Liming may be needed on some sites if the pH is less than 5.5. Most of the nutrient poor upland soils benefit from fertilising, and we have shown both sewage sludge and cattle slurry increase the yield of the crop. The shoots should be cut back after one year to produce multi-stemmed stools. Brush cutters can be used to harvest small scale plantings, but on a large scale a specially designed head attached to a standard forage harvester is recommended. We hold open days to demonstrate these techniques and show the yield of the crop with different establsihment and fertilisation techniques.
More details are available on our factsheets.