A NEW tree production facility could provide a continuous and steady supply of stock - while improving its quality and resilience.
Maelor Forest Nurseries has invested £4 million into the Welsh site, near Wrexham, which will enable seeds to be sown directly into trays, with the germination taking place in a controlled environment. It's hoped this will lead to better consistency in the yield of tree supply.
Work on the facility began in summer 2021 with a target completion date of spring 2022. The first crops from it are expected to be dispatched to customers in winter 2023/24.
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Ben Goh, Maelor Forest Nurseries commercial manager, said: “By way of mitigation, Maelor Forest Nurseries has taken the step to invest £4 million in a miniplug production facility at its main production site near Wrexham in Wales with the aim of minimising these risks whilst simultaneously improving quality and increasing production capacity.”
The traditional method of growing saplings for productive forestry involves sowing seed on prepared beds in the field.
To ensure successful germination and growth, optimum conditions are critical for aspects such as soil structure, moisture, and temperature, as well as the need to protect the young plants from the pressures arising from pests, disease, and weeds.
These conditions can vary at a macro and micro scale, creating variability in the crop, which negatively impacts the efficiency of downstream operations such as lifting and grading as well as the quality of the trees themselves.
Recent years have been notable for increased extreme weather events such as droughts, frosts, heatwaves, and flooding, with the frequency and severity of both expected to accelerate in the future with the changing climate.
These events can negatively impact the growth of a crop and occasionally lead to catastrophic losses.
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Another factor in using the traditional growing method is the manual labour involved in bed preparation, seed sowing, irrigation, field applications, and weeding. These are just some of the manual tasks associated with seed sowing. The availability of suitably trained labour is therefore also a key consideration in the success of crop establishment in the field.
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