Recent content by TreeFan

In Michigan, when I was 8, my dad, who was from West Virginia, showed me how to hunt in the squirrel woods. He had a browning, automatic, 3 shot, 20 gauge. For many years, we would have squirrel on Thanksgiving or Christmas. My mom would cook it, boiled for 20 minutes, seasoned with salt and...

I've had porcupines tearing up my pear trees for 4 or 5 years. First they eat the leaves, then the pears. If the branch is too small for them to climb on, then they eat through the branch and get them that way. Now, for 2 years, they are eating my burgambel oaks. I had 5 burbamble with probably...

I will keep the spot spraying in mind. The field being fallow for 4 years had very little in the way of vegetation. Mostly switch grass with scattered milkweed, thistle and a stray poplar or two. Not much in the way of seed bank material. It is high country, so, straight clover would not be...

Well.. decided to try a version of this and - on a one acre plot that was fallow for 4 years, I planted - Trefoil 2# Chicory 1# Medium Red Clover 2# Evening Primrose 2oz partridge pea 1# purple coneflower 2 oz blackeyed susan 2oz Grey headed cone flower 2oz ragweed 1# groundhog radish 2#...

Nasty.. I learned that, in the north country, a tree that holds it's leaves like that is a risk. I had a 20 year old tree loose the entire top and split the trunk a couple years ago. It's growing back and every time I look at it, I wonder if/when I should thin it out.. I am in northern Michigan...

Visited my property in northern Michigan last weekend to check on trees and such. I have a 20 plus year old American hybrid chestnut tree that finally produced a couple nuts in 2022. Stratified and planted in a root pouch spring 2023 and was very healthy when last fall came around. I decided to...

I have about 50 American Hybrid nuts from a tree I purchased from Oikos Tree crops when they were in business. I would be willing to part with a small portion if you are interested. Stratified in peat. Small, sweet nuts.

You fellas down south are blessed with your long growing seasons. Up in northern Michigan the catkins are still green. My 25 to 30 year old chestnut has been producing nuts for 3 or 4 years and is about half the size of your 9 year old tree.

Dunstans in my backyard in rootmakers for 5 years are 7 to 8 feet tall and bearing chestnuts. Meanwhile dunstans the same age out in the field are 3 feet tall and spindly.. They seem to have some die off every year.. I am going to have to clear the grass away and see what happens... location -...

My phone compass saved me from a panic lost in the woods situation at night and I use it to determine the exact southern exposure for tree planting.. High importance in that regard..

Mine grows native and is prominent on 8 acres of bottom land that is poor quality, hard, wet clay soil. It was 5 degrees there yesterday morning.

Pennington Durana

Mangels were planted in garden rows, around June 1 about 1/4 inch deep and very close to one another, then thinned for better growth and used as bait after maturity. Never tried random field plantings.

I have grown Mangels near Alpena, in bottom land, clay soil. Being a brassica type plant, they respond well to added fertilizer and result in very large, (a foot long and 6 inches in diameter), 5 pound tubers that deer love. They require some care to get started, then it's off to the races. With...