Thoughts on Trees

[Mitch123]

Got some honeysuckle seed in the winter, planted it indoors with lights etc and didn't have any success. Wish I could have got some seeds to end up sprouting . Wanting to try my green thumb again and since we already got some apple trees going I was to consider trying some more tree/shrubs and starting them from seeds again. The trees I was going to try were PawPaw trees, American Persimmion, Osage Orange and some American Elderberry seeds. Getting 50 seeds of each and just hoping for a few maybe! Any thoughts on my tree species along with any tips anyone has had growing these?

 

[j-bird]

I have never intentionally grown any of those you mentioned. I do know persimmons seed needs to be scarified (they actually are meant to go thru the digestive system of a critter before they will germinate) and they typically grow male or female trees and you need one of each for the female to produce fruit. Osage orange seeds can be big.....like the size of a softball or bigger so I am not sure you need 50 of them. Paw-paw trees I would suggest talking to catscratch - I know I sent him some paw-paw seed last fall but I think he has struggled with them. I can't get you any paw-paw now, but come late summer early fall I should be able to get you some if you so desire. I will list them on our seed swap thread we have every year since more and more folks seem interested in paw-paw. In my case they simply feed the coons. I don't see them as deer food.

 

[dogdoc]

Persimmons and pawpaw seeds are very similar. They both need a cold stratification period. Like stated persimmons are male and female and need both to get fruit. I have found persimmons to be very easy to get going and aren't to picky. Pawpaw seeds are a little tougher to get going and are very very slow to germinate. I have about 10 pawpaw trees that were started from seed and have been in tubes now for 3 years. A very slow growing tree in my experience. I probably had about 40% success with the pawpaw seeds. I have no experience with the other two. Persimmons are a great wildlife tree. From what I have heard and read pawpaw trees aren't very good deer trees because every tree climbing critter will have them eaten way before they fall for the deer.

 

[catscratch]

Osage Orange seeds are actually small, it's the fruit that is big. Each fruit will have a lot of seed in it...

I've found Elderberry to be very easy to grow from cuttings. Stick a stick into the ground and keep it watered and it will sprout roots and grow well. I tend to get berries the first yr...

 

[KDdid]

I start a few Osage Orange trees from seed every spring. Just bury a Osage fruit in some potting soil, and cover with a piece of screen to keep the squirrels away. Dig it up in April, and the orange will have rotted into a gooey lump with hundreds of seeds under the rind. Here's a couple about ready to be up-potted into solo cups.


Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum

 

[Mitch123]

Has anyone had success with any type of honeysuckle? Being back up in the mountains of WV our deer will eat anything. We throw out pumkins in the fall and the deer tear them up. At our other place less that 20 miles away not as much since its down in the valley. We have food plots of clover, alfalfa, chicory, turnips etc, the hole nine yards. I'm looking for any other fruit or berry trees that we can feed to the deer other than the acorns that we normally have a lot of.

 

[Native Hunter]

Along with what you have already mentioned I would recommend adding the following:

Chinese Chestnut
Disease Resistant Pears

Both of these provide highly sought after food.

Japanese Honeysuckle grows everywhere around here. Fence rows are covered with it. The deer love it, but they don't come close to cleaning it all up. It plants itself very effectively.

Wild blackberry is a great deer food, but you don't want it in NWSG fields, because NWSGs can't even come close to competing with it for space. I recently had to spray blackberry invading NWSGs, but there are still plenty in fence rows and woods edges.

 

[Mitch123]

We have added 10 Dunstan Chestnuts 3-4 years ago and some already had nuts last year, only a couple but that was cool to see so soon. This fall/winter really looking forward to collecting some scions and seeds from everyone around and trying them. I'm down to try anything and looking forward to get any more tips and to add some selection for the deer! We have some Osage Orange in my neighborhood and when we were little we always called them monkey brains. Would throw them at each other like we were playing dodgeball (we were kids and didn't know any better.) We also have lots of blackberry bushes, but they don't stay around long since the bear destroy them and the popeberries once they are ripe.

 

[Mitch123]

Does anyone spray their trees? Our trees are noticing something munching on them. Picked up some Blondies Orchard Spray and going to apply some of that this weekend.

 

[catscratch]

I spray sometimes (when I see a problem). I also use 7 dust for trees in tubes.

 

[E_308]

Osage Orange seeds are actually small, it's the fruit that is big. Each fruit will have a lot of seed in it...

.

In the old days they used to make a slurry from the hedge balls them pour that slurry down a trench. A hedge row was born. I shot a lot of quail and pheasants out of hedge rows in the 90's.