[followtheshrew]

Hiya everyone, im not sure if thisis the correct site to be posting this kinda request, as prehaps this site leans more towards gardens, But heres my problem.
at the moment i have approx 20,000 sessile oaks growing, some the tallest are prehaps 3-4 inches and some have still to fully appear above the surface. the problem is that the weeds are taing over, in particular redshank. i grow these trees for a personal interest and have many other older trees, and hope to plant a large area of oaks to create a mini forest.

My question is : are there any weedkillers which will help kill weeds and leave my trees unharmed. i know that there are ones u can use before the trees emerge but these trees in question range from between bearly being visible to 4 or 5 inches, some with leaves some without.

i recently weeded another 2000 oaks which are all about 10-12 inches and it was not a nice experience, though the midges enjoyed themselves.

I need help
Cheers everyone

[cooler]

Ask your local spray merchant about Butisan S which is used to on broad-leaved weeds in crops of rape and cabbage. The ingrediant it contains is metazachlor, which leaves the rape and cabbage standing so possibly it will be ok to use around your seedlings. I believe BASF is one of the spray producers that has this on their books.

Let us know how you get on.

[birdie]

20,000 sessile oaks
I didnt know there was such a spray around that would leave the young trees unharmed but kill the weeds. I was going to suggest the old method of putting a an upside down bucket over each tree and spraying around them, but for 20,000 . i would love to know if that Butisan S would work.

[danmac]

[followtheshrew]

well it turns out that there are some chemicals which will tackel grasses but not really for broad leaf weeds, so hand picking is the way Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, but this year is an experiment year already there are sooo many ways that i would differ the layout which would pretty much eliminate the weeds,

[verge]

[Rebecca]

Have you found the Irish silviculture site, there may be 'close to nature' methods there that would help you out. http://www.prosilvaireland.org/

I'd imagine they'd suggest something like planting your local fast growing pioneer species such as alder or birch which would easily out compete 'weeds' and once these are established (and shaded out weeds) plant the oak which would benefit from the addition of naturally fixed nitrogen in the soil from the alder roots, and shoot up to reach the light with some careful thinning of the nursery crop. .... it's all fascinating stuff, I'm just a novice but we are implementing these techniques in our own 13 acre oak plantation. Although that's not much use to you at the moment! Perhaps there's an option to introduce pioneers at this stage, I don't know.
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[followtheshrew]

Thanks for the information, i will def look into it, 13 acres is alot, its great, fresh air for all