How do you plan for tree plantings?

[Charlieyca]

At the beginning of December I have an order of 50 common crabapple and 50 persimmon for soft mast. I have 20 hazelnut, 20 chinquapins, 20 sawtooth, 20 bur oaks, and 20 chinquapin oaks seedlings coming about that same time.
In my mind I have divided my farm into 3 parts, front, middle and back. I would like to vary how they are planted, some in squares orchard style, some in rows along trails and openings, some lining the outside of food plots.
Do you layout lines on google earth? Do you walk the land and put out flagging stakes where you would put them? Do you just hit the ground running and start putting trees in the ground?

 

[Neahawg]

When planting oaks we've jusylt plugged them in haphazardly.

 

[Charlieyca]

Thats the feeling I got with the oaks, but with the more shrubs like chinquapin and hazelnuts I didnt know how that would work out. Also I dont know want to run out of areas to plant with 200 trees. I have 35 acres but lots of it is thick briars surrounding sweetgums and pines 7-8 years old. (cutover that is too grown up)

 

[mattpatt]

We lay it out and spaced evenly enough so we can get the tractor and shredder in and around them easily. I find the easier you make it to do maintenance the more likely you are to follow through with it.


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[Neahawg]

Probably get better success Matt's way, when we plant bare root oaks we plant and walk away so deff could get better care.

 

[Charlieyca]

I have lots of landscape fabric and 100 tubes w/stakes so I hope to either tube or put down fabric for most of them. The crabapples and persimmons will probably not get a lot of care, due to sheer numbers. But I plan to protect the oaks and hard mast trees. How much space do you leave in between the smaller trees such as chinquapin, hazelnut, and crabapple? I know the sawtooth and bur I want to space about 30 feet apart

 

[mattpatt]

We usually do 10-12' for bush type plantings. All bigger oaks and chestnuts are minimum of 20'. To make it easy we usually just step off 7 paces and plant which is usually around 21'. Which some will say is too close but we figure we'll loose several along the way due to drought or something else.


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[buckdeer1]

You might have a decent survival rate if you plant in brush piles but I bet you will be looking at 25-50 pecent or less after 2 years.With tubes I average 75% after 2 years according to the study we did for USDA to get tubes on cost share programs.If you don't tube I would at least fence to soft bark trees such as crabs and screen trunks.I only planted around 200 and yes it bites to tube them but it sure saves a ton of time

 

[buckdeer1]

That was 200 this year but usually I do around 500 just planted more shrubs this year than trees

 

[Fish]

I hate to sound droll, but can you share what your "vision" is? That influences my plantings.

Sawtooths go there for a reason. Persimmons over here, or perhaps mixed, for a reason. Hazelnut shrub border here, for a reason.

I planted a ten acre cornfield 14 years ago and while i did a lot of things right, a little more planning would have been very beneficial these years later. Just another i wish i knew then what i know now.

 

[Charlieyca]

I'm looking for a variety of food sources that long term give the most return on investment. Right now there are very few oaks trees on my land and surrounding areas, but lots of cover and ag. I think variety of hard and soft mast is the "low hole in my bucket" so to speak. I enjoy plots but would eventually like to know my plots are just a supplement to the food available each year.
A separate goal is to convince my father he no longer needs to put out corn. If he sees the long term results from deer feeding on our farm from July through December I believe that is a possibility.

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[Charlieyca]

Some plantings will be simply because it's an open area as opposed to impenetrable brush, but within those areas how do you layout the spacing between sawtooth and others?

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[wbpdeer]

If I am going for a fence row outcome, I use bright orange construction string and create my planting line and then I step it off and flag it. After that I dig my holes.

Teacher for your edge plantings, this approach might help. I am a firm believer in using moisture miser to help them make it thru their first summer. I also believe in landscape fabric to conserve moisture.

If I have help, I did my holes ahead of time and then the help gets them in the ground. Most people wear out on a shovel. I dig after rains and it works very well for digging and moisture helps the trees.

Good luck to you.

 

[Charlieyca]

Tell me more about this moisture mizer. I am planting early december in hopes that they get acclimated before our summer. Not worried about cold weather here. I think I am going to start flagging locations for trees, then I can get in the stands and see how they look.

Fish, what would you do different if you were planting a 1 acre orchard with a mix of oak trees and shrubs? This is my first big tree planting (5 was largest before) and I dont know the benefits of mixing trees or keeping together.

 

[mattpatt]

Charlieyca,

Where are you located? Moisture mizer product are water absorbing crystals. You put a little in the bottom of the hole when planting. The same product goes by several different names but it's all essentially the same stuff. I used a product called Soil Moist.

http://www.soilmoist.com/products/soil-moist.php

I can tell you with experience though that all the water absorbing crystals in the world won't save you for extended periods of 90 F + heat without supplemental watering. Been there and done that....

Matt

 

[Charlieyca]

I am in Southeastern NC, 7b, inland about 30 mins from the coast. Most of the the farm has good loamy soil that retains water pretty well, not the sandy stuff closer to the coast. 35 years ago it was farmland. Soil is still a llittle on the acidic side due to all the pines that were logged 6 years ago and the current regrowth.

 

[Charlieyca]

95% of the trees I plant I can drive my truck to and the other 5% I have an atv if i needed to water. I figure as soon as I plant a bunch of trees we will have a 100 year drought.

 

[Mark1427]

I too am in the "vision" phase of tree planting.
I have mostly hard mast inventory at the moment, but am looking in to soft mast when the finances permit.
I will be getting rid of undesirable trees and putting some of the hard mast in protection to replace those trees. The vision changes constantly.

 

[Charlieyca]

State forestry services are very cheap for most soft mast trees, 60 bucks for 100 seedling of persimmon and crabapples

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[wbpdeer]

Tell me more about this moisture mizer. I am planting early december in hopes that they get acclimated before our summer. Not worried about cold weather here. I think I am going to start flagging locations for trees, then I can get in the stands and see how they look.

Fish, what would you do different if you were planting a 1 acre orchard with a mix of oak trees and shrubs? This is my first big tree planting (5 was largest before) and I dont know the benefits of mixing trees or keeping together.

Moisture Miser is a product I buy from the Wildlife Group. It is a crystal substance that expands with water. It helps keep moisture around the plant in the summer and at other times.

Other products are sold like this under different names - I think Water Sorb may be one of those. I give it to all of my beginning plants if I have it on hand.

Hope this helps. I have been out of state hunting - just can't prove it yet.