Top Trunks guide

File uploads

Please see the ‘Top Trunks Guide’ PDF in the file uploads above as an easy glance guide to see how your trees will perform in terms of carbon storage.

All trees are great environmental contributors so whether they are an A or an E rating they are all doing their bit to lock up carbon by taking carbon dioxide out of the air and converting it into their structures. Barcham Top Trunks gives a guide to the extent carbon is stored per variety. The measurement is estimated dry weight carbon at maturity so the longer a tree lives and the larger it gets the more contribution it delivers.

We are the first nursery to score trees in this way, using data from thousands of trees throughout the UK via the measuring tool ‘I Tree’. Many of these trees are either urban trees or near buildings in rural locations so we estimate that trees with greater access to space and soil volumes in the wider countryside could store up to three times the volumes shown here.

As yet, the measuring systems in place for calculating carbon load are still in their infancy. The carbon locked up below ground in root systems may contribute as much as what we have calculated above ground. What we do know for sure is that trees are a great way for our species to help redress the environmental threat of our time, global warming.

The modelling we have used for this study has an abundance of data at genus and species level but we grow a wide range and there was insufficient data to cover all cultivars. With these obscure varieties we have estimated their eco ratings, taking into account their ultimate size and lifespan compared to their species.

Please see the ‘Top Trunks Guide’ PDF in the file uploads above as an easy glance guide to see how your trees will perform in terms of carbon storage.