Noble Fir From 2011

In 2011 when i started growing Christmas trees I planted 300 bare root Noble fir, I have about 30 of these left, why did they die?, there could be a number of reasons,
I planted them in the Winter/Spring as normal for bare root, the ground was not frozen or too wet,
We had a very wet late spring early summer though and my field flooded, I suspect the field just got to wet for them as Noble don't like to much wet,
Or maybe bare root just don't do as well as plug cell grown, but saying that I planted 180 bare root Nordmann in 2013, for a trial, and i have only lost  couple of those ones,
In 2012 I planted 400 Nordmann and 150 Noble and for some reason we got them mixed up and i now have a block of Nordmann and Noble mixed up and the Noble are doing surprisingly well i don't think i have lost any of these ones yet

In the autumn of the same year 2011, I planted 300 Nordmann plug cell grown to date my losses on those is about 25 plants, we have now manged to get losses down to about 5% for previous years planting, still not brilliant but it is better, Roughly 50 plants per 1000,  

Maybe the field drainage was not good enough the first year, and the roots just got water logged, we have since put drainage ditches in and it is a lot better

Picture of one of the Noble firs i have left, they are about waist height and the right size to start shearing

September News Letter