IT is good to know there are still places in the Hunter where you can drink straight from the stream.
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Such a place is the upper reaches of Watagan Creek, not far from Laguna, the home since 1985 of Bill and Betty Hicks.
The couple moved to the area when Bill retired from his work as an electrical engineer.
And it was here on their five hectares (12 acres) that Bill and Betty came up with the “longstem deep planting” technique that enabled native plants to be substituted for willows for streambank rehabilitation.
Now approaching their 90s, the couple have enjoyed some of their best years in the Wollombi Valley.
Native-plant pioneer
The story begins in 1957 in Sydney when Bill became a founding member of the Society for Growing Australian Plants and president of the East Coast and Inland chapter.
Some of his early achievements include:
- Founding chairman of the David A. Stead Wildlife Research Station at Wirrimbirra near Bargo, NSW.
The longstem technique
Longstem deep planting involves growing native plants to about a metre in length in 50-millimetre-square tube pots. This unusual length (without the plants becoming root-bound) is achieved with a fertiliser mix and allowing the plants’ roots to be air pruned.
A deep hole is dug in the ground using a water jet (or petrol auger) so that about 70per cent of the plant’s stem is buried in the ground.
This means the roots of the plant are in deep, moist soil and will usually survive, regardless of the conditions.
The species must be appropriate for the environment, and preferably grown from local seed.
Amazingly, the trunk is not harmed. Roots grow from leaf and branch nodes, resulting in an extremely healthy tree.
The original problem
Bill and Betty hadn’t lived on Watagan Creek long when the Wollombi Valley Landcare group came asking them to join.
But there was a problem. The group wanted to stop planting willows (which had become weeds) to control streambank erosion, and wanted to plant natives instead.
Bill was asked to develop a technique that would allow the natives to survive.
The problem was twofold: young natives planted along riverbanks tended to die from thirst (sandy riverbanks are quite dry in their top layers) or be washed away in floods.
Willows were successful because a stem could be planted deeply.
Bill used his engineer’s logical brain to break the problem into its parts, eventually coming up with the longstem solution that many experts, including academics, initially scoffed at.
Proof in the planting
Bill proved his system could work by growing and planting longstems on his property.
His first longstem tree, a river oak (Casuarina cunninghamiana), is still going strong.
In 1989, three years after his research began, Bill and Betty took their first order of 25,000 longstems from the then Catchment Management Trust and Department of Land and Water Conservation.
Other orders soon followed, with the Hickses growing at least 100,000 longstems at their small nursery.
Other applications
Bill is yet to find a tree, native or exotic, that cannot be reared and planted using the longstem technique.
The technique is now being adopted by the horticultural industry, with a recent segment presented by Angus Stewart on ABC TV’s Gardening Australia producing a lot of viewer interest.
Cuttings, too, can benefit from deep planting, as was shown on the TV segment, and this is a part of the technique that Bill is keen to develop.
Contacting Bill
Bill is happy for people to contact him about the longstem deep planting technique or other native plant matters.
He has produced a DVD and a booklet about the longstem method that includes the fertiliser regime necessary.
Email norkhil@bordernet.com.au or phone 4998 8387.
