Vienne department of France, November 2023
Over the winter of 2020/2021, Guillaume, a farmer in the Vienne region of France, planted 605 trees to produce fodder and delimit his plot of aromatic plants. His planting aims to enrich biodiversity, improve soil fertility, and serve as an example to other farmers keen to adopt this more sustainable way of farming.
Three years after Guillaume’s planting, the trees continue to grow. A technician from the Prom’haie technical support structure made a follow-up visit 30 months after planting. During this visit, and as mentioned in the last article on the project, the technician noted damage linked to game pressure in the region. Game, mainly deer and roe deer, have damaged around 50% of the plantation. Fortunately, the trees are only damaged, not dead, which means that game attacks are only slowing down the growth rate.
To counter this, Guillaume continues to regularly apply Trico, a natural repellent made from sheep fat whose taste and smell puts off game from grazing the young trees. This product is quite effective, even if it doesn’t completely stop game attacks.
The uneven development of the plantation is down to irregular grazing of young trees by game.
In addition, Guillaume has increased mulching at the foot of the planted trees. The thick layer of mulch helped conserve moisture at the base of the treesb during the hot spell at the end of August 2023, as well as during the long period without rainfall at the end of that same summer.
To date the mortality rate is zero, since over the years of monitoring Guillaume has replaced all the dead plants by the same species.
In conclusion, growth of the plantation is extremely positive. Development rates are good. Despite uneven plant growth due to game pressure, the trees are doing well and developing at their own pace. Guillaume is closely involved in the plantation and is even doing a training course in tree maintenance, since the first seedlings will be pruned in the autumn of 2023.
