Hometree's Tree Nursery

From this season we have planted 15,000 willow cuttings which will be pulled in 10 months time to plant on Hometree sites and also sell. The cuttings are sourced locally. 

Our holly cuttings will be big enough to be planted or sold in 10 months, the smaller cuttings don't have spiked leafs as they are taken from the top of the holly trees which has less pressure from herbivores, meaning the higher leaves don't need as much “spiky” protection as the lower lying leaves. 

We are expecting a yield of approximately 40,000 from acorns that have been planted this season. 

In 2022 we grew Hawthorn, Alder, Scots Pine and Birch from seed in the poly-tunnel using an organic, no dig approach. In the last month these trees have been pulled and are ready to be planted on Hometree projects or sold. 

Our saplings, once pulled from the ground in preparation for delivery, are kept in a cool dark container in damp sacs to keep the roots moist. The trees can be healthy and happily stored like this for two weeks. 

Message from Mitch, our Nursery Manager:

“Our tree nursery and headquarters is being registered organic. This is so that we can assure that the saplings we are growing and the land we are using are being treated with the utmost care.  

We have closed our loop of fertility as much as possible, so that we can grow regeneratively with as little inputs as possible. This is done by producing our own composts and using our harvested grass for mulching cuttings in our no-dig, market garden style beds. 

Our 15 acre headquarters site in Ennistymon has been registered organic. The woodlands that we have planted and our saplings that are collected from ancient woodland stock will be our seed stands for Hometrees nursery in the coming years. 

We collect from sources such as the sacred Brian Boru Sessile Oak tree along with native Scots Pine sourced from the Burren that have survived since before the ice age, collected by Bernard Carey, who has been granted permission to collect from the NPWS, we also use The Conservation Volunteers.

This means we have a system to collect our seeds and saplings from organic land or trees that have a guarantee of coming from really old Irish genetics. Treating the land organically whilst we grow our saplings and forests is something that we are extremely passionate about, we want to start as we mean to go on and treat the earth with as much care as possible. 

The reason we plant trees is to help with the environment, so using any other method other than the organic standard is not acceptable for us as this is a clean and ethical way to grow. 

The horticultural act of growing saplings is fairly low on inputs due to saplings not needing too much fertility anyway. Weed control and keeping birds off seedbeds etc can be a huge amount of energy and time but we are very lucky to have an amazing crew of volunteers that support our tree planting projects from the seeds to trees and then to the final place the sapling will be planted for generations to come. Herbicide for weed control is something we are very greatful to mitigate using with all of the helpful hands that come along on the bi-monthly Saturday volunteer days. Much appreciation to all of Hometrees supporters, physically and in the way of donation.”