Planting

On May 13th, 2009 Dennis Rak of Double-A-Willow and his team of four arrive on site at about 8:30am. After a slow start due to a broken drive belt and misplaced bushing, they are able to fix their planter on site and plant about 60,000 8-inch cuttings. Plantings are made in double rows that are 2 1/2 feet apart with a 5 foot gap between each double row. They finish the planting at about 6:00pm.

Immediately after the planting, Dennis sprays the field with a pre-emergent herbicide and finishes at about 7:30pm. These herbicides (prowl and goal) are sprayed immediately after the planting. The reason why they don’t kill the willow is because they stick close to the surface and do not penetrate very deep. They also adhere strongly to the soil, avoiding contamination of wetland located about 400 yards away.

John Pumilio and Ian Helfant (Sustainability Council Chair) both conduct quick interviews with Anthony Adornato (Colgate University) and Glenn Coin (The Post-Standard) on site. Ian also takes a tripod-mounted video of the planting process once the planter is back up and running, as does a Colgate videographer. The video and story are posted on Colgate's website the following week.

To view the video click here: http://offices.colgate.edu/Video_Console/Console_email.asp?VideoID=458

During the first year, the willow will grow in straight shoots (4-5 feet tall). At this point, we will cut them to only 1 or 2 inches above the surface. This causes the willow to grow outward (bush-like) maximizing the rate of growth and the total biomass. By the end of the second year, the willow may be eight feet tall. Again, this all is dependent on the soil, weather, willow-types, and overall conditions. By the third year, we should be ready to harvest. We can expect about 15 dry tons/acre (30-40 wet tons/acre) of biomass. This will give us about 100 tons of fuel every three years. For comparison, Colgate currently burns about 100 tons per day of woodchips during the winter months. This is why the plot is only ‘experimental’ – it is not a significant supply to meet our heating needs. It should also be known that we will be able to repeat cuttings every three years for 6-7 harvests in a row. Therefore, the work we are doing now will allow us to harvest about 735 dry tons of biomass in total over a 20-year period.


Other information that might be useful:

• We tested the pH of the plot. It was 6.65 (Point 1) and 6.88 (Point 2). These are nicely within the optimum range listed in the willow report (5.5-8.0) and jive with the USDA source listed in their report.
• The herbicides Prowl and Goal were used after planting. This is a necessary evil because the biggest threat to the willow field is weeds.