There are two schools of thought when it comes to planting up whips. One is to get them out ‘in situ’ whilst their roots are small and are not requiring too much moisture to survive and the other is to create a ‘tree nursery’, ‘potted up’ or, if you have enough space, in open ground and protected whilst they develop enough of a root system to fully support the sapling/tree through its early years and onwards to maturity. With so many to cope with, it was decided to split the whips between the two methods and hope for as good a survival rate as possible.

With a large number of silver birch on our course, ostensibly planted around the same time, and so with a 70/80 year life span, they are coming to the end of their time and beginning to die off. Although modern golf course thinking is less towards trees and back to something like the open layout of the early days, replacements will be needed and they can cost sizeable amounts of money.

Any young tree that’s planted out will require protection from deer, rabbits, etc. and regular clearance of competition from grass and weeds will be necessary to give them the best chance. With the ‘tree nursery’-grown trees, the emphasis is on complete protection of course, but also with an ever larger root system, regular watering as required, will hopefully ensure a total survival rate until needed. At the time of writing, all the trees are surviving nicely.