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White Pines

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Scott

Active Member
Anybody ever plant stands of white pines on their place? I am looking to maybe get one more tree variety for my tree order. I know they grow pretty fast but will they get to thin underneath when they mature? Growing up in Michigan they were awesome to hunt on Christmas tree farms but that was when they were only 6 to 8 feet tall.
 
I like white pines also. However in the winter the deer like to eat them like candy. They nipped off probably 198 of the 200 I planted 4 ago. Now I have 198 white pine bushes!! If you are in lower deer density area you may be able to get some established.
 
My dad and I planted 50 blue spruce, 50 douglas fir, and 50 white pines along time ago and the deer never really touched the white pine. Nearly all of them reached maturity but the douglas fir got pounded by the deer. I dont know if caging them would help? Do you think your trees are going to recover? My deer density is pretty high, especially in the winter.
 
I fenced them after the deer fed on them and probably 2/3 of them are growing upwards again. I've had better luck with red pine and red cedar for deer leaving them alone.
 
Our neighbor on our old place planted 500 white pines and the deer ate every single one of them. The deer density was much lower than what is on your place.
 
In the fall, after growing season fold a piece of paper over the leader bud and staple the edges together. This will prevent the deer from nipping off the main bud and the tree will continue to grow straight. It don't matter if they eat the buds off the branches. You will have to do this for 2 or 3 years, until the leader is 6 foot or more off the ground. In the spring the paper will deteroriate enough to blow off or you can pull them off.
 
All my pines have got destroyed but I can't remember the varieties I planted many years ago??? Now I just fence them BUT I've only gone with Norway spruce. I'm planting a 30-50 acre Christmas tree farm on my new farm- should be cool- not going to sell them though. I am interested in many different types of pines.
Did I know you're originally from MI? Can't remember? I am too. :)
 
Jethro said:
Doubletree, curious why you killed them.
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because a mature stand of white pines offers zero cover or food either one. The landowner asked me to kill 75% of them and re-plant the area to red cedars so the are will be productive again...;)
 
dbltree said:
because a mature stand of white pines offers zero cover or food either one. The landowner asked me to kill 75% of them and re-plant the area to red cedars so the are will be productive again...;)
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That's what i thought. Thanks.
 
One of the farms I hunt has several stands of 30 year old white pines. About ten years ago the hunting started to go downhill. Those pine stands provide nothing the deer want once they mature.
 
On the farms I hunt the deer like to use the white pine plantings for bedding. Great spots for shed hunting too!
 
I notice I never see small White Pine seedlings coming up on there own in IA like I did in MI. Aside from the fact that they are not native, except maybe in NE IA. I figure the reason,,,they get eaten! Fast! If they dare come up.
 
What types should be planted

I have some pasture areas that don't have a lot of trees. I want to plant something to get more cover and food. What do the red cedars offer besides cover? What about Red Dogwood ozier or whatever it's called? Is it feasible to plant oaks? What about Popple trees? They have tender buds when young.

Thanks for any help
 
Agree with Dbltree! We quit planting the white pine and stuck with the red cedar. Great for bedding areas. We don't even fence them or anything a few get rubbed but otherwise they've worked very well for us.
 
Yea thumbs down on the pines. Ive fed dozens of those trees to the deer over the years. You can build fencing or cages around each one, but that is a lot of work and still not a guarantee. I remember one time on stand I watched a fawn lay down on its side and "army crawl" under the cage to eat one(about 8 inches gap at the ground).
 
I wound up getting some white pine and spruce in place of the red cedar I ordered from the state nursery that were no good this year. Most of them went towards road screening and I've used the rigid tubes on most of them along with trying that deer guard spray from plantra. Hopefully some make it but I have a bad feeling that I am going to be hand planting alot of cedars in the next few years! What are my chances? There are 1000 white spruce and 400 white pine.
 
Yes I'm in west central Iowa. Plenty of deer out here. So far they've only browsed a few of the pines before I could get going on getting some tubes and deterent on them so guess I'll wait and see. Have already tubed most of the oaks, walnuts, and hickorys and even caged some of the smaller shrubs to help them get going but being by myself with 4000 trees and shrubs in the ground its a battle against time. Lets hope all this work pays off.
 
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