At the Biomass Connect hub site in West Devon the first half of May was cool and damp. Spring arrived mid-Month, and the ground at North Wyke Farm quickly began to crack, as the partially waterlogged clay dried and baked hard in places. The ground was hard enough, at last, to get the tractor into the field without wrecking the soil structure.
This was the news our planting contractors had been waiting for. The four strong planting team from Miscanthus Nursery Ltd. arrived on 26th May with a tractor -mounted planter and two dumpy bags of Miscanthus x giganteus rhizomes. We power-harrowed the plot in the morning, then pulled the planter over the plot while they fed the hoppers with rhizomes. Those of us who had planted the Miscanthus variety trial in April by hand, in the mud, looked on with envy in our hearts. This job was done in a short day, with just the Cambridge rolling left to finish the job.
