This kit requires 100 sq m of land.
The kit has all you need to grow your own wood fuel. It includes;
- 400 x 12" willow setts / cuttings (4 varieties of biomass willow)
- 100m of woven groundcover sheeting 1m wide, that can be placed directly onto grass land so you don't need to dig or weed.
- Pegs to hold the groundcover down
- Full instructions from initial planting to harvesting your wood fuel.
The yield from your field.
A Well managed coppiced willow bed will produce between 0.5 and 1.5 kg of dry wood per sett per year. An acre field will give you around 5-6 tonnes of burnable wood chips or logs and kindling (at 30% moisture). In energy terms this equates to 1400 litres of heating oil or 16,000 kWh of gas. This is roughly 8 tonnes of green unseasoned wood. The willow coppice will maintain high productivity for at least 20 years, and you can reasonably expect it to give an economic yield for more years . These figures are based on harvesting a quarter of an acre each year in rotation. You can produce & harvest logs without specialist equipment. The willow setts are planted directly through the groundcover leaving 2-4 inches showing. This is done by pushing a metal rod through the groundcover into the ground 8-10 inches, then pushing the willow into the hole.
In all Starter Kits setts are planted at 50cm spacing, in two rows 60cm apart.
