Some other sources for seedlings

David Wood wrote:We've planted several thousand trees already at our agroforestry block. We're planning to put in a lot more. Most of our trees - eucalypts, acacias, banksias and other natives - have come from specialist tree nurseries as tubestock in forestry tubes. We're also having a crack at planting some seeds directly after appropriate stratification, water soaking etc.

But we're also opportunistic about getting plants from other sources. We bought several cypress varieties in pots at the end of last spring from a nursery having a clearance sale. These trees were already several years old which goes some way to justifying the extra price compared to tubestock. And we bought a few silver birch - also heavily discounted - as bare rooted trees.

Toona ciliata (Australian Red Cedar) is an excellent timber species that grows naturally in coastal New South Wales particularly heading up into the sub-tropics. But I've seen it growing successfully when planted in the Otways. There are specimens growing in several botanic gardens in Victoria. So we would like to grow some. I saw some growing at a property in the Yarra Valley. It's always nice to get a provenance that you know handles site conditions similar to your site. These trees produce prodigious quantities of seeds some of which were growing in the house gutters. So when the gutters were next cleared out, the property owner kindly put some of these seedlings in a seedling tray in their shadehouse. Unfortunately, due to one thing and another by the time I had the two seedling trays some months later, some of the seedlings were 1m tall! The roots had grown through the slats in the bottom of the tray. It was a mess. So I spent several hours laboriously cutting the tree roots free of the plastic. We potted them up but because getting the trees free of the plastic had caused all sorts of damage I thought most of them would cark it. My wife has a well-established Distressed Tree Management Process that essentially relies on giving them a good environment, looking after them and letting nature do its thang. After all, the trees have a strong interest in survival. We put them in some shade under some of our fruit trees in the backyard and we've fed them a bit and kept them watered. Those toonas are one tough species. 4 months or so later we've only lost about ten of the 70 seedlings I cut free. If we can keep them alive for another couple of months through Melbourne's summer - which so far hasn't been anywhere near as hot as last year's - they can go in the ground at the block.

We did a propagation workshop in late 2013 with the Otways Agroforestry Network. Part of this workshop covered pricking out very small seedlings into forestry tubes. We have some Myrtle beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii) from this workshop that are now in their 2nd year. We will plant them later this year. We also took some cuttings off a Sequoia semper virens - the very tall coastal sequoia as against giganteum that is also pretty tall but tends to be a bit shorter with an enormous diameter - and propagated them. All of ours have struck and are now sitting on our back porch waiting to be planted. Sequoias grow very well in Victoria. They're becoming a well accepted agroforestry tree in New Zealand. The property next door to our block has an enormous specimen that I think might be a giganteum it's so big. And it's growing on an exposed slope with very little shelter. If they can grow that well in an unfavourable position, I think a few tucked away down in a gully might do OK.

We were at a nursery yesterday where we found some grevilleas on special at $2/pot. They look OK - we picked the best - and while they will probably be a bit rootbound we'll plant them and see how they go. Grevillea robusta (common name Silky oak) is a lovely timber and we're planning to grow some. What we bought yesterday won't get as as big as robusta but they have attractive flowers that have a market as well as attracting various birds and the timber may be good for woodturners.

Continuing with the opportunistic theme, we've also planted some volunteer nectarines from a friend's place. A lot of the fruit trees make nice timber. We'll manage these silviculturally with the intention of producing small logs. Because they're on natural rootstock they will grow larger than grafted trees. Cherries and apples can both get very large. I'm not sure how big a nectarine can get but all going well we will find out

ONya Woodie!

Steven Joel wrote:Hi David,

The wife and I are currently looking for a block in Gippsland and plan to plant a lot of trees. Thanks for posting this list of what's working for you. Can I ask where you are buying the tube stock from? What's the pricing like?

Thanks!
Steve

Steven Joel wrote:Thanks David,

[snip]

What are your goals for planting trees on your property?