deer patch
Well-Known Member
I didn't realize it got that cold in your area. How do you like that 180?
Working at the Farm - Took a few I-Phone Pics
- Thread starter Native Hunter
- Start date
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
That 180 is a dream come true. It has the feature where you can tighten the chain without a wrench, and also has the easy start feature. If I didn't also already have a 170, I would buy another 180 for a spare. The one I don't use much is an old Wood Boss that I bought several years ago. It's fine for the extremely heavy stuff, but really too big for most of the cutting I do.
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deer patch
Well-Known Member
I have the 170 also but I have heard great things about the 180.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
I've been getting an awesome amount of work done here lately. The weather was horrible for a while but has been cooperating better now.
My trapper got started a couple of days ago. He got this one and another one about 50 yards away today. Good to get them cleaned out before time for fawning.
My son come in with a new handgun the other day...LOL...I took a picture of his next to my Kimber 380.
This is no guarantee of a great Hazelnut crop, but it is a good sign to see all of these catkins.
I'm working every chance I get in the oak planting. I have ignored one area of it for years and a few sweetgums need to be whacked.
Tree on the left is a red oak I planted. Tree on the right is a volunteer sweetgum. You can guess what happened.
Vines aren't generally a problem for me, but I found this today. Can't believe how it cut into this oak. It got cut and gly treated.
This shows why you need to treat sweetgum stumps. I cut this a few years ago and didn't treat it.
A nice red oak. No sweetgum gonna catch this one.
This Bur is reaching for the moon.
The easiest to identify oak in the winter is the Cherrybark Oak. When young, they resemble a Pin Oak somewhat, but the bark looks like a wild cherry tree.
That's about it guys. I'm getting a lot of work done and loving life! Best Wishes!
My trapper got started a couple of days ago. He got this one and another one about 50 yards away today. Good to get them cleaned out before time for fawning.
My son come in with a new handgun the other day...LOL...I took a picture of his next to my Kimber 380.
This is no guarantee of a great Hazelnut crop, but it is a good sign to see all of these catkins.
I'm working every chance I get in the oak planting. I have ignored one area of it for years and a few sweetgums need to be whacked.
Tree on the left is a red oak I planted. Tree on the right is a volunteer sweetgum. You can guess what happened.
Vines aren't generally a problem for me, but I found this today. Can't believe how it cut into this oak. It got cut and gly treated.
This shows why you need to treat sweetgum stumps. I cut this a few years ago and didn't treat it.
A nice red oak. No sweetgum gonna catch this one.
This Bur is reaching for the moon.
The easiest to identify oak in the winter is the Cherrybark Oak. When young, they resemble a Pin Oak somewhat, but the bark looks like a wild cherry tree.
That's about it guys. I'm getting a lot of work done and loving life! Best Wishes!
pinetag
Well-Known Member
Lots of good work being done at your place Native! Question for you, when do the hazelnuts actually produce? I think I have a couple as catkins are showing this time of year at my place as well. I'll have to take a picture next time I'm out.I've been getting an awesome amount of work done here lately. The weather was horrible for a while but has been cooperating better now.
My trapper got started a couple of days ago. He got this one and another one about 50 yards away today. Good to get them cleaned out before time for fawning.
My son come in with a new handgun the other day...LOL...I took a picture of his next to my Kimber 380.
This is no guarantee of a great Hazelnut crop, but it is a good sign to see all of these catkins.
I'm working every chance I get in the oak planting. I have ignored one area of it for years and a few sweetgums need to be whacked.
Tree on the left is a red oak I planted. Tree on the right is a volunteer sweetgum. You can guess what happened.
Vines aren't generally a problem for me, but I found this today. Can't believe how it cut into this oak. It got cut and gly treated.
This shows why you need to treat sweetgum stumps. I cut this a few years ago and didn't treat it.
A nice red oak. No sweetgum gonna catch this one.
This Bur is reaching for the moon.
The easiest to identify oak in the winter is the Cherrybark Oak. When young, they resemble a Pin Oak somewhat, but the bark looks like a wild cherry tree.
That's about it guys. I'm getting a lot of work done and loving life! Best Wishes!
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Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Thanks Pinetag. They will produce in the fall. The pollination for the fall crop takes place during the previous winter. One thing you can do to increase the production is to transplant trees from different locations close to each other. They are wind pollinated, so keep that in mind too.
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Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
I saw that you were finally closing both deals. So glad to have you in KY Geo. When you run out of work in Lewis County, you can come help me whack sweetgums!!!
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
It's going to be exciting for me to tag along with your new land thread. I'm really happy for you!
Native,
I know I read about, and saw pictures of your grasslands. I'm sure you mentioned that you don't use prescribed fire. That being said, how often, or do you even mow / brush hog it? We eradicated 25 acres of fescue last year, and had tons of natives and foxtail come up. It made a huge difference and wildlife loved it. Just trying to figure out a schedule on how to manage it.
I know I read about, and saw pictures of your grasslands. I'm sure you mentioned that you don't use prescribed fire. That being said, how often, or do you even mow / brush hog it? We eradicated 25 acres of fescue last year, and had tons of natives and foxtail come up. It made a huge difference and wildlife loved it. Just trying to figure out a schedule on how to manage it.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Ryan, my CREP contract requires me to mow 1/3 of it (rotational strip mowing) each year. That will work fine unless you have a lot of trees and/or briers coming up. Briers are actually worse than trees on my place. My advisers who oversee the CREP allow me to mow more than this in areas where it is needed, and I will do that. However, there are parts of my farm where the 3-years rotational strip mowing will be fine.
