NOTES ON THE COPPICE ORCHARD

 NOTES ON THE COPPICE ORCHARD

Note: microclimate / species notes are from central UK experiences – change things around to suit your own conditions.
These notes are given as a template to be localised and individualised, rather than a set of absolute instructions.

When I thought of the term ‘Coppice Orchard’ I wasn’t thinking about the psychology of naming things.
Now everyone has the idea of ‘orchard’ in their head.

‘Food Coppice’ might be better – it allows the mind to get away from the trees, and to think of the system as a coppice system, with its repeating cycles and relationships. But then there’s lots of non-food crops, so ‘Crop Coppice’ gets us away from food and leads into the contraction of ‘Croppice’. Any more ideas?

The system involves more than coppice - there might be permanent windbreaks, and permanent standard trees within the coppice area.
If transport vehicles are big enough to need a track, then that’s a good place to plant permanent trees alongside.
Workers and young plants might need shade, and plenty of times in growing we need to keep things cool.

USERS

When growing conventionally for distant markets it is recommended that you don’t have more than 5 different harvests in the year.
Specialist harvesting equipment, storage, etc make more harvests than this less practical and less economical.

The c/o can give many different harvests. There is a built-in element of opportunism.
It is conceived as a largely hand-tool system. Useful machines will be barrows for transport and a shredder.
So the c/o will be most useful in labour intensive situations where a wide range of produce is needed – communities , farm shops, restaurants, etc.

These users will have they own likes and dislikes – the system is flexible and can handle them.

More Veg Wanted = more frequent coppicing and smaller tree crops; maybe removing some unpopular trees – OR trees can be cut back, lifted in winter, and replanted elsewhere.

More Fruit Wanted = a longer coppicing cycle; not coppicing all the trees in a N-S row; pollarding rather than coppicing: propagating more trees; trees trained as pyramids for high yields.

STARTING

Site:
Choose land under existing arable or veg production or at least with no permanent vegetation. This will avoid the problem of perennial weeds and grasses etc, that will take a lot of time to control otherwise.
If the land grows good veg crops it should be ok for trees.
Avoid low-lying frost pockets and land that has lasting puddles in winter. If this is all you have plant trees on mounds.

Converting Site:
If you have only grassland etc you should convert to vegetable crops first – the coppice ‘orchard’ is a vegetable growing system too.
The important thing is to get the perennial weeds out.
Areas of bush/perennial crops with no perennial weed probs could be planted into immediately.

Work out the pattern of n-s rows. Mark tree positions with poles in the ground to check you have it right.

Plant trees amongst vegetables or other crop – carry on cropping and planting vegetables and work out new rotations to fit the row pattern, new pathways, etc. Remember you won’t be coppicing for some time, but sooner or later you will need rotations that fit the new arrangement of rows.

Allow a square metre of undisturbed soil around each tree for good early root establishment. Mulch around trees or plant winter-actives around them, eg Spring Bulbs [eg Wild Garlic], over-wintered annuals, eg. Miner’s Lettuce.
Winter actives are busy when the tree is dormant, therefore no competition. [stacking in time].

Plant windbreaks if not present already – use n-fixers where possible, avoid using trees related to crop trees, to reduce disease.
Use evergreens in North and East [coldest winds] sections of windbreak, including Ivy.

Plant fruit bushes and perennials between trees as intercrop. If estimated coppice cycle is 10-12 years most bushes will be old by then anyway. Fruit bushes – currants, rasps etc- can be moved or propagated from easily.
Hazels live longer and get bigger and are part of the coppice trees mix.

NUTRITION

Most nutrition should be provided within the system – via ample numbers of N-fixers and mycorrhiza.
Inoculate tree roots with mycorrhiza by dipping roots into purchased mycorrhizal ’soup’. Include the windbreak if you can or make a home made ‘soup’ of good healthy woodland soil and rainwater.
Many species are good ‘distributors’ of nutrients in leaf fall etc, eg hazel, lime [Tilia sp.].
‘Within the system’ includes returning wastes to the system – kitchen wastes, human manure, wood ashes.

Watch tree and veg performance – adjust any deficiencies with slow release ground minerals, comfrey and other liquids, seaweed, etc.

Return all possible wastes to site – this might include using a row as a tree bog for human manure- decide on period of ‘quarantine’ before food is grown again. Bog year is probably best followed by a year of non-edibles – green manure or mulch crop - to be used on the next year’s food crops. Also wood ashes, paper and cardboard waste, etc. ‘Sheet Composting’ in fallow areas. Use high-carbon wastes as surface mulch; don’t dig in, 1 or 2 year old wood shreds to make a good compost.
Bury road kills, shot squirrels, etc, in tree bog year.

