A little disappointed in MDC tree order this year

willy

Active Member
I ordered 700 red cedar and 50 swamp white oak, and 750 various shrubs from them for this spring.

They have always been great to work with and the product I have received from them has been of very good quality. This year all was the same except the red cedars were poorly packed on top of being less than plug size that Chief River Nursery sells. The vast majority of the cedars were less than 5", roots were longer which was good but they looked dead already when I received them. The 700 were packed so tightly into 3 small duffel sized bags that it was hard to get them to be standing upright when planted as they had been bent in many directions.

In keeping a careful eye on the newly planted seedlings, I would say if I have 10 percent living cedars, I may be a bit generous.

Now on the positive side, The oaks are 100 percent so far and the shrubs are very close to that. Also I have taken pictures and voiced my concern via email and phone to the MDC. They have been very open to my issue and said to take a count of cedar that didn't make it(by Sept 1) and they will replace next spring. They did say this year's cedar were on the small side.

I'm sharing this so if anybody else had a poor order of red cedars from the MDC they can possibly get them replaced.
 
Send any pics or the like to MDC and inform them. They can't fix something if they don't know it's broken. Even the best quality systems in the world still produce defects.

I was very happy with my order and how they worked with me.
 
J-bird,
Also I have taken pictures and voiced my concern via email and phone to the MDC. They have been very open to my issue and said to take a count of cedar that didn't make it(by Sept 1) and they will replace next spring. They did say this year's cedar were on the small side.

Already done and taken care of. I have ordered a shade over a couple thousand trees/shrubs from them in the past and they were great product. Heck they are half price of what I would pay for the same species in my own state, the same quality(previously), and they aren't even delivered to me.

What disappoints me is the cedars were packed horribly, looked dead on arrival, and poor size from prior experience, basically wasted 3 guys x 11 hours planting dead cedars. They are standing behind the product so that's the silver lining. Five guys planted the others species the next day.
 
I've ordered a lot of species from them over the years that I was very pleased with....with one exception. Red Cedar.
Those looked dry, pitiful and did not survive. I tried again the following year with a small order of them to test the waters again, same results.
Still a great tree supplier, I'll just keep the score at 0-2 with the cedars
 
This is the first year I’ve ordered from them, I got 10 Concordia Oaks from them. They were all in great shape when I got them and I put 6 of the best ones in their permanent home and tubed them. They are all doing well. The other 4 kind of got mistreated, while I was out there planting the guy that owns the place and has hired me to plant all these trees on his land came by to give me the keys to another gate and show me around. I wrapped the bundle of trees back up and stuck them in the shade next to a big blackjack. When I came back the wind had come up and blew the bundle away. I found all the seedlings but they were exposed to the wind and elements for at least an hour. So I put them in a 5 gal bucket and mixed Spanish moss and those soil moist crystals and poured rain water with Worm Power liquid compost on them. Every one of them survived. In fact I have one over achiever in the bunch. It is 38 inches tall, not counting the pot. All the others are @ 24”. They are all planted in 3 gal plastic pots that were from some Dunstans I got last year.
So I’m very happy with MDC and what they do for us habitat folks.
Around here cedars are really an invasive, at least they are in full sun. In the woods they are a great piece of the complete puzzle, but they can take over a pasture that isn’t grazed or cut. And the fire hazard is a problem. I imagine if I had planted a bunch of them this year they would all be drowned by now since we are getting a 3” down pour every couple of days. I hate growing things in sand until something like this happens.
 
They are probably not too concerned with cedars. Most landowners in the state spend a lot of time sawing them down not planting them!

If you have gas and a good spade you could probably get paid to dig up a few hundred!

This is the first year for a long time I didn't get anything ordered from MDC. All of the oaks I have ordered in the past have been worth the money.
 
e308, you are correct on transplanting cedars. I transplanted about a 100 this spring beside what I ordered. I have a quarter mile cedar screen planted all from transplant in the last 7 years and it is doing great. They seem to be about bomb proof. 700 is a lot to do in a a short window of time when the help can be there. Small quantities are no brainers but large numbers, feasibility isn't there.

