Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!munnari.oz.au!comp.vuw.ac.nz!cc-server4.massey.ac.nz!A.S.Chamove
From: A.S.Chamove@massey.ac.nz (A.S. Chamove)
Newsgroups: bionet.agroforestry
Subject: Re: Who's out there & chew on this..
Keywords: gorse
Message-ID: <1990Nov12.225513.1918@massey.ac.nz>
Date: 12 Nov 90 22:55:13 GMT
References: <1808@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au>
Organization: Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
Lines: 16
X-Reader: NETNEWS/PC Version 2.2

A 300 acre block nearby has recent come onto the market rather inexpensively.  THe reason is that it is steep and that it is covered with mature gorse.  I believe that it is possible to get rid of gorse by planting taller trees and shading out the gorse.  I know this can be done with the ubiquitous pine, but I am not keen to plant exclusively pine.  What I would like is to plant other varieties and also to plant them at a spacing which would allow grazing under the trees.

So my questions are:
1--What tree species can I plant to kill the gorse?
2--What do I have to do to the gorse first to allow the tree seedlings to get established?
3--What spacings should I use?  I realize that I might (?) have to plant at close spacing at first to shade out the gorse and then thin later.  Perhaps I could use some pines to get this initial shading, and then thin most of them out in a few years.

Other suggestions that have been offered are as follows:
	Spray the gorse and burn it (but that would also kill the natives that I would like to preserve).
	Rip out the gorse with root rippers (but that would tear up the hillside and leave a lot of open soil which would germinate a lot of gorse seeds).
	Kill the gorse with goats (that would kill the natives and I dont have that many goats).
	
arnold
New Zealand
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