Blog Posts

Seedy Sunday an Stratification

2/25/2018

Specialbranch had their regular stall at Seedy Sunday, the annual swap/ 'green' gathering, held at Brighton BHASVIC every February.
We had a very busy time selling trees, giving advice, networking and advertising ourselves to the public.
Lots of our volunteers joined us behind the stall to help out and make it a thoroughly enjoyable experience, aided by copious supplies of biscuits.

Now is the time to check our stratification boxes. We examine all the seeds we collected last year to check if any signs of germination have occurred.

The volunteers found a record 10 bags with very good signs of early growth on our first inspection, even with very cold weather in the ascendancy.

All of the germinated seeds were then delicately transferred into seed trays, covered with a little soil and put outside with some weather/mice protection on top. Finally, we recorded all the details in our plant 'bible'. Hopefully this year will provide us with plenty of fresh plantlets, to replace the now rather depleted sales beds.

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New year orders and bare beds

2/5/2018

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We have now settled back to our regular maintenance jobs.
These include pruning our hedgerows, coppicing the hazel area, cutting back the willow and gently pruning the fruit bushes.
There are still a few more jobs, including raised bed maintenance, new gates, new posts and fruit tree pruning to be done before mid-february, when the transplanting season begins. Not long till Spring!

The new year brings more orders. The 'sales' stock is now rather depleted.The latest orders have now led to rather large bare patches across the site. The customer orders are put immediately into bags before their transplantation to holding beds, awaiting customer collection.
The site looks tidy, but devoid of saplings.

One last job; preparing a selection of plants for our stand at Brighton's 'Seedy Sunday' fair in February.

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Pre-Christmas rush for bare-rooted trees!

12/18/2017

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A busy run-up to Christmas for sales of our bare-rooted trees and shrubs. The ground is still warmish and the trees have shed their leaves, si it is ideal planting time.
The volunteers kept warm digging up, heeling in and bagging up plants for our visiting customers; although, if we had to dig up around 500 every week, early enthusiasm might begin to wane.
It was lovely to hear of so many worthwhile projects in Sussex, with so many devoted nature-lovers. I'm so glad we can contribute towards so many great schemes.

Some of the team enjoying another sunny Friday at the nursery after repotting Yew and Holly seedlings.

Only two or three Friday lunchtimes this year have been spent in the polytunnel. The nursery must have its own microclimate!

After completing the repotting of smaller plants we are now pruning hedgerows and generally tidying up the borders of the nursery. Hazel coppicing should begin before the end of the month.

And another year begins......

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November 20th, 2017

11/20/2017

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The newly built 'holding' bed, designed specifically for customer orders has now been completed. Volunteers cut the timber, stripped the bark, cut the vertical stobs and constructed the bed. Where once there were weeds there is now a rather striking raised bed.
Almost as soon as it was built it was filled with customer orders for our bare rooted trees and shrubs.As the bed is now almost completely full, holding over 400 plants at present, we may have to consider extending it later on!

Here are the volunteers who felled, cut, shaped and erected the timber frame.
They also weeded the soil, put a weed-proof membrane along the base of the bed and then carted more soil in to fill the bed.
A month long process with a very satisfactory outcome. Well done to all!!

By the end of this month the trees in this bed will have gone to their new homes, helping to regenerate a nature reserve and a neglected woodland. More orders to follow and the bed refills!

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Seed gathering almost complete!!

10/21/2017

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After starting gathering seeds in July, only a few seeds remain to be collected. Holly and Spindle, plus a few Alder Buckthorn aren't yet mature enough. Mid. November will effectively see the completion of this task and the, now full, stratification boxes can overwinter the bagged seeds in their new home.

While continuous weeding remains an important job in this surprisingly wet and mild Autumn, we have also found time to begin building a new structure. In Preparation for incoming orders for our bare-rooted trees, we are building a new bed from scratch. Timber is being cut, posts made and a different set of woodworking skills utilised by our volunteers.

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our first Bentley woodfair marquee !

9/25/2017

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After growing around 160 plants in pots, finding and making some banners and renting a marquee at the woodfair, we finally celebrated twenty years of Specialbranch trees with our first ever exhibitors stand at this huge event.
The marquee turned into a miniature woodland with the help of our potted trees. A separate table showed varieties of seed collected by us. The visiting public were so enthusiastic in understanding the importance of planting native hedgerows. They were also keen to grow their own trees from seed after our volunteers demonstrated how this could be done.
We sold enough trees to cover our costs, but, more importantly made so many new contacts, new friends and had so many new experiences. It was certainly an event to be repeated.

Back at the nursery the combination of steady rain and mild weather have made weeding the no.1 priority. The seed gathering and processing is starting to gather pace, meaning even if it rains we can take shelter in the polytunnel and continue seed processing in the dry!

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New seeds....new trees

8/26/2017

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In Specialbranchtrees terms this is effectively the beginning of our year. We have been out collecting Wild Cherry, Silver Birch, Hazel and Rowan.
The trees and shrubs we collect from appear to have produced an abundant crop of fruit, seeds, cones and nuts this year.
All these seeds/nuts etc.. need differing forms of processing in order to achieve decent germination rates next year. Luckily the weather has been kind to us on Fridays and we can sit in the sunshine and happily stratify all day!

To celebrate twenty years of our nursery we have booked a stall at Bentley Wood fair this September. Half of the stall will be devoted to showing members of the public how to grow trees from seed. The other half will show off (and sell) some of our pot grown specimens.
The pot-grown plants have all been fed, watered, pampered and now pruned. They do look in splendid condition for Bentley.

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Now the weeding begins!!

8/3/2017

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A very busy July has emptied our tables of seedlings. All have now been transplanted to seedling beds, where we hope they grow on vigorously, although they are in competition with a constant invasion of weeds.
Regular applications of nettle fertiliser and liquid seaweed food will hopefully give the seedlings strong and leafy growth ...ideal at this time of year.

Very contrasting weather days mean the seedlings have to be protected from the fierce sun, on the odd day the sun is visible.
The cold winds and rain also have their affect on plant growth, especially at this early stage. Watering, not watering, plus covering up and uncovering. Second guessing an English summer is never easy, but this one is proving especially difficult.
Luckily we have an excellent group of keen volunteers who are nurturing the seedlings through their early stages of development.

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A very hot month!!

6/23/2017

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Despite the fact that many of our volunteers are currently holidaying in Spain, France, Greece and Devon, the transplanting, watering and weeding continue apace.

June has given the trees plenty of sunshine but very little rain. Consequently, we have been spending every friday afternoon watering for at least two hours. The plants ...and weeds are putting on good growth, although the weeds seem to be winning. As the weeds are put back on our compost heaps and eventually become a nice crumbly compost for use on the beds, i guess there is a positive side to all this weeding!

A few nice flowers and plentiful greenery have now shown through on our newly
seeded meadow areas, in response to the
warm weather. The fruit trees are all delivering the beginnings of a crop. A little
more rain to swell the fruit will hopefully give
us a good harvest.

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A lot of seed trays!!!

5/28/2017

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Virtually all of the bags of seeds we stratified over winter have had some germination success. As a consequence the tables are now weighed down by seed trays. It has undoubtedly been one of the best years for germination success.

A very hot day to be using the petrol strimmer, but the spring cut/tidy up is now complete...and the meadow and orchard look better for it.

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