[https://i.imgur.com/AeLNDTP.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/AeLNDTP.jpg)
Out for a walk earlier and noticed hundreds of oak saplings planted really close together – in some cases right on top of each other. The photo is the extreme example but just about all of them were strangely close together.
Was totally confused as oak is obviously going to grow to have a large trunk width? So if its a commercial plan isn’t it just doomed to be wildly impractical and then just fail?
So is it totally off the mark to guess that this is someone cynically cashing in on grant aid for forestry or am I the cynic here?
Disclaimer I’ve no real notion and am open to correction and education on this….. Just posted out of genuine curiosity really.
6 comments
Nurseries sell trees, that looks like what is going on here.
Think there’s a huge failure rate with oak though, also?
They’re probably going to sell some or thin them out later
It could be a nursery. If not, then they will be thinned out as they grow…the weakest removed.
Grant is paid on a certain amount per hectare – additional trees won’t garner a higher rate. Could be that they were trying to make it a more natural forest by reducing straight lines. Would need more pictures to be sure.
As has been said already, it could be a nursery. Even if it’s not, trees are usually planted closer than would seem natural as this encourages competition for light and you’ll get faster height development. It also helps reduce undergrowth at the early stages which could allow down the growth or even strangle and out compete the young trees. Then when they’re starting to get too crowded you take out the weaker ones and let the stronger ones grow. When the young trees are planted, the actual plants are quite cheap so it’s beneficial to do it this way, even if you’re eventually throwing out half of them.