Coppice or Pollard?

Whether or not you harvest your willow to use every year, it’s a good idea to cut it back every year, in late fall or winter, after the leaves drop and the plant is dormant. New growth, especially on curly willow, is usually more colorful, and new growth is less likely to be branchy. There are two common methods of pruning, or harvesting willow. Coppicing is simply cutting all of the rods off very close to the stool, or original cutting that you planted. Only about an inch need be left.

The photo above shows coppiced willow.

Pollarding is a method of pruning where the stool is left to grow higher, for easier harvesting (above any weedy or grassy growth, or just not requiring one to bend down so far).To pollard, coppice after the first years’ growth, and then, the second winter, select a thick, straight rod, near the center of the plant, and cut this at the height you want your pollard to be. Cut all other rods as short as possible. For a few years, some rods will probably still grow from the bottom. Keep cutting these close every winter, and eventually all growth will come from the raised pollard. In the old days, when country people often pollarded wild willow to use, pollards were cut as high as 6 ft, to be completely safe from deer and wandering livestock!

The photo above shows pollarded willow.