Tree Planting

[dbltree]

Not as many cedars as the other goodies you listed. Sparse cedars on a south facing slope in winter is dynamite bedding. Dogwoods, plum and elderberry will provide good browse and cover to I would go heavier on those than the cedars. :way:

I agree with Phil but there are a couple options to consider...

1) Plant the cedars a little thicker and then thin them later as they grow to leave plenty of "grassy" or brushy space around them. This gives a little more cover during the growing years is all and if thinning them might not be possible..skip this idea!

2) Plant rows that are thicker but lot's of space (for shrub plantings) between the cedar rows. This gives some thermal cover and screening but plenty of open space on either side of the row.

3) Scatter cedars thru out your shrub planting keeping them perhaps at least 20-30 feet a part in alternating rows with shrubs planted between them.

Wild cedars tend to pop up in thickets that eventually become a wasteland with nothing under them and that's not good habitat.

We learn from that and adapt plantings to create the kind of habitat we see whitetails using such as in this picture.

Deer use the cedar as a backdrop/thermal windbreak and lay in the native grass around it. Shrubs give them further screening and protection that they can see under/through creating ideal bedding habitat....:way:

 

[dbltree]

Well I'm placing my first order for cuttings from Big Rock Trees! Something new for me but I can see where not having to fight with a root system at planting will make the job easier. I ordered the rooting hormone and more Rootmaker cells from BRT's as well along with a really neat planting auger for my cordless drill! Sweet! :way:

The cuttings are mostly dogwoods and ninebark type shrubs for lowland plantings and if your interested don't wait much longer to order because John is running low or out of some cuttings.

Big Rock Trees

Some of my acorns and chestnuts are sprouting already in the rootmaker cells!

Timburr Chestnut from Oikos Tree Crops

Sargent and Bimunders hybrid oaks from Oikos Tree Crops

Pretty neat watching them take off and a very inexpensive way to start your own oak seedlings. The Rootmaker cells are inexpensive from Big Rock trees and you can pick up and store your own acorns in the fall or try some hybrids from Oikos or Sheffield's.

Sheffield’s Seed Company

Oikos Tree Crops

It's also a lot of fun to swap and trade acorns with other landowners in the fall, choosing from prolific consistant mast producing trees that one may also observe heavy feeding activity that indicates sweet low tannin acorns.

 

[letemgrow]

Good looking stuff Paul!!

I built a (hopefully) squirrel proof container that I will post pics of later today. I have troubles with squirrels at my house as they know what is waiting for them in those containers.

 

[letemgrow]

Here is the finished product of my first (hopefully) squirrel proof container. There are several squirrels around my house and acorns, walnuts, chestnut seeds are a dynamite draw for them if they are not protected. They can make quick work of a few hundred seeds thats for sure.

 

[letemgrow]

Here is a photo of my first tree planting of oaks done in 1998. The swamp white oaks outgrew all the other oaks because the deer did not eat the tops of them. The pin oaks and burr oaks have struggled while the swamp white oaks have done really well.

The pictures go 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006

I notice the same trend on my farm, the swamp white oaks have no troubles producing seedlings while every other white oak (white, and bur) seems to have very little seedling regeneration. The deer sure do browse those 2 hard. :way:

 

[dbltree]

Here is the finished product of my first (hopefully) squirrel proof container. There are several squirrels around my house and acorns, walnuts, chestnut seeds are a dynamite draw for them if they are not protected. They can make quick work of a few hundred seeds thats for sure.

I like it Phil! :way:

 

[letemgrow]

I have an idea to plant some shrubs with a cheap way to keep deer off them. I am going to make a cage out of PVC and chicken wire that is shaped like an upside down V. Make it about 10 feet long and 4 feet wide so the shrubs can grow up for 1-2 years without being browsed until the limbs emerge from the cage and it will still be plenty light enough for me to move around and move off those shrubs once they are established to a new planting or maintenance on those shrubs as they are growing.

