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Larger scale tree planting
- Thread starter CentralKyHunter
- Start date
CentralKyHunter
Active Member
I received a list of species eligible for planting for this practice.
As said before 80% has to be in hard mast trees with 25% having to be of the white oak family and 25% having to be of the red oak family . 20% can be and soft mast and shrubs.
These are being planted and bottom ground that is currently in crops.
I would like to plant Mulberry hazelnut probably some Chestnut and some walnuts.
Also considering some dogwoods.
As per conversation on the forums I would like to try some swamp white oaks in this round.
Take a look at the list and you guys tell me how you would break down your planting given the requirements and the list
Looking at 600 trees per acre and probably 4500 total trees
As said before 80% has to be in hard mast trees with 25% having to be of the white oak family and 25% having to be of the red oak family . 20% can be and soft mast and shrubs.
These are being planted and bottom ground that is currently in crops.
I would like to plant Mulberry hazelnut probably some Chestnut and some walnuts.
Also considering some dogwoods.
As per conversation on the forums I would like to try some swamp white oaks in this round.
Take a look at the list and you guys tell me how you would break down your planting given the requirements and the list
Looking at 600 trees per acre and probably 4500 total trees
DrDirtNap
Active Member
My experience with Mullberry is that they have to be tubed or caged. I planted 100 or so in my wildlife corridor and the the deer keep them browsed down to a bush spreading along the ground. Mulberry is a highly preferred browse species in my area...didn't realize that until after I planted them. That's my experience...might be different where you are.
DDN/CKH
2 points with regard to mulberry... 1st, they border on becoming an invasive species (why most farmers detest them) when they represent several mature trees in an area
/ I have them in my area and literally dozens of mulberry seedlings come up around some of my cages every year because birds land on the top wire of a cage and leave a deposit that results in multiple mulberry plants. If you plant them I would watch their development carefully over time and remove any female plants the first time they ever made fruit.
2nd they are wonderful browse plants - as long as they are no taller than 5-6 feet. Once they achieve that height deer pretty much ignore them. And even though deer will browse them heavily from spring onward the plant usually can out grow the browse pattern and shoot some 4-5 foot leaders every summer. Even though my deer numbers are high enough to require protection for everything I plant, mulberry plants in my area will eventually outgrow the browse line and achieve upward growth.I coined a term for what I do with mulberry plants. Since I like to have a limited number of them in certain locations, I create TRUBS ... a tree that has been made into a shrub via extensive pruning (especially with regard to leaders). This keeps most, if not all, of the new tender (desirable) plant growth within reach for the deer and the extensive pruning stimulates the mulberry plant to put out lots of new tender growth. They are almost like a weed in that they can endure severe cutbacks with little or no harmful effects. I do not want to discourage you from planting mulberry; I just want to share what I believe are some of their limitations. I'll try to post pictures of "Trubs" later and the numbers around my cages.
One additional thought ... you can make a pretty good screen with "trubbing" mulberry plants over time since they will grow out and not up (what dirt nap said) ... I have never heard of anyone trying this but I have seen it in fence rows where it has occurred naturally via browse activity.
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CentralKyHunter
Active Member
Oak seeds,
First of all great info it is greatly appreciated !!
To give you a little bit of background we bought 125 acres for the sole purpose of a family recreation property .
It was originally completely pastured by cattle . Since then we have converted about
-60 acres over to crop ( to help make the payment, if it were up to me it would all be in native grasses and tree plantations )
-12 ish I have converted over to tree plantations or orchard areas
- I let roughly 15 acres through different areas grow up into Briers, brush, natural regeneration for small game , nesting,and deer use
- probably 5 acres of different food plots
- 35 acres of standing timber
So my goals going forward is to create a property that will allow my children and grandchildren to have an experience that they cannot have anywhere else and that theoretically could not be bought .
This past spring I planted 8 acres of oaks With a small percentage of persimmon, Walnut, pecans added into it . This was simply done to convert some hillsides into future timber and habitat.
The current project I'm working on is converting 8 acres of bottom cropland into an expanded creek border . My vision for this is to create a timber creek bottom area with an outer edge loaded with food trees for quail, squirrel, turkey, deer, coons, birds , etc.