POLLINATION & INSECTS

Maximise flowering plant species, especially early and late season – to maximise insect population – both pollinators and predatory species.
Ornamentals are great if you have the desire, or the sales potential, and the space.
Many common herbs are good insect plants, eg. Marjoram.
Avoid flowering plant species that flower at same time as crop species, unless you’re cutting them anyway.
Bumblebees should be encouraged with nest sites – use the space of the Nature plots.
Ponds – great for insects - are probably best kept on the outside of the coppice area, or on large sites kept in “admin” areas, next to tracks, buildings etc.

STANDARD TREES
Plant any permanent trees and shrubs that will NOT be coppiced – eg Walnuts. These can be at ends of row or mid-row to make a break, if row is long. These can be sites for bird, bat and insect nest boxes, give shade and shelter to workers, focal/marker points, and, when big enough, tree houses. If an internal vehicle track is needed permanent trees can be planted alongside it.

FIRST TIME COPPICING

As the young OR trees grow the well-lit area of the C/O will be reduced to ever smaller patches. When you think a larger area of well-lit land is needed you can start the coppicing cycle.

Decide on the row to cut well in advance.

Human manure and road kills should go into tree bogs 2 years before coppicing.
The year before cutting the area will be covered with as much mulch as can be found. Shredded twiggy stuff from all over the orchard, vegetable wastes, wood ashes, paper, etc.
Concentrate the wastes on the next area to be coppiced right thro the year – so plants in the new area start with good light and good fertility. The area will have had a lot of shade before coppicing so there wont be many crop plants in it – save and move any that are worthwhile if still there. Old plants / weeds may need mulching out with a light-proof degradable mulch like cardboard or paper.

Which row first?
One way is to plant more vigorous tree varieties together in one [ or more] N-S rows. That row will be the most advanced and shadiest row and an obvious candidate for the 1st coppicing. But don’t let the vigour factor over rule the pollination factor when it comes to where to plant the trees. See the plan view for pollination recommendations.

You don’t need to coppice all the trees in a row if you don’t want to – just a few may give you all the extra land area you need.

You don’t need to coppice down to the ground if you don’t want to - you can pollard, to leave a high stem to get new branches from.

However you cut do it when it is the best time for the type of tree. Apples & Pears in dormant season [Dec-Jan is best ] and stone fruits – Prunus species – in September. These timings reduce the possibility of disease infection.
Leave cuts sloping so rain runs off.

Tree Propagation
Coppiced trees will have more roots than they can support. Locate roots [6-30 mm diameter] near surface and sever them from main stem leaving most of root buried. Raise the cut end of the severed piece into the light, leaving about 1 cm exposed. This will make a new tree. It will be removed next autumn and planted in the orchard or a nursery bed. Do this only with roots that are obvious near the surface – leave the rest for the tree.

AFTER COPPICING

The previous season you will have been sowing the area with plants for using as mulch this year. These will be mostly shade –tolerant large-leaved species – Burdock [cultivated varieties], Foxglove [Digitalis sp.] etc. These can be pulled up or have their roots severed, and the whole plant turned upside down, roots in the air, as a weed suppressing mulch between crop plants.

First year crop plants should be those that can go in as young transplants, widely spaced large seeds, tubers, etc. eg potatoes, beans, onion sets, brassica plants, outdoor tomatoes, leeks, cucurbits, i.e. avoiding subjects that might get lost in the mulch. Beans are useful for keeping up the nitrogen supply – remember next years mulch material will go to another row. Several crops will overwinter onto Year2 – garlic, leeks, brassicas.

Regrowth from coppice stools might give too many shoots – single out to best one [or how ever many you need]. Easy to rub out new shoots when they are small.

Season 2. In this year the mulch will largely have broken down into the soil. We can lift any young trees we made in year 1. Lifting trees and deep veg like potatoes gives us patches of bare soil for sowing roots, eg carrots, parsnips, beetroot.

Keep using n-fixing crops in gaps to maintain fertility.

The coppice stools will have made strong new shoots. With species like hazel and alder these might be bent over to make the frame for a plastic cloche to give us earlier crops. I wouldn’t advise this with fruit trees for fear of fungus problems. A small cloche could raise a lot of early seedlings.

A more permanent glasshouse-type structure might occupy on of the tree spaces near the centre of the system, possibly with covered area for doing outdoor jobs in comfort, tea in the shade, etc.

Last year’s new shoots on coppice stumps will now be growing laterals [branches].

Season 3: New shoots of coppiced trees may have fruit buds now. If so check that stems are strong enough to hold up under weight of crop. Stake if floppy. Remember the basic training techniques for OR trees – tying down and summer pruning when the tree is big enough.

As there will now be 2 newer rows producing veg so think about putting in strawberries and other soft fruit.

From this point on its hard to predict growing activity – play it by ear /see what happens, until we get to the tree bog stage again.

Phil Corbett, Kerzello, August 2003