April and May 2017

April kicked off with some seed planting in the nursery. Philip Drury, Bedgebury’s Propagator, gave us some lessons in how to prepare the soil, arrange the seeds and then finish off with some fine grit. I was able to plant some Calocedrus decurrens (incense cedar), Acer nipponicum and Malus sylvestris (European crab apple). Some of Phil’s and Cat’s seeds have now germinated but, much to my disappointment, so far none of mine have!

Left – Julian climbing. Right – the Ganoderma sbp fungus

We also had a visit from Plant Health, an arm of the Forestry Commission that deals solely with the identification of pests and diseases that occur within trees. Sadly it appears that several of our specimens have diseases and the team collected samples to take away and run tests on. One Abies firma tree had a Ganoderma sbp fungus growing from the side of the main stem. Julian donned his climbing equipment in order to inspect and collect the fungus for Plant Health to investigate. It is believed the tree may also have some other diseases such as Neonectria.

Late last year our curator Dan Luscombe visited Malawi to assist with a very important project. The national tree of Malawi, the Mulanje cedar (Widdringtonia whytei) is critically endangered and has seen a huge decline in population over the last few years due to over-logging and fire. A project has been launched to create alternative income sources for the local people via the establishment of nurseries and sales of the cedar, to improve the horticultural procedures for its growth and to prevent any further loss of remaining trees. The team in Malawi have been running into some difficulties with the trees that they plant out. A high percentage of the young saplings do not survive once they are on the Mulanje Mountain and it is believed that this could be because of the pots that they are sown into in the nursery. Bedgebury agreed to undertake a trial to investigate alternative pots that are not only cost effective, but will also encourage a more developed root system.

Some images from the Mulanje cedar day

One of our highlights in April was a project involving some local Kent/East Sussex schools in the trial via a charity called Starfish Malawi. These schools included Goudhurst, Sandhurst, and the federation of Bodium and Etchingham. The pupils spent the day with us learning about the Mulanje Cedar in the classroom, enjoying a tour of the Pinetum and finally taking part in some activities in the nursery. The main aim of the day was to educate the children about the plight of the Mulanje cedar and to enable the pupils to participate in the trial by each planting a Mulanje seed. Alongside this the children were shown around the nursery and were then able to plant their own sunflower seed to take home. I think the majority of the pupils understood the conservation message we were hoping to share and it seemed they all went home at the end of the day with a greater appreciation for the project and also hopefully some knowledge of Bedgebury as a conservation institution.

During the latter part of the month we tackled tractor driving. We learnt how to use the front loader to scoop and lift objects, how to use power attachments such as chippers and how to drive safely in a sloped environment. Phil and I had a great time on the course and we have already started to put our new skills to good use in the Pinetum!

Most of May was consumed with a chainsaw course for Phil and myself. We packed our bags and headed off to Thetford for a solid two weeks. It was a rather daunting prospect at first, but we soon became familiar with the safe methods of handling the chainsaw, maintenance and sharpening. We pulled on our chainsaw trousers and eventually headed out to the site that was to be ours for the duration of the course. We were joined by the two Thetford apprentices again and each of us was assigned a ‘rack’ of the plantation. A rack is a line of trees within a plantation that have been cleared so that a harvesting machine can pass through and reach the trees that are to be harvested.

Left - Harvey and Tom the Thetford Apprentices. Right – Phil and I The rack I was working on, still quite a few trees left!

We were taught several different methods to fell the trees within our racks. Choosing which type of cut to use depends on how the tree is leaning. For a forward leaning tree you might use a ‘Dog’s Tooth’ which enables you to have more control over when the tree falls. For a backward leaning tree there is the ‘Danish Slice’ or ‘Split Level’. And for a tree that is not particularly leaning in any direction you could use a straightforward ‘Felling Cut’.

All four of us came away from the course having learnt a great deal and sweated buckets! Our assessments will be coming up in a couple of months’ time.

Danish Pie Cut

Split Level Cut

Other jobs over the last couple of months have included potting-on some Sequoia sempervirens, helping to build new obstacles for the mountain bike skills area and lots of mowing and strimming. We were lucky enough to go on a team trip to the Arboricultural show at Westonbirt and then onto

Oxford Harcourt Arboretum for a tour and fun night of camping. Phew…what a busy couple of months!

Phil enjoying lunch One of my best Danish Pie cuts