History

Barcham Trees was established in 1980 close to the Fenland hamlet from which it takes its name. The nursery lies virtually in the shadow of the Ely Cathedral, the magnificent "ship of the fens" which has dominated the local landscape for centuries.

In the early days the nursery concentrated on growing seedlings and transplanting field grown trees. Dissatisfied with the loss rate following transplanting our Managing Director Mike Glover began to experiment with container production and trialled a rudimentary white bag.

As a student at Writtle College, Barchams Managing Director Mike Glover learned from an Australian nurseryman that white pots rather than traditional black ones were actually better for any plant which stays in its container for more than a few months. On joining Barcham a few months later Glover was delighted to see that the company was already seriously trialling those white pots with a view to full scale tree production.

Barcham converted to the white pot, actively promoting the innovative production method aware that field grown trees, particularly oak, beech and birch proved extremely difficult to establish in their final positions. Indeed most field grown trees prove difficult to establish. Mike describes these field grown trees graphically as ‘like being fish out of water’ from the time they are lifted to the time they are planted in their permanent positions. Barcham 1996 Barcham had sold it’s last field grown tree and moved exclusively to the production of trees in white pots.

In 1991 500 trees in white pots were available for sale, today there are spaces on the nursery for over 160,000 trees with over 120,000 trees representing over 350 varieties actually available for sale.

The original white container was made of polythene and although it produced the desired root system it was difficult to handle. Aggregate bags with handles were then trialled and these proved very successful. Today the white pots are made from woven polyethylene that support handles for easy movement. This design has been patented by Barcham Trees and is now known as the Light Pot™.

During the process of developing the Light Pot™, pot dimensions have been amended to meet the exacting requirements of customers who have to handle the trees produced at their final planting site, a drawstring introduced at the top of the bag to pull tight at the time of despatch and the sides of the bag peppered with holes to improve the flow of oxygen within the compost. This created a more fibrous root system within the container similar to those of air pot production but offered a more robust system for despatch and handling as, unlike air pots, the Light Pot™ is retained during delivery with the roots protected all the way to the final planting pit.

During 2000 it became apparent that containerising trees in the conventional way, in the open air on the rows the trees were to stand on was no longer viable given the number of trees being handled on the nursery each season.  Production Director Warren Holmes-Chatfield were faced with a dilemma, what to do if Barcham was to continue to develop. Innovation was the only answer as the blueprint for a machine to containerise up to 50,000 trees during the dormant season (November to March) was not in existence. Over a piece of scrap paper Warren sketched out a crude design and presented a local foundry with the task of turning their Heath - Robinson vision into reality. The machine now situated to the rear of the potting shed is testimony to their success. With a capability of potting over 1000 trees each day it is the only one of it’s kind and arouses curiosity and interest in all those who visit the nursery.