Sprayed Gly Around Tree Tubes, Wet Spring, Mortality. Now What?

[Brushpile]

Swamp White Oak and Bur Oak are both outstanding trees for deer, so I recommend planting more of them. In your moist areas try Red Osier Dogwood, Elderberry, Ninebark, and Highbush Cranberry. Red Osier Dogwood and Elderberry are thicket forming. I strongly recommend using a weed barrier, like black plastic. Fall spray glyphosate and spray again planting day. I am more than happy to help!

 

[almanac12]

Well, I've taken inventory. I posted this on another thread but I'll repeat it here. I purchased stock from a local nursery, and what I received was much smaller than expected. I bought hackberry, yellow birch, and bur oak. The hackberry were less than 1 mm caliper, really tiny. The yellow birch were also really small and were potted - they had almost no roots. 1/2 - 2/3 of these are now toast with all the rain or the gly (still undetermined). Maybe 1 out of 6 of these look healthy.

Funny enough, the bur oak were only 2" - 4" plugs. But those tough little guys are hanging on with all the rain. Some look great, up to 7" - 9", some are still two-leaved plugs. But 90% are alive.

I also have had trouble with the red maple. About 15% never did anything and just sat in the ground dead. Of those that are alive, nearly all them are putting on secondary sprouts from the stump. Only 1 or 2 are growing from the terminal buds as they should.

 

[almanac12]

Found this here: http://msue.anr.msu.edu/topic/chestnuts/pest_management/weed_management

Roundup (41 % a. i.) controls both annual and perennial weeds, grasses and broad leafed plants. It has a systemic quality in that it moves from the leaves to the roots. This is called translocation. This herbicide can cause serious damage to nut and fruit trees if contact occurs on any green tissue (leaves or shoots), or on young trunk bark. Apply only near trees that have been planted for 2 or more years.

I have to say that right now, I wish that I hadn't sprayed gly near those young seedlings, even with the tubes over them. The soil was saturated with water from all the rain, and I think that gly was able to move through the young bark of the trees via diffusion through wet soil.

 

[Fish]

But how did gly get on the bark if tubed?

 

[almanac12]

Saturated, water-logged soil. I'm not observing any other patterns with the mortality I'm seeing. I think I screwed up and sprayed gly when the site was too wet. I will likely need to replant 40-50% of what I planted this year. I won't be spraying with gly - I'll have to hand weed by scalping around the tubes with a flat head shovel or just hand pulling. We'll see what happens next year.

I planted red maple, which are a flood tolerant swamp species. A bunch of them in near standing water conditions survived and several are actually up 3 feet in those conditions. However, 15 or so in less wet conditions, I would say moist, are totally dead. There are oaks near them that are doing well. Nearly all of the red maple which survived are sending sprouts from the trunks, but never opened terminal buds. Vigor appears to be independent of the amount of water. It's apparent that all are under stress. The nursery I purchased these from believes they are suckering.