Contract Growing

The only sure way of securing planting stock, grown from seed from a specific locality, is by communicating with the nursery well in advance, enabling plenty of time to source, clean, prepare, stratify and sow the seed, in order for it to grow to your specification - This is called ‘Contract Growing’.

  

When Selecting preferred seed locations, one must give consideration to several practical issues:-

• Is there seed of the species required within that area?
• Is it of practical and economical quantity?
• Is it of adequate quality and viability?
• Does it require to be registered by the Forestry Commission?
• Does the proposed end planting require registered stock of any species for timber production?
• Allow plenty of lead time to locate, collect and grow the seed for a specific planting job. Planting stock from all regions of provenance will not necessarily be growing ‘in stock’ and ‘available’ at any one time. In some cases that may be possible by chance, but it is very unlikely!

Given the frequent scarcity and high value of many local seed sources, the most cost effective way of producing the best yield of plants from these seeds is by getting the stock grown in Cells. This minimises the risk of loss of seed, and offers the most traceable system of growing, particularly for small quantities of seed. The customer therefore has security and confidence of supply. A contract grow produces the best for the plant and the best for the customer. CERTAIN CRITICAL POINTS MUST BE CONSIDERED:-

• Lead time required:-
  • Time taken from planning a project to completing the planting. Certain seeds may be easily collectible, may grow rapidly and produce a plant - all within a period of 12 months. Many species will require at least a year of seed treatment and may still also take 18-24 months to produce a saleable plant. THUS LEAD TIME CAN BE, AND MAY NEED TO BE AS LONG AS THREE YEARS. THE LONGER THE BETTER!
• Reasonable provenance flexibility:-
  • To allow seed collection from an adjacent sub division or locality, in the event of better quality or quantity of seed being available.
• Size and form of planting stock preferred:-
  • Once known, the nursery will do its best to achieve this. Size and form may vary from ‘accepted norms’ in cases where seed quality is compromised by other specific factors, requiring the use of a particular seed source. The nursery will discuss these considerations at the outset.
• Seed collection:-
  • Who will collect the seed from the selected area?
  • How much seed is needed?When should it be collected?
  • The nursery must oversee or organise all of the above. It may be possible to use ‘customers labour to collect. Timing and handling of seed is CRITICAL.
• Special compost requirements:-
  • Certain sensitive sites and customer requirements may necessitate unusual compost to be used. This can be easily accommodated, but must be notified in advance.
• Compost additives:-
  • Inoculation with site specific mycorrhizae.
  • Additional slow release fertiliser requirement.
  • Insecticide granules, or applications at despatch.
  • Inoculation with soil or medium from the final planting site to reduce ‘root shock’ when planting. Essential for contaminated land, toxic soils and ‘brown site restoration’.
• Above average or abnormal plant specification:-
  • A site's and / or customer's requirement may be for a specific size, girth, shape, form of plant. This is easily accommodated by adaption of cell size (or even pot size) and time of growing.
• Time of year/date plants required:-
  • To suit the customer and the planting site, plants can be delivered at the optimum time - by agreement.
• Quantities required:-
  • Whether large or small, contract growing in cells is best - FOR THE PLANT AND FOR YOU.

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Definitions (Seed collection terminology)

Local - In close proximity to.

Source - Where something physically comes from.

Origin - The place where the natural distribution of a species was originally located

Provenance - The place where the plants, from which the seed was taken, were growing.

Stratification - The process of breaking the dormancy and preparing the seed for germination and growth.

Cell Grown - The growing of plants in ‘small containers’ as opposed to bare rooted.

Did you know?
Trees growing in the UK can be of UK provenance, but they are NOT necessarily of UK origin!

Plant Passports
E.C. regulations require plant traceability, enabling an audit trail through a plants’ complete life history, including production, sale, merchanting if applicable, and ultimate planting. This requires a nursery to be visited, approved and subsequently issued with its own Plant Passport Identification Number. The system enables monitoring and follow up of any issues or problems with plant health, and in certain cases can restrict movement of species from one area to another.

Our Passport I.D No. is UK/S 0428

Using a Reputable Nursery
How can you be sure you are dealing with a nursery capable of providing the genuine product and service you require?

Use a Nursery that can show you:-

• Plant passports
• Seed certificates
• Nursery certification
• Quality Assurance

Look for the proven skills and ability of the whole nursery team, and be sure you are confident of your suppliers’ capabilities.

Seed Certification
All seed commercially and professionally collected is required to be supplied with a certificate providing full detail and information regarding:-

• Certificate number
• Species supplied
• Identity number (eg. 97(30))
• Provenance
• Origin if known
• Weight of seed supplied
• Number of live seeds per kg
• % of purity/germination

This information can be requested as ‘proof of seed source’. Obviously where a private collection is made, that certificate will not exist. However, the customer should advise the nursery of as much detail as possible to allow appropriate labelling and traceability on the nursery.

Nursery Certification
Reputable nurseries will be certificated by various bodies, covering aspects of Plant Health and Plant Passports (MAFF/SOAEFD), Forestry Reproductive Material Regs (Forest Authority), Production & Training Standards (IIP).

Cheviot Trees subscribes to all of the above schemes which require a comprehensive audit trail of information and records, which form an openly traceable system which a customer can ask to see and discuss.

Quality Assurance
Only use a nursery with an OPENLY TRACEABLE, QUALITY ASSURANCE system.

If you would like for information regarding contract growing of plants, please don't hesitate to contact us.

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