I have heard many stories from my grandpa about hunting Mulberry thickets that were loaded with squirrels and other game and this is what I am trying to re-create . I also have a vision 20 years from now of my oak trees starting to create acorns and my Mulberry, black cherries, other native fruit trees starting to rain down food for multiple species .
As far as the invasive characteristic, it is a chance I'm willing to take and a battle I'm willing to fight if needed to create the vision that I have , I honestly hope my plantings do well enough to create these circumstances Someday as naïve as that sounds .
I am actually currently dealing with that with my native persimmons , we have quite a few nice mature persimmon trees and have thousands of young persimmons that pop up every year here . My planting this past spring is full of them and I will definitely have to start removing them next year as they are already out competing my newly planted oaks.
So that's my vision, I hope 20 years from now there is not a crop on my property and everything has a purpose for as many species as I can possibly benefit
First of all great info it is greatly appreciated !!
To give you a little bit of background we bought 125 acres for the sole purpose of a family recreation property .
It was originally completely pastured by cattle . Since then we have converted about
-60 acres over to crop ( to help make the payment, if it were up to me it would all be in native grasses and tree plantations )
-12 ish I have converted over to tree plantations or orchard areas
- I let roughly 15 acres through different areas grow up into Briers, brush, natural regeneration for small game , nesting,and deer use
- probably 5 acres of different food plots
- 35 acres of standing timber
So my goals going forward is to create a property that will allow my children and grandchildren to have an experience that they cannot have anywhere else and that theoretically could not be bought .
This past spring I planted 8 acres of oaks With a small percentage of persimmon, Walnut, pecans added into it . This was simply done to convert some hillsides into future timber and habitat.
The current project I'm working on is converting 8 acres of bottom cropland into an expanded creek border . My vision for this is to create a timber creek bottom area with an outer edge loaded with food trees for quail, squirrel, turkey, deer, coons, birds , etc.
I have heard many stories from my grandpa about hunting Mulberry thickets that were loaded with squirrels and other game and this is what I am trying to re-create . I also have a vision 20 years from now of my oak trees starting to create acorns and my Mulberry, black cherries, other native fruit trees starting to rain down food for multiple species .
As far as the invasive characteristic, it is a chance I'm willing to take and a battle I'm willing to fight if needed to create the vision that I have , I honestly hope my plantings do well enough to create these circumstances Someday as naïve as that sounds .
I am actually currently dealing with that with my native persimmons , we have quite a few nice mature persimmon trees and have thousands of young persimmons that pop up every year here . My planting this past spring is full of them and I will definitely have to start removing them next year as they are already out competing my newly planted oaks.
So that's my vision, I hope 20 years from now there is not a crop on my property and everything has a purpose for as many species as I can possibly benefit
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catscratch
Well-Known Member
Great vision for the future!
I "trub" both Mulberry and Hedge. Both are preferred browse for their leafs and actually pretty high in protein if I remember right. Not to hard to keep them in check here.
The species that gets planted by birds around my cages and brush piles is Redbud. Unfortunately nothing seems to eat it...
I "trub" both Mulberry and Hedge. Both are preferred browse for their leafs and actually pretty high in protein if I remember right. Not to hard to keep them in check here.
The species that gets planted by birds around my cages and brush piles is Redbud. Unfortunately nothing seems to eat it...
CentralKyHunter
Active Member
I say go for it my man; you have a great vision!
I like the way you think ha ha
I do like the "Trub" idea though, could possibly do that on a couple trees in a row then let one grow up right and make a good screen that way
CentralKyHunter
Active Member
The oaks are supposed to be mixed, kinda, staggered I guess you could say. Basically I had blocks of each specie.
One smaller area ended up with all black oaks bc they were left over and I put them in a small area that was in crop rotation @ the time
I planted my first large scale planting around 11 years ago and some of those trees are 20-25 ft tall and been producing bur acorns for 3 years.The sawtooths have been loaded for a couple years.My soil is better on one side than the other so they grew better.I planted at the spacing NRCS gave me but it was too close but i haven't forced myself to cut any down but will try to spade a few of the slow growing ones.The couple hundred I planted about 3 years ago had close to 100 % survival and most are from 6 inches to 3ft out of tubes. A pull behind tree planter is the only way to go and works great for shrubs also.