Rasmus D. Andersen wrote:
Companion planting is an accepted gardening term, though like "nurse
log" it's developed a more narrow common definition. I'm with Larry -
use your own term. It works well. The method itself sounds a bit
counter productive. Do the advantages of "mantle planting" outweigh
the competition?


Sometimes it is essentiel to make the plants grow taller than 2m. over which
height the deer doesn't bite them down anymore. It also gives us a helping
hand especially when we try to convert conifer plantations into mixed
broadleaved forest, this way we save the money it costs to fence the whole
regeneration site and the use of pesticides and fertilizers a less needed.
commonly this kind of regeneration are not done to produce logs or pulpwood,
but more a way to create greater biodiversity and upgrade the value of the
landscapes. In a way you can say that these areas are taken out off
production for a great amount of time and it may seem like a stupid thing to
do, but there is no longer good money in raw wood for the time being and
forestowners are demanding other values nowadays - we are tought most about
the production of biological and social values of the forest!

Rasmus


I can understand the method's use for forest restoration in the specific
cases you mentioned. There have been similar attempts here (pacific NW
usa) - conversion to hardwood is uncommon and difficult to manage. In my
area, use of Spruce (here we'd use picea sitchensis) as the mantle would
require cutting the spruce after just five or ten years. It would
quickly overshadow a companion hardwood. The sharp needles would do a
fine job of retarding browse though.