Pollinator Strips

[tynimiller]

Has anyone focused on pollination strips incorporated into your landscape? With the introduction of pear/apple trees on the property I've thought of ways to encourage more and more pollinator activity on or around my property and I've decided to incorporate wildflower strips on the landscape in non-crucial areas for deer usage.

Anyone else done this ever? Any tips or concerns? Sources for seed or recommendations? Entirely new thing to plant.

 

[Telemark]

Sounds like a great idea.
I used to grow wildflowers. I think any local mix should work.

Have you thought about where they will live? Bees need a lot of space for their hive. Will you buy a queen or just let nature take its course?

 

[john volkman]

Has anyone focused on pollination strips incorporated into your landscape? With the introduction of pear/apple trees on the property I've thought of ways to encourage more and more pollinator activity on or around my property and I've decided to incorporate wildflower strips on the landscape in non-crucial areas for deer usage.

Anyone else done this ever? Any tips or concerns? Sources for seed or recommendations? Entirely new thing to plant.

Check with your NRCS office in your area, the CSP program has several Pollinator habitat programs that will pay you to install it on your property , its very lucrative. I am doing several acres on my ground this year.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Ernst Seeds in Pa. is a big supplier of all kinds of habitat seed mixes. They cover all the bases from wildlife habitat to soil conservation/roadside mixes/pipeline mixes/ upland and wetland mixes. I have no affiliation with Ernst - I just know about them & have 'em on my favorites list.

 

[JFK52]

I looked into the pollinator program and found it to be the exact opposite of lucrative. The amount the NRCS wanted to give me to plant was next to nothing and then they wanted the area maintained for five years. I did get a better offer from NRCS on ground that was already in production but still found it to be not worth my time again considering the five year commitment.
When I did my 12 acre prairie 24 years ago, I put in several forbs that were designed to attract bees and butterflies.
This is the second year that a friend has kept 24 bee hives on a trailer made from an old mobile home on my land. He placed it very close to my prairie. I also have 28 mature apple trees on my land.

 

[Frosted brassica]

Has anyone focused on pollination strips incorporated into your landscape? With the introduction of pear/apple trees on the property I've thought of ways to encourage more and more pollinator activity on or around my property and I've decided to incorporate wildflower strips on the landscape in non-crucial areas for deer usage.

Anyone else done this ever? Any tips or concerns? Sources for seed or recommendations? Entirely new thing to plant.

When I have experimented with buckwheat I found it very easy to grow and you could hear the buzzing of bugs well before you walked up to the patch of buckwheat. For perennials and biannuals I usually get better production after a light disking or mowing every handful of years with the native seed bed. I haven’t grown one of the pollinator mixes but they look interesting so please let us know what you try next year.


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[ksgobbler]

I have a bee hive. Only had it for a year. Bees hammer the yellow clover in the pasture in spring. That is after all my native plums etc bloom early. I planted buckwheat and they hammered that as well. Then I shot some doves over the buckwheat in the fall. Looking to add a second hive this spring.

 

[tynimiller]

Sounds like a great idea.
I used to grow wildflowers. I think any local mix should work.

Have you thought about where they will live? Bees need a lot of space for their hive. Will you buy a queen or just let nature take its course?

I personally will not be operating a bee hive or hives...I know of two operations though less than a mile away and am merely looking for a way to up the activity of these little pollinators on my property which benefits everything greatly!

I will add to this post when or if I decide on something. I'll also look into the NRCS but I've heard it isn't very lucrative in our area.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Big fan of buckwheat. We plant some every year. Deer love it & so do the honeybees, wasps, bumble bees, flies of all sorts. They all pollinate.

 

[woodduck]

X2 on Ernst. Roundstone Native Seed in Kentucky is another great seed source. Ive ordered from both, very knowledgeable and great to deal with.

 

[yoderjac]

Has anyone focused on pollination strips incorporated into your landscape? With the introduction of pear/apple trees on the property I've thought of ways to encourage more and more pollinator activity on or around my property and I've decided to incorporate wildflower strips on the landscape in non-crucial areas for deer usage.

