Farm matters

 

Little Farm, Pocket Farm, Mini-Farm, Hobby Farm, Farmlet, Farmelita. 

I'm setting aside 1/2 acre for the initial farm field. It's about 150 feet squared. Each 10 foot square area can hold 35-45 willow plants, with generous aisles between rows. That half acre will eventually fill with around 10,000 plants within 3-5 years. Each plant will grow 10-50 usable rods per year on average, giving a possible harvest of 100K - 500K rods. They currently sell for about a dollar per 4-6 ft rod. 

Not so little, eh? Well, depending on good weather, plenty of rain and sun and some timely planting and replanting. 

The first two years will be taken up with filling out the numbers. About half of my starting willow plants have rods that can be replanted in the spring to be new plants. I'll probably fill in with purchased stakes of willow varieties or colors that I want more of, and hold off selling anything til I have about half of the field producing well. 

For those interested, I started with these seven varieties, all recommended highly for baskets and some that are also good for fencing,  hedges and stream retention. 

• Streamco
• Frances Red
• Rubykins
• Americana
• Miyabeana
• Brittany Green
• Acutifolia