badgerfowl
Well-Known Member
I've ordered from NWC or Whitetail Crabs as it's known now for 3 years and they have been most impressive every year. They are good growers too. My wickson and droptine planted in 2020 really flowered out this year.
2021 North Central Wisconsin “Lake Farm” - 35 acres on two lakes and surrounded by National Forest
- Thread starter Travis Aasen
- Start date
badgerfowl
Well-Known Member
Mine should look like that in a few weeks. It's all flowered out now. Planted 2020 as well. It's a nice looking tree. I think I've got 5 of them now.
Travis Aasen
Active Member
By the way - What are you guys fertilizing with and how many times per year? Thing looks like it was on steroids!
badgerfowl
Well-Known Member
I used to use spikes but this year just dumped some 10-10-10 around each tree. 1 cup per inch of tree diameter. I did it in late April. Once in spring is all that is needed. Don’t fertilize later in the year.
Travis Aasen
Active Member
Ok, I hit each tree with Blue HIll Nurseries recommended Tree Starter Fertilizer, which I think was a 0-20-20.
BoneCrusher20
Active Member
Ha we've all been there ordering more trees than we should in one year..... ask my chiropractorLots of planting over the last several weekends plus removing canopy. We pulled down 3 Oaks that were probably 75+ years old, Plus 25-50 medium sized canopy from all over the woods.
I learned some very hard lessons this year. Stop over buying trees!! You just can't get them all planted while living 3.5 hours away and your wife having other expectations of your time spent on the property. ie. put the pier in. fill in this low spot. Planting and caging 21 Crab apples was a pretty good chore. Plus an extra HEWES crab apple I wasn't expecting, 85 more norway spruce, 50 Hybrid willows, 50-100 ROD. However, 25 eastern red cedars, 15 norway spruce, 100 Miscanthus rhizomes all went to waste because I just didn't have enough planting time.
Crab Apples - These are all 100% sun facing South/west/east. North is to the rear.
Health of the 3 orders. The Crab Apples all look good with the exception of maybe one of them.
Whitetail crabs all looked fantastic. Bluehill and Turkey Creek were fine, but the order from Whitetail Crabs was exceptional.
Compiling the final list of installed crabs for 2022
Whitetail Crabs List
(3) 30-06 Crabapple $71.85
(3) Droptine Crabapple $71.85
(3) Crossbow Crabapple $71.85
Blue Hill Wildlife Nursery List
(1) Buckman,
(1) Big dog,
(1) Sweet Dog,
(1) Kerr,
(1) Chestnut Crab
(1) Dolgo
Turkey Creek
(2) Big Dog, apple B118 #1 2 $23 $46
(1) Chestnut, crabapple B118 #1 1 $23 $23
(1) Dolgo, crabapple B118 #1 1 $23 $23
(1) Kerr, crabapple B118 #1 1 $23 $23
(1) Yellow Dog, crabapple B118 #1 1 $23 $23
Wifes tasks for me.(Really a tale of two sides of this property). This was another couple days worth of work - Pier in. Stepping stones added, filled in some old ruts and re-seeded.
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BoneCrusher20
Active Member
Got to remember we are in WI....much shorter growing season. Hard to compare to our friends in KS/PA/etc where they probably get an extra month of growing vs us where soil temps just got to 55 last week and apple trees are just starting to show some flowers. I always have to remind myself of that....i lay off the fertilizer first year, that's just my own opinion.
Travis Aasen
Active Member
Memorial weekend 2022
All tge Crabs look fantastic. All 21 so far are leafed out. The crabs from whitetail crabs are light years ahead of the rest. Plan to install “gravel” and watering buckets in each cage tomorrow.
95% survival on the Norway spruce. Hope to get most if them mulched over the next week. Since gas is so expensive i plan to stay up 2 weekend and work remote from here on out.
So, 2021 hybrid oaks. 75% survival from last year. I didn’t mulch any of them, but plan to moving forward.
2022 swamp whites.looks like most are leafing out. Will only tube 10 out of 50, but look to mulch most of the 10.
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All tge Crabs look fantastic. All 21 so far are leafed out. The crabs from whitetail crabs are light years ahead of the rest. Plan to install “gravel” and watering buckets in each cage tomorrow.