 

[dbltree]

I have an idea to plant some shrubs with a cheap way to keep deer off them. I am going to make a cage out of PVC and chicken wire that is shaped like an upside down V. Make it about 10 feet long and 4 feet wide so the shrubs can grow up for 1-2 years without being browsed until the limbs emerge from the cage and it will still be plenty light enough for me to move around and move off those shrubs once they are established to a new planting or maintenance on those shrubs as they are growing.

Ought to do the trick Phil!

I ordered Ninebark, Redosier Dogwood, Silky Dogwood, Yellow Twig Dogwood and California Privet from Big Rock Trees and would have ordered some Arrowood but I fooled around and waited to long... ...next year!

I also ordered Nannyberry, Wild Plum, Nanking Cherry and my red cedars from our State Forest Nursery in Ames Iowa.

The cuttings from John will be mostly low ground plantings while the others along with the cedars will be on higher ground and a combination of both screening and bedding.

I'll spray a combination of glyphosate, simazine and crop oil ahead of my plantings and add Oust to the red cedars for longer control.

Simazine is pretty safe for shrubs and apple trees at 2-4 quarts per acre and a quart of gly and a quart of crop oil will help get a good intial kill of any coolseason grasses before planting.

Add one to two ounces of OustXP per acre for conifers and oaks.

Looking forward to getting started planting in a few weeks!

 

[letemgrow]

Looking forward to getting started planting in a few weeks!

No doubt, Thursday I start with planting my MDC order of XL shumard oaks, cherrybark oak, arrowwood, nannyberry, hazelnuts, chokeberry, chokecherry, roughleaf dogwood, flowering dogwood, false indigo, american beautyberry, elderberry, paw paw and silky dogwood. Those false indigo, elderberry, hazelnut and silky dogwood will be a work out since they very large rootsystems!!

 

[letemgrow]

Out of staters can order from the MDC nursery,
Here is the email I got from them:
"Yes, we accept orders from out of state, we usually wait until January 1st to accept big out of state orders, just for future reference. But on a small order they accept them all season."

 

[dbltree]

Have you looked at any of these tree screens or protectors Phil? Not sure how they would stack up cost wise to what your thinking of making?

Tree protectors, nets and tubes

They have some bark protectors too that look interesting for young oak saplings.

Any thoughts on Tree Tubes?? Getting ready to order very soon...:way:

 

[letemgrow]

I am going to try some more protex tubes this year, they have been on the farm for 5 years and still look new. Plan on doubling them up to make an 8 inch diamater tube for a pretty cheap price and drill ventilation holes in them. I also ordered 100+ of the rigid mesh tubes and will be trying them out for the first time this year.

The treepro doublewides are my cadillac of choice, but they are pricey and seem to break down faster than the protex tubes from forestry suppliers. I just do not have any solid proof on how well the protex tubes work since cattle monster trucked them all the first year and I went to treepro's after that.

Bring on Thursday!! I am ready to get some dirt under the nails!!

 

[dbltree]

These things are very inexpensive

Protex<SUP><SUP>®</SUP></SUP> Pro/Gro Solid Tube Tree Protectors

I might just give them a shot too...

 

[letemgrow]

I might just give them a shot too...

Might as well, we have tried lots of other stuff that has not worked.

 

[dbltree]

The little trees are growing like mad in the Rootmaker cells!!

The acorns from Oikos have put on amazing growth in barely 10 days! :way:

The chestnuts from Oikos are also growing like crazyy too!

These are red oaks from a friend

Dwarf Chinkapins

The potting soil has "fertilizer" in it but I'll probably use some slow release Osmocote too until I either plant them or move them to larger Roottrappers. Awesome way to start acorns economically, especially expensive hybrid oaks!

I'm going to start moving them outside Monday morning so they can "toughen" up by being exposed to wind and cooler temps. Probably move them back in at night at first but we have some very nice weather ahead so they should do fine outside!

