Greenhorn Questions on Tree Seedling Plantings

[blueKYstream]

I put together a couple videos of the planting steps and an overview of where I put them as well as a few extras. If anyone is interested in seeing them, by all means take a look. I won't win an Oscar, but maybe I can help others, learn something, or just having fun documenting the process. Either way it's a win in my book:

I planted 50 seedlings (10 of which aren't yet posted to YouTube yet). I should have some persimmon trees coming any day now.

UPDATE: I received the persimmon trees 5 minutes after this post. They're a bit smaller than the chestnuts so that may make them a tad quicker to plant. We'll see.

 

[scott44]

Nice looking terrain you have!

 

[blueKYstream]

Nice looking terrain you have!

Thanks! I was thinking something else with each rock I dug up haha, but's a nice place to escape for me!

 

[blueKYstream]

Well, I was able to plant 32 of the 100 persimmon trees today. I'll be turkey hunting tomorrow and then planting some more. I thought today went smooth until I felt the soreness in my feet and back when I got home. I know I'm protecting the trees and doing weed mats, but who are these tree-planting freaks (I'm saying that in a nice way) that can do 100+ trees in a day ! The roots on the 50 chestnut trees I planted prior were quite large (3.5'+ tall). Some of these persimmon are easy planting (about 50% are 1.5' or less with one taproot and some decent feeder roots) and others are still large enough to require a shovel (2.5'+ tall with long woody and feeder roots, which means I'm digging up rocks). I want to give them the best chance of survival so I try not to prune them too much, or at all. I'm thinking it would take quite a bit of pruning to get the medium to large size seedlings in the ground with a dibble bar. That doesn't seem like a good option to me, but perhaps I'm looking at it wrong.

I used a drill with an auger attachment today for the smaller seedlings. It seemed to work fairly well. I hope I'm getting the air pockets out and the roots don't encircle the tree and kill it. I think they'll do fine though, but it is a concern in the back of my mind.

All 100 persimmon bareroot seedlings


One persimmon seedling prior to getting watered, a weed mat and tube.

 

[blueKYstream]

Well, I was able to get all 156 bare root trees planted. It seems that the chinese chestnut trees have already leafed out. The success rate looks very good there! I'll have to wait for the persimmons since I just planted them over the last week. The pear trees are concerning to me though. I planted 6 in March. One has leafed out and the others don't look real good.

 

[Wild Thing]

Looks great BlueKYStream. Good luck on the remaining pear trees. Spray the grasses with some roundup around those trees soon and they should do well for you.

 

[H20fwler]

They look really good blueKYstream...your on your way to some fantastic wildlife mast!

 

[blueKYstream]

Thanks! So you all don't seem to think they are goners? I figured they were since the one pear tree was green and the others were brown with black spots. I have a 2' x 2' weed mat down. I figured that would be good enough for this year to keep the competition away (for the most part). Wildthing, you suggested spraying the grass. I suppose the roots will spread really fast to necessitate that?

I've been looking on craigslist for an ATV water tank. No luck yet. I didn't figure those things would be so costly but I suppose it might be worth it after all that work!

 

[Wild Thing]

Thanks! So you all don't seem to think they are goners? I figured they were since the one pear tree was green and the others were brown with black spots. I have a 2' x 2' weed mat down. I figured that would be good enough for this year to keep the competition away (for the most part). Wildthing, you suggested spraying the grass. I suppose the roots will spread really fast to necessitate that?

I've been looking on craigslist for an ATV water tank. No luck yet. I didn't figure those things would be so costly but I suppose it might be worth it after all that work!

Here is what Bill Mayo says about ground vegetation around your trees:

Herbicides – "Spray glyphosate (Roundup) around the base of trees to reduce competition from ground vegetation. Trees will be 30%-35% larger by the 4th year."

It also discourages rodents from nesting in and around your trees when they don't have anything to hide in.

