[Fletcher]

Hello,
I am a final year forestry student studying in UCD. I am very interested in gardening and until recently I was heavily involved in the UCD vegetable garden club.

Hopefully I can pick up some tips for running a small garden here and maybe even help people out if they have any silvicultural problems.

Please ask me any questions because it will give me a reason to research more subjects in my course and get more use out of the fantastic library in UCD at my disposal. ( I don't get nearly enough use out of it as it is )

Cheers,
Fletcher

[forest flame]

hi fletcher
would you have any information on how to grow christmas trees mainly noble fir.and where would i get them.i notice a lot of the cut trees this year are very poor quality
thanks

[dinahdabble]

Welcome Fletcher! Great that you've joined. I promise to bother your brain to the very brink of madness and back again - I have questions that will require you to imerse your brain in a bucket of cold water for 24 hours after each one - if your up for it of course

I agree with Forest Flame, it would be great if you could help out with some advise on the growing of Christmas trees (I'm sure that most people would like to grow their own). The one I'm growing is a poor, shabby looking specimin. It's gone brown all down the windward side. I didn't think they needed any more shelter than the other conifers that are growing around them (Ceder and Spruce) which are all doing fine. What has gone wrong?

I've just put a bag of noble fir seeds in some compost in the fridge to stratify for a few weeks before I put them in a tray. What's the ideal germination temperature? I read 70 degrees, but this seems very warm?

Also, I've been growing two Blue, Colorado Spruce for some friends who want trees that don't spill needles. They're growing, but so, so slowly. Is there much variation in the speed at which different kinds of potential Christmas trees grow, or am I doing something awful to the poor little things?

[walltoall]

Hi DinahD
70F minus 32 = 38, multiply by 5/9 = 20+C = the likely temperature in almost any room in your house. But you knew that?

Hi Fletcher,
Welcome to the best gardening site in Europe. It's so good they have guys contributing from [almost] all over the world. If you trawl the complete site here you will not BELIEVE the wealth of stuff available, much of which has not even made the bookshelves of UCD and some of which may not get there for another 20 years if ever. I thought I was pretty good before I found "IrishGardeners". I'm a little humbled by some of the people I've come to know here.
wall to all

[dinahdabble]

Walltoall said: "the likely temperature in almost any room in your house" is 70F.
No, that's not the likely terperature in any room in my house. We are so mizerly here with the heating that even relatives refuse to visit. We are part of the cold-hardy generation who evolved befor the invention of proper heating systems. The warmest room is the "living room" and that is currently standing at about 58. We never actualy top 60. This, naturaly, means that many "indoor" plants do not flourish the way they do in other, fancy pants modern day hot-houses. But believe me the ones that do survive are Tough! Tough, Tough, Tough! And if you make jokes about their maths skills they'll come and hit you on the head with a wilted tomato plant stalk!

[Foxylock]

Sounds like my uncles house where if you touch anything metal in this weather you will stick to it The cat lives under the stove and refuses to come out until May !! Draught excluders are toilet roll inserts shoved into the breezy bits of windows and doors and central heating is an extra jumper. If that man says theres a bite in the air I make plans to hibernate

[brennan.jm]

Hi Fletcher,
any ideas on growing firewood within ten years