Purpose
The project was established to resolve questions that could not be answered from the existing research and are of importance to policy makers, energy producers and growers:
- Where should short rotation coppice crop be grown?
- Which varieties should be planted?
- What sort of average yield could be achieved?
Objectives
The overall objective is to develop models relating yield from energy coppice of poplar and willow to site factors and varietal characteristics by:
- Managing over 50 field trial sites where varieties of poplar and willow are grown to provide plant material for destructive and non-destructive data collection to inform model development
- Monitoring growth and biomass accumulation in varieties over two 3-year rotation cycles
- Collecting detailed environmental data characterising site conditions and their relationship with growth and yield
- Collecting qualitative data on the intensity of pests and diseases affecting SRC woody species
- Developing 2 models, an empirical and a process-based model, operating at the plot scale.
The subsidiary project aim is to assess growth performance of varieties:
- Using fixed planting pattern
- Avoiding irrigation
- With no use of pesticides to manage control of pests and/or diseases.
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