Growing a Plantation

Each Heartwood Plantations investment begins at the nursery. High quality seed is selected from our orchards and germinated into healthy vigorous seedlings.

Our plantations are carefully designed to suit the landscape in which they will be grown. This involves an assessment of soils, aspect, rainfall and elevation to match the best species to each site.

Thorough site preparation is the key to successful tree growth. After more than 20 years of plantation experience, Heartwood Plantations has developed techniques to enable high seedling survival rates and rapid growth.

Our plantations are intensively managed to maximise investor returns. This includes monitoring tree nutrition, periodic thinning to remove the smallest and poorest form trees and pruning to promote the growth of knot-free timber. 

Each plantation produces a range of timber products during its 20-25 year rotation. Initial thinning activities produce firewood, posts and chips for paper manufacturing. The final harvest produces large pruned logs that are suited to premium markets such as decking, lining boards and other decorative timber products.