 

[blueKYstream]

Here is what Bill Mayo says about ground vegetation around your trees:

Herbicides – "Spray glyphosate (Roundup) around the base of trees to reduce competition from ground vegetation. Trees will be 30%-35% larger by the 4th year."

It also discourages rodents from nesting in and around your trees when they don't have anything to hide in.

Yeah, I don't doubt that it will help reduce competition and help them grow (or at the very least leave more water for the trees). I just wasn't sure if it was necessary at this stage given the weed mats I used. I wasn't sure if you saw those or not. I'm guessing you'd still recommend it?

 

[Wild Thing]

Yeah, I don't doubt that it will help reduce competition and help them grow (or at the very least leave more water for the trees). I just wasn't sure if it was necessary at this stage given the weed mats I used. I wasn't sure if you saw those or not. I'm guessing you'd still recommend it?

Did not see the weed mats BKS but I think it is a great idea. Yes, I would still recommend spraying as well. Given the devastation I've had from voles crawling through the grass to girdle my trees, I am probably "over the top" on keeping any unwanted vegetation at bay.

 

[blueKYstream]

Did not see the weed mats BKS but I think it is a great idea. Yes, I would still recommend spraying as well. Given the devastation I've had from voles crawling through the grass to girdle my trees, I am probably "over the top" on keeping any unwanted vegetation at bay.

Fair enough. When I get some time in the next few weeks, I'll dilute some glyphosate I have (~41% concentrate) and then spray them. Hopefully, those pear trees will leaf out by then. Still not sure they'll make it.

 

[blueKYstream]

I'm finally getting around to posting the video of the final day of planting chestnuts. I decided to have a little fun with this one. There were deer everywhere when I was planting! I gave a shoutout to Habitat Talk as well. I appreciate everyone helping me along the way this year!

 

[blueKYstream]

I checked on the trees yesterday and sprayed around them. I didn't get around to every last one, but I feel good about them. I'm betting I have 100% (or close to it) success rate at this point with the Chinese Chestnut tree plantings from the KY Dept of Ag (very happy with the quality there). I think I lost one of the persimmon trees from Illinois Department of Natural Resources (not bad at all). I put a couple in the field with cattle. I noticed they knocked down one of the tubes, but the tree was not injured. I put it back up. Unfortunately, my fears were correct about the pear trees. I lost 5 of 6 pear trees planted from Tractor Supply. I must have gotten a bad batch. Either that or they they died from the cold snap we had for several weeks dating back to mid March when they were planted.

 

[blueKYstream]

It's been a while since I been able to get on. I figured I'd give a run-down of my first year planting trees. I bought 156 trees: 100 persimmon (state nursery), 50 chestnut (another state nursery), and 6 pears from Tractor Supply. Of the 6 pear trees planted and fenced, only 1 survived. I don't think the trees were good quality. I tubed 125 of the roughly 145 remaining trees that went in the ground. I'm guessing that maybe 8 or 10 of the tubed trees died from either cattle or unknown causes. It's tough to say about some of the others not tubed. Some are alive but keep getting nipped (likely deer). I may be generous in saying that 50% of those survived. Quite honestly, they were tough to find since they were small and the grass grew fast and tall with the buckets of rain we got all Spring, Summer and Fall.

Overall, you all were absolutely right that it was going to be a ton of work! It most certainly was! I'm glad I didn't get more than that planting by hand. The chestnut roots were huge and required a big hole. The rocky soil usually meant I was digging enormous holes! I'm pleased with the result of the plantings so far. I'm going to say that about 10-20 of them have popped out of the tube, some a foot or two out of the tube. Thanks to all that helped!

I was able to take a nice buck too! First buck I've taken in a few years after passing a bunch of deer I hoped would survive. I passed this buck as a 2.5, 3.5 and shot him this year. I couldn't get the camera on in time, unfortunately. However, I have some cool footage of him over the years. Good luck to those still out hunting and Happy Thanksgiving!