NE Kansas trees and shrubs

[M. R. Byrd]

I am going to be helping my son with a property in NE Kansas he just acquired. I live in western Kansas, so dense timber is an unfamiliar thing to me. According to the state forester, the property has mature post oak, black oak, white oak and bur oak, along with bitternut hickory and shagbark hickory, along with some persimmon. Hopefully, we will know more about deer activity after this first fall season and what resources the deer are using. I would be interested in comments on chestnuts, allegheny chinkapin and crab apple trees. There currently are no food plots on the property. The only open ground is fescue grass. I put some cameras out and there is a little deer activity, but not much at the moment.

 

[jteeen]

I have planted several crab apples. They are usually very hardy. I got mine from willis orchards. Much easier to maintain than full size apples.

I have about 100 of them that grow wild. I'm not sure the deer will travel far to find them. They will improve an existing orchards pollination.

I would scout the existing white oaks and persimmoms. Find the mother tree and usually every other year for oaks will be a good crop. Hunt it.


Pictures now don't mean much. Put out some corn or a salt lick if you want to do a census.

Depending on property size it will take you a few years to learn the deer patterns. There are several gurus on here that can look at a map and help you out.

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[THE LLC]

Chinese chestnut and sawtooth oak are hard-to-beat mast trees. They will do well in that area. I would imagine crabapples would do just fine. Chinkapin oaks are good too. Bitternut hickory is useless. Kill that fescue grass ASAP.

 

[Mennoniteman]

Chinese chestnut and sawtooth oak are hard-to-beat mast trees. They will do well in that area. I would imagine crabapples would do just fine. Chinkapin oaks are good too. Bitternut hickory is useless. Kill that fescue grass ASAP.

Right on. Deer don't eat grass. Plant a good food plot and all the deer in the neighborhood will come. Watch for persimmon trees loaded with fruit for hunting spots.

 

[Chainsaw]

A large forest can seem dense and just a sea of trees even when someone is used to forests. Forests made up of mature trees mostly look dense from the outside looking in. Once inside it the order of it all jumps right out at you if you just relax and let it. Notice that the forest at first thought to be huge and dense is really just a bunch of small wood lots butted up against each other. Humans like to walk along the high spots in the open thru the middle of the various imagined small wood lots. The deer, especially the bucks mostly travel lower along the edge of the different growths(small wood lots). Mapping out all of the different edges of different growths along with all wetter spots, drier spots, higher spots, and lower spots goes a long way towards figuring out travel patterns of your bucks. I wouldn’t pay much so much attention to deer trails and such except for old rublines. Once you have the property mapped out with all of the edges and the types of growth including existing fruit and nut trees, then it is time to plan property improvements and hunting strategies. At that point the dense forest will seem like your backyard.

What a fun adventure you are about to have and post your mapped out property on here if you do map it out. There are so many people here willing to share ideas to help each other. I realize you asked for info on crabapples and such but without first mapping a property there is no way to know what the property may already have.

 

[g squared 23]

Other than killing fescue and putting in a food plot, I would wait to plant anything until you see how everything lays out. Identifying and releasing hard and soft mast trees that are already producing will be a much more efficient use of your time and funds.

Habitat work can be kind of like your politics: you FEEL really good planting a tree and protesting or voting for socialism when you’re starting out, because you’re using all heart and passion. You FEEL like you’re really making a difference. When you get further along, you realize that using your head will literally and figuratively produce more fruit: established large mast trees will pump out a ton more food than a brand new tree from scratch, and that capitalism creates equality of opportunity while socialism and anarchy makes everyone equally miserable


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[KSQ2]

Good to see another Kansan on board! The guys have already given some good advice. I'd key in on those white and burr oaks for sure. We have some giant burr oaks on our place and they are a magnet; the only drawback, is they seem only to produce every other year. We don't have a lot of white or red oaks on our place, so a lot of our efforts are going to establishing those. Catscratch is another Kansan on here; he's been planting oaks for a couple decades on his family's land. He'll tell you sawtooth oaks are the ticket for Kansas; he and I are farther south than you though; and you might already have enough white oaks to key in on. Looking forward to your future updates. Btw, I did my internship out at Dodge years ago and had the privilege for several years to hunt some prime ground out there. There are some giants running around for sure!

 

[Mennoniteman]

I am going to be helping my son with a property in NE Kansas he just acquired. I live in western Kansas, so dense timber is an unfamiliar thing to me. According to the state forester, the property has mature post oak, black oak, white oak and bur oak, along with bitternut hickory and shagbark hickory, along with some persimmon. Hopefully, we will know more about deer activity after this first fall season and what resources the deer are using. I would be interested in comments on chestnuts, allegheny chinkapin and crab apple trees. There currently are no food plots on the property. The only open ground is fescue grass. I put some cameras out and there is a little deer activity, but not much at the moment.

The most potent deer management tool in dense woods is select cut logging, pay attention to your forester if he advises thinning a stand of timber.

 

[Gravel Road]

I don't know how close the land is to large ag fields, but japanese beetles are starting to be a big problem for apples in some areas. This year I had really bad bagworm problems, and they nearly stripped the dolgo crabapple trees. I've found that pears are fairly insect free around here, but haven't had them planted long enough to know long term issues.
Good luck and welcome!

By the way, you are very, very lucky having persimmons.

 

[buckdeer1]

Don't forget to check out Kansas forestry and MO forestry,I like fragrant sumac and sand hill plums for shrubs

 

[bowhunt160bucks]

Contact NRD/NRCS they have programs that pay you to do it plus they do the work on cost share. I have planted 2200 trees on my place in the last 5 years and they pay me $100/acre per year