I also must get the mowing done before May 15. That is a good idea, because it is well before fawns drop. By early May, lots of undesirables will be growing well, and a mowing at that time will knock them back pretty hard. However, NWSGs are just beginning to wake up and you will just barely be clipping the tops of new growth on some of them.
I suggest that you just watch it and mow as necessary. If nothing is threatening the NWSGs, keep the mowing to a minimum. A few briers and trees don't hurt anything and just gives more diversity. However, you don't want something undesirable just taking over.
Some spot spraying early in the year is also a good thing to do at times.
Best wishes.
dogghr
Well-Known Member
I'm hoping my Hazelnuts one day look like yours, but I'm afraid my schedule and theirs does not coincide with life years remaining at the rate they are going. LOL. Do you Fert them any, as I haven't, only my fruit trees some times. Good stuff as always, I remember a tree or two on that place!!!
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
dogghr, I have never fertilized them, but it certainly wouldn't hurt anything to give them a little extra nourishment. I can't remember if I told you about this, but this spring I dug up and transplanted hazelnut bushes from 7 or 8 different locations. I got these close together, so it should really make a big difference in pollination for future years.
2018 was a great year for hazelnuts on my place. All of the bigger bushes were loaded down with nuts. Hopefully 2019 will be much the same. I think the best advice with hazelnuts is patience - of which I don't usually have much of that!
Curious about what factors can reduce the hazelnut crop. In 2017 my bushes were loaded, and I collected gallons of nuts, many that I started in pots. 2018 I searched in vain, only finding a handful of nuts on plants that produced tons the year before. I don’t remember any late freezes last spring,
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Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Hazelnut pollination is quite complicated and much unlike much of the other species that we grow.
Here are a few things to consider:
- The fact that they are wind pollinated in the winter (primarily January and February) is one big factor. Will the wind be blowing in the right direction during the critical time that the female flower is receptive?
- The further the distance, the better the chances of a crop failure due to lack of pollination. There is a great deal of evidence which suggests that nut set decreases when the distance between pollinizers and recipient trees is more than 40 feet away.
- Certain combinations of varieties/seedlings are cross-incompatible. Pollen of some varieties will not set nuts on certain other varieties. This is better understood with commercial cultivars than it is with seedlings in a wildlife setting.
- Even the experts can't always identify the reason for crop failures. Some guesses that they have for certain problems are insufficient soil moisture in midsummer, not enough sunlight, inadequate tree nutrition (especially deficiencies in nitrogen, boron, and potassium).
- With hazelnuts, there is a 4-5 month lapse in time from when pollen is received by the flower and when actual fertilization takes place. This is one of the unusual features with hazelnuts. In most other plants, fertilization follows pollination by a few days.
Everyone knows what the catkins look like but may not know what the female flower looks like. The pic below shows one - the little red thing. These begin to form in the summer, but you don't see them very well until winter. Most flowers form on the current season’s growth where leaves join the stems, but on some they also form on the peduncles (i.e. stems) of the catkins.
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Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
To add to what I said in the post above - just consider all the weather factors that can happen in the winter which could affect cropping. You could even have ice covering the flowers at a critical time when the pollen was available. Lots of things can go wrong.
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
TC, the welcome mat is always out for you!!
Hazelnut pollination is quite complicated and much unlike much of the other species that we grow.
Here are a few things to consider:
Some of the reasons I have mentioned above are why I am transplanting multiple seedlings from different locations in close proximity to each other. I believe this gives the best chance of successful crops.
- The fact that they are wind pollinated in the winter (primarily January and February) is one big factor. Will the wind be blowing in the right direction during the critical time that the female flower is receptive?
- The further the distance, the better the chances of a crop failure due to lack of pollination. There is a great deal of evidence which suggests that nut set decreases when the distance between pollinizers and recipient trees is more than 40 feet away.
- Certain combinations of varieties/seedlings are cross-incompatible. Pollen of some varieties will not set nuts on certain other varieties. This is better understood with commercial cultivars than it is with seedlings in a wildlife setting.
- Even the experts can't always identify the reason for crop failures. Some guesses that they have for certain problems are insufficient soil moisture in midsummer, not enough sunlight, inadequate tree nutrition (especially deficiencies in nitrogen, boron, and potassium).
- With hazelnuts, there is a 4-5 month lapse in time from when pollen is received by the flower and when actual fertilization takes place. This is one of the unusual features with hazelnuts. In most other plants, fertilization follows pollination by a few days.
Everyone knows what the catkins look like but may not know what the female flower looks like. The pic below shows one - the little red thing. These begin to form in the summer, but you don't see them very well until winter. Most flowers form on the current season’s growth where leaves join the stems, but on some they also form on the peduncles (i.e. stems) of the catkins.
Fascinating-I’ll definitely be checking for female flowers this year to see if the nuts abort for some reason. The hazelnut colonies on the farm are in clumps-a few hundred stems in three widely spaced bunches along the creek and a swampy area. I dug up and transplanted some last spring with varied success, but they didn’t have much for roots, and some failed when the heat arrived. The ones that I started from nuts came up about 6-12” tall, and seem to be thriving, although I had a few that suddenly got what looked like fungal spotting on their leaves and died. I attribute that to grass clippings that I used for a mulch-I won’t repeat that.
Update: found two more clumps of hazelnut in the fence row at the back of the farm, on my sister’s piece of the property. I need to get them some sunshine!
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