Rock Creek Ridge

[TheMiz54]

Hey everyone I thought I would start my own property tour after reading and being inspired by everyone's. My father and I purchased this property in Steuben County NY in the spring of 2013. The 21 acres came with two small 10x20 cabins. We have power and a dug well for water. We plan on doing some remodeling and joining the two cabins and putting in a septic this summer.

We began in May of 2013 with our management plan and started planting trees.

The first year we planted 50 Norway Spruce trees, 11 Dunstan Chestnuts, 3 Apple, and 2 Pear trees. The goal was to start creating a screen for the property on the west side by the county road and we also wanted to increase the screen on the seasonal road to the north of the property.

The green line is the Spruce trees the blue lines are the two rows of fruit and chestnut trees.

Dunstan Chestnuts

I will provide updated pictures and the planned tree plantings for this year.

 

[Goldentriangle]

How have those Chestnut Hill Dunstans faired? I am trying to talk myself out of buying some right now with all the seedlings I have started...


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[TheMiz54]

How have those Chestnut Hill Dunstans faired? I am trying to talk myself out of buying some right now with all the seedlings I have started...


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The chestnuts have done great. I am in western NY and we get hit hard with lake effect snow so I didn't know how they would do but after 3 years of growth I am hopeful we get nuts this year or next. Last year we had a late ice storm which got at least 1 limb on every tree.

Here are a few photos from last year.

This is the same tree in 2013

My dad is 6' 1 for comparison

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[TheMiz54]

So last year I got 100 cuttings from Big Rock Trees
25 Hybrid Willows
25 Hybrid Poplars
25 Elderberry
25 Silky Dogwoods

We had a bad drought and I didn't protect them so I did not have great luck with them.

I will be making another order once I figure out how many I lost.

I also started planting a screen of miscanthus giganteus. I started with 200 rhizomes from Maple River Farms and order another 100 to create a road screen while my Spruce trees fill in.

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[lakngolf]

Welcome aboard. We southern boys love to learn that there is more to new york than NYC, not that NYC is all bad. Looks like a big green field in middle of property. Look forward to riding along

 

[TheMiz54]

So I am planting 150 more Spruce Seedlings 100 Norways and 50 Serbian Spruce along both road fronts in a few weeks.

Here are a few pictures of the growth change from 2013 to 2016

Out of the 50 planted in 2013 I may have lost 3-4 trees. The last one got rubbed pretty hard this past season but I think it might survive. There is still some green growth on the lower limbs.


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[CTM1]

Very nice.

Any plan for food plots?

 

[Chainsaw]

Glad to see a new property on the Property Tours. You are doing it right planting road screening early on; It definitely enables hunting and daytime deer use of land that would otherwise be used mostly at night time. The spruce trees planted here years ago grew about like yours for around five or six years and then they really took off so that by year 10 they were a true screen. One of the mistakes I made was not keeping up with replanting damaged ones annually. For example in relation to your plantings, the one rubbed could have another one planted beside it only two or three feet away and then in five years the weaker of the two killed rather than waiting to "see if it comes back" and possibly losing what could have been five years growth on a new one.

Another mistake I made was not protecting all planted trees from the town mower. Everything went fine until the town mower guy retired;the new one mowed some of my planted spruces down. I'm thinking that the Miscanthus could be mistaken as a roadside weed and mowed down by the town which is not as bad as mowing a spruce but still not desirable.

Good luck with your new property and I look forward to following along with your thread.

 

[TheMiz54]

Very nice.

Any plan for food plots?

I would love to but don't have any equipment. I plan on doing some small in the woods and trails plots with hand tools this year.



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[TheMiz54]

Glad to see a new property on the Property Tours. You are doing it right planting road screening early on; It definitely enables hunting and daytime deer use of land that would otherwise be used mostly at night time. The spruce trees planted here years ago grew about like yours for around five or six years and then they really took off so that by year 10 they were a true screen. One of the mistakes I made was not keeping up with replanting damaged ones annually. For example in relation to your plantings, the one rubbed could have another one planted beside it only two or three feet away and then in five years the weaker of the two killed rather than waiting to "see if it comes back" and possibly losing what could have been five years growth on a new one.

Another mistake I made was not protecting all planted trees from the town mower. Everything went fine until the town mower guy retired;the new one mowed some of my planted spruces down. I'm thinking that the Miscanthus could be mistaken as a roadside weed and mowed down by the town which is not as bad as mowing a spruce but still not desirable.

Good luck with your new property and I look forward to following along with your thread.

Great advice Chainsaw! I will be sure to plant another Spruce next to the one that was rubbed.

I tried to plant the miscanthus on the other side of the ditch to try and avoid any mowing. I think it will be ok. I should have some better pictures this summer and fall


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[Elkaddict]

Glad to see another NY thread. I'm anxious to see how your poplar/willow planting progresses. My attempts failed with everything dying within 2 years. I agree with Chainsaw about the importance of getting screens planted early--very wise. Keep the pics coming!

 

[TheMiz54]

Glad to see another NY thread. I'm anxious to see how your poplar/willow planting progresses. My attempts failed with everything dying within 2 years. I agree with Chainsaw about the importance of getting screens planted early--very wise. Keep the pics coming!

That's interesting that your willows and poplars didn't make it. We had a bad drought last year so maybe that did it. Did you have a lot of browse pressure and did you protect yours.

I need to protect mine I just don't know the most cost effective way to do it.


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[Elkaddict]

That's interesting that your willows and poplars didn't make it. We had a bad drought last year so maybe that did it. Did you have a lot of browse pressure and did you protect yours.

I need to protect mine I just don't know the most cost effective way to do it.


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I probably screwed up. Planted 30 6' hybrid willow staffs trying to hide an unattractive dead timber stand (damned beavers) visible from the house. All leafed out the first year. We watered per instructions and manually kept competing weeds at bay. Only a few survived the winter. There was no marked sign of browse or damage by mice. It was disappointing.....

 

[Merle Hawggard]

Beautiful country! I agree with Lak, on enjoying a lot of the more northern threads. We get a 4 inch snow and it's like manna from heaven.
Keep the pics coming.

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[TheMiz54]

Made it to the Cabins. I have a few buddies coming this Memorial weekend.

I have a busy work weekend planned for them but they don't know it yet lol.




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[TheMiz54]

1 down 149 to go...

Planting 100 Norways and 50 Yugoslavian Spruce.

I also have 100 MG to plant as well.


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[TheMiz54]

I found this on one of my Dunstan Chestnuts. Anyone know what might be going on? The tree seems healthy.

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[TheMiz54]

The pooch loves the Cabin trips


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[TheMiz54]

Went up to camp for Labor Day and was surprised to see some chestnuts on the trees we planted in 2013.

My brother in law and I also put in a small no till food plot so we will see if it takes.

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[buckdeer1]

Looks great,I would be careful planting trees that close to under electric line,looks as though you might be in R/W.Also there are some new rules as far as how close trees can be to electric lines