I have had great success with everything they sell except the cedars this year and 400 lobblolly pines a few years ago but that wasn't because of lack of quality on MDC's part. The pines were in great shape and grew well through the summer but as summer progressed and the next spring into summer the deer and rabbits destroyed them, as they have destroyed any tree unless protected minus the cedars.

My driveway is lined with northern red oaks, both sides. I planted 50 of them 4 years ago and they are looking great minus the few that tree tubes screwed up. All 50 are alive. My swamp white oaks are looking great as well, at least the ones I caged. I ran out of wire and the deer were not so kind to those not protected.
 
Note to self: no cedars from mdc unless feeling lucky and I haven't felt lucky in a very long time. Or I could order a couple thousand just to increase every ones chances of getting good trees because I'm pretty sure I'd get about 99% dead or dying---I'm that consistent!
 
Why in the world would you plant cedars in Nebraska?? Most everybody I know out there is trying to get rid of them.
 
Cedars are great for screens... as they are native to many areas and the deer don't tend to browse them vs pines. Many use spruce of some sort, but once you get further south spruce are not native....and a cedar tree will grow in a wide variety of soils. I transplant mine, but I can certainly see where a person would not want to transplant a large number of them (doubling the shovel work) if you had a desire for a lot of them. I get pretty god survival on transplants when moving smaller ones once the ground thaws.
 
llc, where you are referring to that's more cattle country and in any area that is pasture, cedars can and are taking over for those who have let them go. I'm in a heavy ag area and they aren't taking over. I have cleared several hundred acres of them for some ranchers who let me deer and turkey hunt. The ranchers haven't stayed on top of them since I moved away and they are slowly taking over again.

I've done controlled burns in some of my crp fields to control cedars or else they would be nothing but cedars. It is a tough order to keep large, difficult terrain pasture areas void of cedar. It is a costly job, now landowners can get cost share to eradicate them on their properties in NE.

As I mentioned in an above post the only tree that the deer don't destroy on my farm unless protected are cedars. I've tried three varieties of pine and spruce and they were enjoyed by deer. Cedars never. They will also establish in partial shade so they have more flexibility than any other thermal planting I know of.

I want bedding/thermal/screening cover and they are the best species I know of for those purposes, especially mixed nwsg.

Like most things, what works and whats best for one situation does't work for every situation.
 
llc, where you are referring to that's more cattle country and in any area that is pasture, cedars can and are taking over for those who have let them go. I'm in a heavy ag area and they aren't taking over. I have cleared several hundred acres of them for some ranchers who let me deer and turkey hunt. The ranchers haven't stayed on top of them since I moved away and they are slowly taking over again.

I've done controlled burns in some of my crp fields to control cedars or else they would be nothing but cedars. It is a tough order to keep large, difficult terrain pasture areas void of cedar. It is a costly job, now landowners can get cost share to eradicate them on their properties in NE.

As I mentioned in an above post the only tree that the deer don't destroy on my farm unless protected are cedars. I've tried three varieties of pine and spruce and they were enjoyed by deer. Cedars never. They will also establish in partial shade so they have more flexibility than any other thermal planting I know of.

I want bedding/thermal/screening cover and they are the best species I know of for those purposes, especially mixed nwsg.

Like most things, what works and whats best for one situation does't work for every situation.

And like anything else you gotta manage it. You can in ag country by fields being plowed, but I know all the draws around Lincoln and York are nothing but cedars with a few 100 year old cottonwoods just waiting to die and be replaced by cedars.
 
Try Superior Trees in Lee,Florida

I bought 1000 cedars from them in 2016

They were in great shape and have done well

bill
 
You know, Willy, as wet as it is up there you could probably drive out around York and pull up a thousand little cedars in any draw right off I-80 in about an hour. Just a thought.
 
I had the same problem with my MDC order two years ago. Everything looked great but the cedars. They were dried out and zero survived.
 
Gravel, how did you handle the poor product? Did you just eat the loss or did you work out some deal with MDC?
 
I just ate it since they were cheap. This year I found a bunch of tiny cedars and just transplanted them instead of buying.

The plum and hazelnut that year were in good shape.

Just remembered that the persimmons that year weren't very good either. Survival was okay but the roots were barely there. It's been 3 years now and the ones that survived are only 2-3 ft tall. Going to try Mossy oak persimmons next year.
 
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