Trees

Why agroforestry

Our agroforestry tree rows will be set out at 15 metres gaps between the rows. The initial tree spacing's within the rows will be quite dense so we can thin out the weaker trees. One area will be a mix of all our fruit, nut, timber, biodiversity and fuel trees. This is to create as much biodiversity as possible and to reduce the chance of a pest taking hold of a certain type of tree. The disadvantage of this is it will make mechanical harvesting harder. On a larger scale we would plant fruit species together to aid harvesting. Another area will be devoted purely to commercial hazelnuts. These will be set out in a way to aid mechanical harvesting in the future. A third area will be dedicated to commercial chestnut varieties. This will have an under-story of berries to give us a crop while the chestnuts reach maturity. There will also be agroforestry rows made from the current trees thinned out into rows. This will be a big job as there is currently a lot of brambles to clear.