Anyone else done this ever? Any tips or concerns? Sources for seed or recommendations? Entirely new thing to plant.

There is even a USDA conservation practice for this.

Check with your NRCS office in your area, the CSP program has several Pollinator habitat programs that will pay you to install it on your property , its very lucrative. I am doing several acres on my ground this year.

We turn this one down. We are doing it anyway. The little bit of USDA money was not worth the paperwork and documentation requirements. USDA's EQIP program, on the other hand, was well worth the paperwork.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[SwampCat]

White and yellow sweet clover will attract every bee in the area - and between the two plants will provide about 6 weeks of flowers.

 

[tynimiller]

Thanks Jack, I've got a contact and already emailed them...we will see.

Thanks again for all the solid recommendations and thoughts fellas.

 

[yoderjac]

Thanks Jack, I've got a contact and already emailed them...we will see.

Thanks again for all the solid recommendations and thoughts fellas.

They may have other programs that work better. They were just starting up a new program. Equip is more aimed at getting a property in shape. This new program was focused more at maintaining a property. Basically you go points for applying certain practices (which we do anyway). You pick the practices and acreage and they get plugged into some program. It pops out a dollar amount based on the points. Pollinator habitat was just one of the practices. While I was very happy with what they paid for EQIP, the amount they offered for the new program was small. Doing all the paperwork and coordinating with them for inspections and such wasn't worth the small amount of money to us. You may come up with a better result than we did.

We still work with them. They have been a great help in providing advice along with our county forester and game department biologist. They are all great free resources in addition to the private forester we hired.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[JFK52]

I have to agree with yoderjac about the tiny amount the pollinator program wanted to give me for it's program. After I calculated what the seed alone they required would cost, I was scratching my head as to how they thought it was going to get planted. My Kubota burns diesel fuel and one had to spray gly, disc, harrow and then roll the seed into the prepped soil. It would have required money out of my pocket. Plus the never ending paperwork. Forget it!

I have used an EQIP program in the past when I did a controlled burn on my prairie and found their compensation for the job to be done more than adequate. I could actually pay for the diesel fuel for my Kubota to disc in a fire break around the prairie perimeter and for the UW Stevens Point fire crew to come out and conduct a burn. I have a written burn plan for my prairie on file with NRCS and I have applied for this same EQIP program to do a burn in 2018.

 

[ksgobbler]

THats interesting. A few million acres will go up here without a burn plan. I’m burning my south piece in the next couple months. Doing a growing season burn on the north piece to see how it affects the Sericea.

 

[JFK52]

ksgobbler, I am not sure what you mean. That man made burns will be conducted or that Mother Nature will touch off the fire?
In Wisconsin, the law says that anytime one burns more than one quarter acre, a number of conditions must be met. There must be a written burn plan, a special burn permit is required from the DNR, fire suppression equipment must be on scene and there needs to be a fire break among others. Lastly, once the dripper is lit, the liability is on the land owner conducting the burn if the fire escapes and causes damages.

 

[ksgobbler]

It’s just interesting how other places do it. I go pick up a free burn permit. Then when it’s time to burn I call dispatch and tell them I am starting. Call back to tell them when I am finished. Collectively 3-5 million acres will be treated with prescribed fire in this state. No burn plans required.

 

[yoderjac]

Except during burn ban periods, no burn coordinator or burn plan it is required in our state. I'd never burn without one. Not only is it smart, it a big factor in managing liability if something goes wrong. I hope to take the prescribed burner class from our forestry department this year so we don't have to hire a burn coordinator. Better safe than sorry!

Thanks,

Jack

 

[john volkman]

There is even a USDA conservation practice for this.


We turn this one down. We are doing it anyway. The little bit of USDA money was not worth the paperwork and documentation requirements. USDA's EQIP program, on the other hand, was well worth the paperwork.

Thanks,

Jack

The monarch pollinator agreement payment for my site was Approx $2300 per acre, after seed and installation cost i will net $1800 acre for a 5 year program. Paperwork and documentation were no worse than any other program i have been in. I either currently have, or have had acreage in CRP, CREP, CSP and EQUIP in a multitude of programs and the CSP programs have been both painless and very beneficial.