Native Hunter
5 year old buck +
Plots look great. Do you put cameras on your clover trails?
Habitat Happening: Live Blog!
- Thread starter SD51555
- Start date
sandbur
5 year old buck +
Great job in the north country!
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Thanks for the kind words. We've got even bigger plans for next year. I've mentioned some already, but with all habitat plans, they're fluid until they're done. Best part is, most of it is just hard work and not too expensive. I'd be shocked if we tipped $800 next year.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Update time.
You can finally see what we ended up with for pumpkins. Should be enough to gauge whether our deer will eat them.
Something is starting to eat them.
I like this picture as an example of what we're trying to do. We're dealing with expanding, yet limited plot space on our property. This little slice of ground hosted rye at spring green up, soybeans after that, pumpkins crept across from the side, and brassicas took over when the beans petered out. It's a focus to keep those plots putting out food as long as possible.
The brassica plots are a mixed bag. The ones growing among the beans put out really nice tonnage. The ones that didn't grow over the top of a legume look like they petered out pretty badly on nitrogen. Here's where we were on 10/9.
Then this started happening and quite heavily.
Here's where we currently sit as of a couple days ago.
You can finally see what we ended up with for pumpkins. Should be enough to gauge whether our deer will eat them.
Something is starting to eat them.
I like this picture as an example of what we're trying to do. We're dealing with expanding, yet limited plot space on our property. This little slice of ground hosted rye at spring green up, soybeans after that, pumpkins crept across from the side, and brassicas took over when the beans petered out. It's a focus to keep those plots putting out food as long as possible.
The brassica plots are a mixed bag. The ones growing among the beans put out really nice tonnage. The ones that didn't grow over the top of a legume look like they petered out pretty badly on nitrogen. Here's where we were on 10/9.
Then this started happening and quite heavily.
Here's where we currently sit as of a couple days ago.
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
Are you sure it's lack of nitrogen, and not wilting from the cold? We've been low 30's a bunch in the last week.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I couldn't tell ya. Brother Marv / @BuckSutherland was the one up there looking around. Judging by the pic, It looks fairly even. I won't lay eyes on it until opener.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
The ones in the beans have been pulling away from the other two for over a month. The ones outside the beans even came up faster due to better ground prep. For a while, it didn't even seem we'd have any in the bean stubble.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Got this stuff from here: http://sustainableseedco.com/heirlo...mpkin-heirloom-seeds/small-sugar-pumpkin.html
Three reasons I picked this seed:
1. Its a short maturity pumpkin. We can have a very short growing season.
b. They are the right size, that 5-10lb range. Not so big they can't get their mouth over the rind, and not so small they can't break them open.
4. Heirloom seed. If/when this works out, I want to grab 2 or 3 of these pumpkins and keep harvesting seed from them in the event we go very large scale with pumpkins.
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
How did you treat them to keep the deer from eating them prior to fruiting?
BuckSutherland
5 year old buck +
I got up there Friday morning. They had not been touched yet. I smashed one open, and then this morning when I was leaving I walked through to check once more and they had eaten most of the smashed one and started on that other one. I would imagine when they soften a little more it will be an all out attack on them. They will not touch them until they freeze hard and turn a little mushy. I would have like to have grown a much bigger pumpkin than these little popcans. People that I talked with say they smash them apart with the hoofs so size is not an issue.
I sat Friday night with camera (I dont bow hunt) and I saw fifteen does and fawns. Pretty sure 5 of them I saw twice so 10 total. Then Sat night I saw 4 and they were all part of the same crew. All of them spending a little time in our plots, but almost sprinting to get to the lush alfalfa field across the road. It is the huge draw in the neighborhood right now. Get a few miles away and it looks pretty damn bleak. Praying for a mild winter and a little trigger restraint in the area.
A couple of the crew as they came through. Them old girls picked up on my camera flash really fast, but the wind was in my favor and they never busted me. Cant say the same for another doe and fawn that passed me at about 8 feet away. She got my wind and promptly turned around, but never really panicked.
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
I put some pumpkin seeds in a little opening that had hastas (they killed 95% of them from over browsing) and never saw a single plant make it.
I'd like to plant some in the Mrs' garden and fence them until bow season. Putting a stand up on the shipping container would make a perfect bow ambush spot, but having that food available for rifle season could save our does from extinction too.
I'd like to plant some in the Mrs' garden and fence them until bow season. Putting a stand up on the shipping container would make a perfect bow ambush spot, but having that food available for rifle season could save our does from extinction too.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
SD - One thing I notice in the pix of your place is lack of evergreens. Do you have any spruce or balsam or hemlock nearby ?? With the leaves down, the woods look open and windy. That same situation is what we logged 22 acres for this year at my camp. This coming spring we'll be planting Norway and white spruce in that cut to provide thermal and security cover for the deer. Not a solid block, but loose and random like nature would place them, and we'll plant some clusters for bedding cover in winter. Evergreens might help keep some deer around when it gets cold. Just a thought.
Nice looking plot you have established there. I remember the pix from earlier this year when you were planting it. It's cool when you plant something and the deer find it and keep coming. Nice job !!
Nice looking plot you have established there. I remember the pix from earlier this year when you were planting it. It's cool when you plant something and the deer find it and keep coming. Nice job !!
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SD51555
5 year old buck +
We're well aware and finishing our second year addressing it. To date, we've put in roughly 650 spruce, 300 RO dogwood, and some small clusters of thicket stock. Half dozen cranberry, chokecherry, plum, juneberry, siberian crab, manchurian crab, elderberry, and maybe one or two more I can't think of. I'm hoping to get those small clusters going and then relying on the birds to build it from there.
The regen has been slow since the logging 4-5 years ago. We also tried our hand at hinging this year and will continue into next year. All that open space has something growing on it. It'll be slow for another couple years I figure until the spruces can get above the ferns. The black spruce have been growing well, but the white and norway got burned really bad last winter due to lack of snow. They survived, but didn't do much in terms of growth in year two. I like many others tried to get orders for more RO Dogwood for this spring, but Itasca is out till next fall.
We dropped some large basswoods this year and are watching how that influences the low spot we're trying to thicken up. We've also got a spot where the forest floor is really starting to open up due to a thick canopy. Took the Silky Zubat out this summer and took down a small area and it seems like the deer are using that. I hinged it pretty high, so the critters can move around fairly easily underneath it. Head high you can't see five feet. Before we take down more of that area, we have to have a more though out plan for how to lay the trees down so we can keep travel lanes open instead of just making an impenetrable mess.
The regen has been slow since the logging 4-5 years ago. We also tried our hand at hinging this year and will continue into next year. All that open space has something growing on it. It'll be slow for another couple years I figure until the spruces can get above the ferns. The black spruce have been growing well, but the white and norway got burned really bad last winter due to lack of snow. They survived, but didn't do much in terms of growth in year two. I like many others tried to get orders for more RO Dogwood for this spring, but Itasca is out till next fall.
We dropped some large basswoods this year and are watching how that influences the low spot we're trying to thicken up. We've also got a spot where the forest floor is really starting to open up due to a thick canopy. Took the Silky Zubat out this summer and took down a small area and it seems like the deer are using that. I hinged it pretty high, so the critters can move around fairly easily underneath it. Head high you can't see five feet. Before we take down more of that area, we have to have a more though out plan for how to lay the trees down so we can keep travel lanes open instead of just making an impenetrable mess.
