted them out in the spring. Three years later we dug them up with the JCB and sold them. We even exported them to a Golf club in England. A lot of people were planting orchards and they were planted around for shelter.
 
JohnBoy said:
Does anyone have any aspen on their farm?

We are going to plant some trees this spring to replace ash cut down due to dieback.

Looking for a variety of native trees and would like some faster growing trees to get things going.

I only recently discovered that Aspen is actually native to Ireland. It's a relative of poplar and spreads via suckers like poplar does.

Anyone here have aspen or Poplar on their land?

Are the roots and suckers a pain in the proverbial?
Click to expand...
Yes and yes.
 
Id look at other species before Aspen, theres a new Birch thats supposed to be all singing and dancing with regards growth rates; we will be faced with the same problem, and rather than have too much of one species (once the ash goes) we will have a lot of Sycamore) im going to try get into more mixed species, such as Oak, beech, Birch and maybe douglas fir; all where the Ash was.
 
We're planting more birch, plus beech and oak in the forestry. (If the good people in Wexford ever sort their sh*t out)

So figuring on other things in the hedges. Definitely some sycamore in the mix, some Scots pine, holly and mountain ash too. Probably a few non natives too, horse chestnut

It was only when reading a native tree list I discovered Aspen is actually native to here, never knew it grew here, it's a tree I'd associated only with the US. Fascinating article linked above about it
 
JohnBoy said:
We're planting more birch, plus beech and oak in the forestry. (If the good people in Wexford ever sort their sh*t out)

So figuring on other things in the hedges. Definitely some sycamore in the mix, some Scots pine, holly and mountain ash too. Probably a few non natives too, horse chestnut

It was only when reading a native tree list I discovered Aspen is actually native to here, never knew it grew here, it's a tree I'd associated only with the US. Fascinating article linked above about it
Click to expand...
Beech is a non native tree to Ireland. If it is a grand aided forestry i dont think you can use beech to replace ash from die back.
 
They've told us we can, but the whole thing is a disaster running on for years.

It came to a head last year and they demanded repayment of 30k in grants because we haven't replanted.

We hadn't replanted because even though multiple inspectors had approved our plan our forester reckoned we didn't have formal approval and every time he asked for it he got a runaround.

Well when they start asking for their money back the letters start coming from someone up the chain who can actually give definitive answers. He said we didn't have approval but if we submitted some thing then they would approve it.

So we submitted this new form that got us a written approval as opposed to an email one because seemingly paper makes everything better.

Then a few weeks ago we got another letter because the forester was yet again getting the runaround and it seems that our last application was fine but they can't change some code against our contract on their system so they have now cancelled our forestry contract and we have to re apply again!!!!!! Which will take them so long to deal with that another year will pass, and they continue to send letters saying we owe 30k.

So who knows what we'll be allowed plant whenever the time comes
 
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