#tree stuff

the people who did not like the finale,

A very short, yet pretty thorough introduction to RPM (root production method)

The RPM system (Root Production Method) is a multistep production system of container tree production that places primary emphasis on the root system because the root system ultimately determines the tree's survival and performance in its outplanted environment. This particular container production system has been developed to facilitate volume production, in a high-quality tree with good height-caliper balance. Approximately 80% of our production consists of native trees, many of which present transplanting difficulties using conventional nursery growing systems.

It's basically a method of exposing sapling roots to the air to produce strong fibrous roots (this method is called air root pruning), combined with specified selections of seeds and the growing medium. The benefits are trees that grow extremely quickly!

With air-pruning, a plant’s roots come in contact with the air as they grow. It is a natural process where the individual root tip dries out and stops growing. The plant responds to this by producing even more fibrous lateral roots. What you end up with is a healthy plant with a dense fibrous root system, ready to take nutrients and water to your plant.

(source of the second pic)

Some excerpts from the original paper:

Superior trees growing on specific sites are selected for seed collection. Experience has taught us that most species have ecotypes that are site specific. We look towards the wetlands or floodplains as a prime seed source for native tree species that are found growing on both wetland and upland sites. Since they have evolved under stress we find they will consistently outperform their upland counterparts on virtually any site, particularly on highly stressed sites.

Our standard growing medium consists of 40% composted rice hulls, 40% pine bark, 20% sand plus slow release fertilizer, micronutrients, and a wetting agent. The medium is also inoculated with mycorrhizae spores.

Thank you to @cernoid-leporidae for introducing me to RPM and sending me excerpts from Farming the Woods

oh yeah! I guess I talked more about work last summer so if you weren’t around for that this is news haha. I went to school for forest ecology and I’m a forestry technician right now. It’s a pretty fun job a lot of the time, I get to drive a truck (or atv!) down scary logging roads and go all over the province checking out the forest and looking at trees. Last year I got to take a helicopter to work every day for a week or so.

We also do a bit of urban forestry checking for certain tree diseases or pests, which is what I’m up to now - until the end of August. Basically drive reaaallllllll slow up and down all the streets in town peering out at the trees and when I find a bad one I paint a big orange band around it so the arborists know to cut it down.

Here, have some pictures that I took from my (stationary!!!) truck lol. I love talking about forestry so if you have more questions let me know!

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Amazing, incredible, stunning. Requires much less water than planting tree sapplings straight into the ground, and improves their survival rate significantly!

You can also see that the design of the coccon uses string to draw water from the doughnut thingy into the soil in the centre.

Much like this:

I think we could diy it pretty easily using mycelium and natural wax rather than wood pulp.

Here's a simple guide to making a mycelium plant pot.

'Air meadows' is the beautiful description for a multi millennial old tradition of feeding European livestock. How do we know this? Well because in this form of silviculture, the standard way of growing trees for an optimum harvest was to pollard them and thus create a yearly plethora of thickly growing, thin leafy branches above browse height. Evidence of whole stands of trees pruned this way have been discovered dating from the Neolithic Period all over the continent and there still exist examples of ancient pollarded trees in parks common land and pre-Enclose Act hedgerows. It is very interesting to note that up until the beginning of the 20th century more tree hay, was cut, dried and stored for use in Europe than conventional (grass) hay. Furthermore, air meadows didn't just provide food, sheep in particular are known to self-medicate for internal parasites by using the tannins and other phenolic compounds found in leaves. So for free food and medicine, look to the sky.

Pollarding is similar to coppicing- the difference being the former is done above grazing level, cutting branches close to the trunk rather than cutting the entire tree down to a stump.

Only certain tree species can be cut in this way without dying, such as willow and hazel. Pollarding starts when the tree is young (cutting mature trees in this way is calling topping, and usually doesn't heal well), and requires cutting back the new shoots every 2-5 years. This usually results in the swollen knobs pollards are know for!

Usually 5 or so branches are used for pollarding (the rest being chopped down to the trunk competely), but you can cut all branches off too.