95% survival on the Norway spruce. Hope to get most if them mulched over the next week. Since gas is so expensive i plan to stay up 2 weekend and work remote from here on out.
So, 2021 hybrid oaks. 75% survival from last year. I didn’t mulch any of them, but plan to moving forward.
2022 swamp whites.looks like most are leafing out. Will only tube 10 out of 50, but look to mulch most of the 10.
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Travis Aasen
Active Member
June 11 update:
Why do I have so many radishes coming up in the food plot along with rye & clover? I haven’t terminated anything from 2021. I did broadcast buckwheat into the mess today. Plan to cut it tomorrow to put a nice thatch down for the buckwheat.
Crabs looking great Norway spruce impress and continue to have 90% plus survive.
RADISH, Correct?
Black hills Spruce planted 2021
Norway spruce 2022 MCO stock
CLOVER popping last weekend. Thought the clover was a bust .
Planted aug 2021
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Why do I have so many radishes coming up in the food plot along with rye & clover? I haven’t terminated anything from 2021. I did broadcast buckwheat into the mess today. Plan to cut it tomorrow to put a nice thatch down for the buckwheat.
Crabs looking great Norway spruce impress and continue to have 90% plus survive.
RADISH, Correct?
Black hills Spruce planted 2021
Norway spruce 2022 MCO stock
CLOVER popping last weekend. Thought the clover was a bust .
Planted aug 2021
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Travis Aasen
Active Member
Added a new food plot tractor this week. A 214 JohnDeere 1975 vintage followed me home this week. Just Love these.. Will double as a winter project for me. Runs great. Will be on the lookout for a tiller and will need a few other odds and ends for the old iron side. I would love a nice tractor with a bucket, but just not in the cards for a few years.
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Travis Aasen
Active Member
This is the first of about 50 young oaks which i planted late last spring to poke out the top of their tube! This may be old hat for many of you, but this is a milestone for my property 
The bad news is Im not 100% sure of the exact variety. Shows as a bur oak, but i planted so many hybrids i’m just not sure
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The bad news is Im not 100% sure of the exact variety. Shows as a bur oak, but i planted so many hybrids i’m just not sure
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Travis Aasen
Active Member
I got a very late start to planting my trial run of miscanthus this year. Actually, I was just going to pitch the entire box into the fire because it was June 1st and like I mentioned earlier I way over bought- not cool, but a buddy talked me into just half assing it and see what we get rather than just destroying them. Well, 6 weeks later and they're starting to grow like weeds. Full sun is definitely winning when it comes to size. I'm hoping these survive the Northern WI Winters and more will be in my future. I'm hoping to use these as food plot screen in back of my crab apples.
June 24
July 18th
June 24
July 18th
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Travis Aasen
Active Member
Saturday July 24
Miscanthus grew 18” this week and more stalks appeared from the planting. I think i received 100 ryzomes. Yes, my photos suck.
Food plots (3) went in today. The 4th plot will be new and still needs work. I went with the vitalize carbon load for all 3 this year. Honestly, buying a bag with everything in there was great. No tracking seed down. Progress to be shared.
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Miscanthus grew 18” this week and more stalks appeared from the planting. I think i received 100 ryzomes. Yes, my photos suck.
Food plots (3) went in today. The 4th plot will be new and still needs work. I went with the vitalize carbon load for all 3 this year. Honestly, buying a bag with everything in there was great. No tracking seed down. Progress to be shared.
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Travis Aasen
Active Member
Hi Cutman,
I broadcast using a hand spreader into my previous crop. Terminated and mowed that crop down on the seeds. Most of my plots are deep in the woods and carved out with chainsaws. Nothing more than 1/2 acre. I could never drill due to location and lack of equipment. Not ideal to what some folks have, but I experiment and live with what I have.
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I broadcast using a hand spreader into my previous crop. Terminated and mowed that crop down on the seeds. Most of my plots are deep in the woods and carved out with chainsaws. Nothing more than 1/2 acre. I could never drill due to location and lack of equipment. Not ideal to what some folks have, but I experiment and live with what I have.
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Sounds good. Yeah, you couldn’t really drill that mix. Hope it works out for you.
Travis Aasen
Active Member
My official 2021 Fall Food Plot Analysis came back yesterday. 7.0 PH (18 months ago I was 4.8-5.1), CEC 13.4, and organic Matter 4.8.