Monday: Sunny, with a high near 58.
Monday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 38.
Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 66.
Tuesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 50.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 75.
Wednesday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 52.
Thursday: Sunny, with a high near 76.
Thursday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 53.
Friday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 77.
Friday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 56.

 

[letemgrow]

Those seeds are doing great!! I have been putting a fan on mine some to simulate wind and varying temps so they do better when I move them out.

 

[dbltree]

Those seeds are doing great!! I have been putting a fan on mine some to simulate wind and varying temps so they do better when I move them out.

Are you going to move the fan to opposite sides of the seedlings once a day Phil?

I thought about that myself but since it is going to be so warm I think'll just let Ma Nature "buffet" them a little!

Also wondering are you going to transplant some to Roottrapper bags or just plant them all?

Lot's of possibles...I'm having fun with this! :way:

 

[letemgrow]

Also wondering are you going to transplant some to Roottrapper bags or just plant them all?

Lot's of possibles...I'm having fun with this! :way:

The seeds in Jiffy pots are going straight out to the farm, probably by early May. I plan on putting about 1/2 the rootmaker cells into bags, but time will tell and they may all go out to the farm after the 18 cell trays.

I planted 200 seedlings from the MDC nursery and used the shovel on them for obvious reasons. A dibble bar would not do much with these bad boys!! :way:

Silky Dogwood Root System

 

[letemgrow]

I was able to plant those 200 in 6 hours of planting, it went very fast since the sod was killed and this was sandy soil along the creek bank. Best planting I have had so far and it sure taught me that prepping the soil is the most important part of the planting.

If I had to try and dig up sod that was not killed I bet it would have doubled the time it took me to plant those things. Some holes I dug were easily 2 feet wide to accommodate the root systems on some of those shrubs. The hazelnuts and silky dogwoods had giant root stysems.

Instead of burying the roots all at the same depth and place, I held the upper roots with one hand as I backfilled the bottom roots with soil, then placed the next roots in the hole and backfilled etc etc until the tree was at the desired depth and all the roots were the same level as they grew in the nursery so they should be able to uptake more nutrients and water since they are spread out very very well. It was a lot more work, but I think it will pay off in the long run if I can just keep the deer off them.

 

[dbltree]

The hazelnuts and silky dogwoods had giant root stysems.

I hear ya on that Phil!! I think I'm going to love planting the cuttings from Big Rock Trees for that very reason...no roots!

Let's keep an eye on growth and see how they compare this year.

Herbicides:

Oust XP is my favorite herbicide to apply on oaks, conifers and 2 yr established shrubs but it is important to spray before bud break or it can damage trees. On new seedlings the root system must be completely covered with soil, so we follw up after planting mecahincally and carefully pack the soil around roots and then wait until after a rain to spray.

It's late March and the weather has improved here in SE Iowa so I can begin spraying over top of trees planted last year using my 3 gallon Solo backpack sprayer. I mix Oust XP and Simazine for optimum residual control and I also use some glyphosate and crop oil to nuke any greening grasses. This combination is deadly but safe prior to budbreak.

My 3 gallon does roughly a 1/2 acre so I mix one ounceOust XP, 2 quarts of Simazine 4L, 1 pint of 41% Glyphosate 1 pint crop oil and 1/2 ounce of blue dye. That of course translates to 2 ounces Oust, 4 quarts simazine, 1 quart gly and one quart crop oil per acre.

Trees have not yet budded out yet soil is not frozen making it a prefect and safe time to spray these 2nd yr oaks.

Areas that have some cool seasons greening up will be smoked by this herbicide mixture.

You can clearly where these trees were planted last year and how the herbicide kept the row clear of weeds.

I also sprayed around oak seedlings interplanted amongst hinged trees

Where I will be planting shrubs this year I will use Surflan and Simazine, less effective all season weed control but entirely safe for most shrubs and trees.... :way: