625 plants in an hour and a half – that’s how many poplar cuttings Peter Eßer, ‘Der Gänsepeter’ from Rommerskirchen, planted on a field together with his son Sebastian Eßer, Jannis Menne from our Agroforestry Living Laboratory team and employees of Gänsepeter GmbH. The result was initially a pure poplar agroforestry, i.e. a combination of rows of poplar trees and arable crops, in this case corn. In autumn, another row of native energy and valuable woods will be added to the system. Peter Eßer and Jannis Menne talk about the planning, planting and maintenance in an interview.
Peter Eßer, better known as ‘Der Gänsepeter’ (The Goose Peter), lives with his family, several thousand geese and other poultry on his farm in Rommerskirchen. Geese are already roaming his cornfields today.
Jannis Menne is a research assistant in the Agroforestry Living Laboratory team. He was involved in the planning and planting of the agroforestry system and is researching livestock behaviour – in this case, geese – in agroforestry systems.
You started planting a new agroforestry in May. How did you come to the decision to plant a poplar agroforestry?
Peter: We considered what we could plant here. The arable land covers two hectares. Essentially, it was a matter of structuring the area and creating shade. Normally, corn is the crop we prefer to bring geese to the area. We let the geese harvest the corn as feed, and at the same time it serves as weather protection and keeps the animals occupied. However, we will have a problem in the future because we will no longer be allowed to grow corn on corn. And that’s how we quickly ended up with poplar, because it’s a tried and tested system. There are good quality seedlings available.
Jannis: The main priority was to provide weather protection for the geese on the land. Poplar trees are ideal for this purpose as they are fast-growing. A poplar agroforestry is quite inexpensive compared to other systems because the cuttings are much cheaper to purchase than grafted fruit trees, for example. The final impetus to plant a poplar agroforestry for energy wood came from Peter’s son, Sebastian Eßer.
How long did it take from planning to planting the first poplar tree?
Jannis: The planning took several months. We first played around with ideas until we decided on poplar as the main component of the system. Then we looked at how to lay the strips out sensibly on the area and worked out the planting distances.
Peter: I discussed with our farm manager how he could solve this technically. Today’s crop protection sprayers are very wide, and somehow it must be possible to protect the crops growing between the poplars. As we are not an organic farm, but rather a normal arable farm. That was the deciding factor in our decision to plant three single rows and three double rows of trees on this area. The service provider then used his tractor and RTK GPS to mark out the future agroforestry strips on the land.
Jannis: We have a total of four agroforestry strips on the site. We experimented a little with the spacing between the plants. In the first row, for example, we chose a planting distance of two metres. In the second row, we tested different planting distances of two metres, 1.5 metres and three metres, so that there is a wide distance right next to a short distance in order to demonstrate any effects on growth. The individual tree strips are three metres apart.
How did the planting go? How many helping hands were needed?
Peter: The planting went really well. We dug a furrow with a deep ripper. One person walked behind the deep ripper and marked the planting distances with roof battens sawn to length. Two other people then placed the poplar cuttings (1.5 m long) 50 to 60 centimetres deep into the ground. The actual planting of 625 poplars took only an hour and a half. So it went very quickly.
Did you water the cuttings at the beginning, and what about watering now?
Peter: Basically, we have soil that retains water very well. We have loess loam here with an average of about 90 soil points. A week before we planted, there was a thunderstorm with 50 millimetres of rain. A few plants didn’t take root, so I watered them again by hand. But the goal is to manage without irrigation. I think our soil can handle it. Poplars also do well without water, at least here in our area.
Jannis: What was also great to see during planting was that there was still enough residual moisture in the soil in the furrow left by the deep ripper. And that’s why, immediately after planting, the slit left by the deep ripper was filled in again by hand so as not to lose this moisture.
The poplar trees not only provide shade for the geese, they are also harvested. How exactly does that work?
Peter: The plan is to harvest the poplars after six to eight years. This means they will be completely cut down to a height of approximately one metre (cut back to stumps). Ideally, they will then have a diameter of 20 centimetres at breast height. They are harvested so that the wood can be used as wood chips. The remaining stumps will sprout again from the side. After another seven years, and then a third time after another seven years, they can be harvested again. After three, or a maximum of four cycles, complete clearing must then take place.
What about maintenance measures on the site?
Peter: The area should be kept black, which means that vegetation will be removed because these plants compete with the poplar trees. At some point, this will no longer be an issue, and the idea is to let the geese roam here at some point. Once the poplar trunks are strong enough, the geese will no longer cause any damage. If I let the geese roam here now, they would cause a great deal of damage by grazing.
Do you install protection against wild animals?
Peter: We also have roe deer here, but I didn’t consider that to be a major risk. We also have lots of hares here, but I took the risk of doing nothing. Because protecting is, of course, very time-consuming and, above all, very expensive.
Jannis, you helped plan the system and were there in the field during planting – what does future collaboration look like?
Jannis: I would like to include the goose pastures, including this agroforestry system, in my research. My research focuses on livestock farming in agroforestry systems. And what’s exciting here is being able to observe the geese in different grazing situations. How do they accept the agroforestry system, how do they use the shade provided by the trees in future years? How can geese be integrated into an agroforestry system for greater animal welfare while at the same time protecting the trees from the geese? It’s like Peter said: the browsing on the trees is problematic. It’s also a matter of finding a solution for how to separate the geese and the trees for a certain period of time until the trees are strong enough.
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