2010+ Foodplot

[letemwalk]

Attached are a couple of pictures of the fruit trees I planted this spring to {hopefully} have a good food source in a few years. The plot consists of:

- 25 fruit trees (mostly apple)
- 6 Persimmon
- 9 Paw-paw
- 15 chestnut (more of an experiment than wildlife food source)

They are all caged, RU around them and painted the trunks of the fruit trees - will probably wrap them this fall. The persimmon & paw-paw trees have tree shelters around them since their seedings cannot tolerate direct sunlight for a couple of years.

Hopefully, I can keep the critters off of them for a couple of years so they can get established.

Another thing these pictures clearly show is that a 6' bush hog is not a precision mowing machine!

 

[dbltree]

Wow! You've been busy! Looking good too!

Couple thoughts...You may want to loosen or partially open those tree tubes this fall so the trees can "harden" off. Otherwise they will continue to grow like it's summer and then when severe cold weather hits...it can kill them

I had a problem with mice getting in the tubes and girdling the apple trees...might want to keep an eye on that. Something I never dreamed of

The bucks also love to rip them to shreds

I'm anxious to see how your chestnuts do! I think that is one place everyone is missing the boat on. They can produce much earlier then oaks (age wise) and higly prefered mast. Mine are going in the ground in early Sept.

 

[Central Iowa]

I have read the same about the Chestnuts. I was wondering about your cages looks like a deer can easily nip the top off. Just wondering as I planted some Swamp Oak's last weekend and a couple have already had the tops nipped, as cage building is much slower than planting. Who did you get your fruit trees from?

 

[letemwalk]

Thanks for the input guys. DBL - I had seen your post on the tree tubes & mice girdling. I'll be sure to keep an eye on them. I also purchased vented tubes which the manufacturer Treepro.com claims significantly reduces rodent damage. I also thought I would try spraying the inside of the tubes with a deer/rabbit repellent this fall to further reduce the attractiveness of the shelters. Sounds like I might also need to cage them to keep the bucks off of them.

CI: I purchased the Paw-paw, Persimmon, Chestnuts & some of the fruit trees from Burnt Ridge Nursery and would highly recommend them. They had great stock and was the most carefully packaged plants I've ever ordered. Right now their inventory appears to be depleted for this year. For whatever reason, when they are out of stock of an item (or size of an item) they remove it from their website. In February when I ordered they had at least 12 different varieties of persimmon, paw-paw and probably 15-20 varieties of chestnuts. 10 of the chestnuts I ordered are blight resistant varieties but the owner of the nursery talked me into ordering 5 american chestnuts (which are not blight resistant) under the theory that since they are not native to Iowa they should be fairly geographically removed from the chance of blight...Depending upon how this experiment goes, I may plant an acre or 2 of chestnuts sometime down the road.

Most of the fruit trees came from National Arbor Day Foundation I would also recommend them. The trees were decent size (you can see them in the pictures above), well rooted and were only about $8-9 each after buying a $5 membership.

I realize the cages are short enough to allow the tips to get browsed but thought if I had the first 3' protected they would do ok after a couple of years growth (any lessons learned out there...?)

As far as cage building - I would recommend an angle grinder - I made 45 cages in less than an hour and it only takes a minute to intall each one (beats the heck of of a sidecutter to cut each strand of wire!).

 

[dbltree]

Sounds like you got it covered!

I was wondering why a guy couldn't drop those little "poison packs" for mice right inside the tubes? Maybe they won't bother the new style tubes anyway. Trees sure grow a whole bunch faster inside of them thats for sure!
You have the makings of some great habitat there!

 

[TimberPig]

[ QUOTE ]


I realize the cages are short enough to allow the tips to get browsed but thought if I had the first 3' protected they would do ok after a couple of years growth (any lessons learned out there...?)

As far as cage building - I would recommend an angle grinder - I made 45 cages in less than an hour and it only takes a minute to intall each one (beats the heck of of a sidecutter to cut each strand of wire!).

[/ QUOTE ]

I have caged the 5 apple trees that I have planted with wire about 5'x5'. Anything that sticks out gets browsed off. I dont think the cage neccesarily has to be tall, but it should at least be wide enough that the deer cant easily reach in to the center. I would'nt worry about the lower branches much, but I would protect the leader and upper branches, since that is what will form your tree later. I have noticed that although most browse damage doesnt kill the tree, it certainly causes it to struggle and severly limits growth.
Here is how I caged mine, this Liberty apple was planted last year.

 

[letemwalk]

Thanks for the input...I'll have to monitor this year and decide if I need to upgrade on the cages to a larger version!

I'll definitely keep tabs on the tree shelters to watch for rodents nesting.