Coppicing

Relatively few American gardeners have even heard of coppicing and most probably don’t even know what it is. However most have probably noticed the phenomenon behind it; that when you cut down many deciduous trees (it doesn’t work with most conifers) their roots remain alive and send up a ring of vigorous new shoots (known as suckers) around the stump (known as a stool). They probably look upon this as a bad thing though, and are then interested in finding an easy way to kill the root. In my opinion this is the wrong approach, though of course it depends upon why you cut down the tree in the first place. If these stools are left alone (and not eaten by deer) the shoots (suckers) will grow rapidly and can eventually be put to use (leave them long enough and the tree will grow back).

Coppicing makes use of this ability to regenerate and gives you a way to control the size of your trees. This enables you to coexist with trees that cast a lot of shade, rather than killing them. You can simply coppice it and keep it as a shrub instead. You can even allow it to grow back into a tree at a later date, if circumstances change. If done carefully coppicing doesn’t hurt the tree at all and may actually extend its life be periodically rejuvenating it.

I should add that re-growth isn’t guaranteed; occasionally you cut a deciduous tree and it doesn’t grow back. The ability to sucker depends upon the species, the health of the tree and the size of the tree. Younger trees sprout vigorously, while the large stools of older trees sometimes rot and die.

Coppicing also provides useful products for the garden. You can cut the growing shoots whenever they reach a useful size (anywhere from 1 –30 years depending upon the species and climate) and the process will begin all over again. The wood produced has a variety of uses depending upon when it is cut. The slender shoots of willow are harvested after only one or two years for use in making baskets. Larger shoots and small poles can be cut in three to five years for garden supports, while older wood can be used for fence posts or as firewood.

Coppicing is an important forestry management tool in many parts of the world (anywhere trees aren’t abundant), because it is the best way to get maximum production of wood from an area. Unlike newly planted seedlings, the new shoots are growing from established roots, so re-growth is extremely vigorous (shoots may grow 10 feet in a season).

A Redwood stool after one year

Coppicing can also be used to control the size of shrubs, in fact it is even more reliable with them because that is how most grow naturally. When you cut shrubs down to ground level they will send up a new set of shoots that are even straighter, cleaner and better looking than the previous ones and these can be used around the garden as supports or chipped as a source of biomass for mulch.

When I built my house all of the trees and shrubs (Ceanothus, Elder, Manzanita, Coffeberry, Oak, Walnut, Chestnut and Redwood – one of the few conifers to coppice) in the immediate area of the house were cut to the ground, but most ultimately sprouted back up. This was helpful in landscaping as it gave me a nice random natural pattern of fast growing plants, which I incorporated into the garden. 

My land is fairly wooded and I have coppiced quite a few of the trees to admit more light, including several small (relatively) Redwoods. They were on the south side of the garden and seriously shading the area where I wanted to put annual vegetables. I would feel guilty about cutting down something that could potentially live 20 times as long as I will, so this was a great solution. If I leave here and someone who doesn’t like gardening moves in (which would be a shame), the redwoods can grow back again.

Here are some trees that should coppice well:

Alder, Basswood, Beech, Birch, Cherry, Chestnut, Cottonwood, Eucalyptus, Hackberry, Hickory, Honey Locust, Oak, Maple, Mesquite, Persimmon, Plum, Poplar, Redwood, Sassafras, Walnut, Willow.

 Shoots emerging from a newly cut Chestnut stool

The same stool after one years growth

Same stool after 2 growing seasons

Seven year old Chestnut coppice

Making seedling flats

My new greenhouse is getting warmer by the day (in fact I will soon have to finish the venting) and it’s time to start sowing the first spring crops inside it. I decided that a new greenhouse should have new flats to go with it (a fresh start), so I made a whole stack of them and took some pictures of the process. If you don’t already know, flats are shallow open wooden planting boxes, used for starting seeds of the easily transplanted crops, such as Brassicas, tomatoes, lettuce, onion, peppers and more.

The parts

Flats are pretty simple and there isn’t a great deal of design involved in making them. They can be any size you want, though you should make sure they are of a size that fits the wood you have without too much cutting (cutting wastes both wood and time). I found that 24 x 14 worked well with the wood I had (the four bottom boards are just under 3 ½” wide). The depth of a flat is more critical, as you need enough depth for the roots, but don’t want them to be too deep, as this makes them heavy and requires more soil mix to fill them. I find that 3 ½” is a good average depth, as well as a standard lumber dimension. Some gardeners like to have two different depths, a shallow one (3”) for starting seeds and a deeper (4”) one for pricking out. There only other important design criteria is that there should be a narrow gap between the bottom boards for good drainage.

The sides

I didn’t have to buy any material for my flats because I salvaged a lot of 1X redwood when a neighbor tore down an old fence (if ever you see a redwood or cedar fence being replaced, grab the old materials before they go to the dump). I also had some 4” X ¼” tongue and groove redwood paneling that another neighbor gave me when he was selling his house, and this was perfect for the bottoms. You can use any old wood for making flats (only buy it as a very last resort), though if it isn’t rot resistant they won’t last anywhere near as long (which is okay). I have redwood flats that have fallen apart from use and the wood is still as good as new.

Half finished

I ripped the fence boards down to a width of 3 ¼” on my table saw and cut them into 22 ½” pieces for the sides and 14” pieces for the ends. When nailed together this gave me a finished flat measuring 24” X 14”). The bottom boards were a full 24” in length. You can see from the photographs how they all go together.

Nailing the bottom

I used 1 ¼” staples (and an air stapler) to nail the flats together (because I already had them and didn’t have any nails). The gun makes the process go very quickly and with all the pieces cut I could assemble a flat in under 3 minutes (I’m guessing now, I never actually timed it). If I didn’t have the staples I would have nailed the sides together with 1 ½” galvanized common nails and attached the bottoms with ¾” galvanized common nails. I can’t think of anything else to say here, as I said before this is a pretty simple process and a picture is worth a thousand words anyway.

That was easy