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Wild Type Freeman Maple Source

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almanac12

5 year old buck +
I know this is an uncommon request. I'm planting a flood plain area that's poorly drained, Zone 5a. The soil is still saturated as of today with all the rain this year. It's usually drier by now. I planted this spring - bur oak, hackberry, yellow birch, and red maple.

The bur oak are doing the best, even in the wet spots. Funny, right?

The hackberry and yellow birch are doing poorly, and I had some mysterious die back with the red maple (unrelated to soil wetness). The stock I received was really little - I shouldn't have accepted it. I'm looking to replant species that will tolerate poorly drained soils. I will likely replant with some red maple. Freeman maple comes to mind since it's a little stronger than silver maple.
 
I am not familiar with "Freeman maple". For wet ares I would suggest boxelder, cottonwood, sycamore, willows, red and silver maple, bald cypress. Most of these will handle wet feet. Members of the maple family grow they seeds in the summer.....so if you can find a seed source I would suggest just broadcasting seed if possible as it will be much faster and far less work. Also consider cuttings for things like cottonwood and willows. Also don;t forget your shrubs....dogwoods, and other shrubs will provide great browse and cover, while the trees grow. Just some things to consider......
 
Freeman maple is just a hybrid between a silver and a red maple. acer x freemanii. I have a local source, but that's the same source I got hackberry, yellow birch, and bur oak from. Everything I got from him was just very small. The hackberry were smaller than twigs. The yellow birch were also really tiny and barely had roots.

I'm just trying to avoid pure silver maple. I see lots of them drop branches in storms.

Thanks for the suggestions. I have considered sycamore, but I heard it gets disease (anthracnose). I'm on the fence as to whether I should plant it or not. Is the sycamore disease common?

As far as broadcasting seeds, I have a pretty high deer and rabbit concentration. I think the seedlings would just get nipped. Anything I plant without a tube or cage gets eaten. I've lost many, many seedlings because I didn't tube. Maple, oak, white pine, tamarack, all eaten. The deer even nip the terminal buds off of the boxelder. The boxelder just grow so fast that they get up over browse height with secondary shoots. Boxelder is already aggressively seeding into the area. I'm trying to diversify with better species (longer lived, less prone to storm damage, better wildlife value). Cottonwood are seeding into a few of the drier spots, but haven't been able to get up above browse height. I believe they are getting nipped and shaded out. Green ash will seed into higher/drier spots, but it's a goner around here (EAB).

For shrubs, do you cage them? I'm worried they'll just get devoured. Also, which are the most water tolerant? I have had elderberry, ninebark, red osier dogwood, and high bush cranberry suggested. I see hawthorne growing in some of the drying spots, but none of the wet spots.
 
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I planted some high bush cranberry this spring and caged them right away. I followed advice on here about deer browsing them if they aren't caged. Forum advice said to cage for a couple years so they can get established and get some branches above deer height before removing cages. It's paying off. Cranberries are growing like mad with no deer nipping them. I'll probably keep them caged next summer as well, then I'll re-evaluate. Other guys have said the same thing about elderberry and ROD too - cage until well established.

From all I've read on here, it pays to cage shrubs until they can survive deer browsing, no matter what shrub you plant. If you're talking dozens and dozens of plants - it may be impractical and expensive.
 
Only shrub I have personal experience with is elderberry. It grows here along my stream banks....not sure about how it handles lots of water though. The thing is that many of the water loving trees simply are not great hardwoods. They grow quickly and are simply weaker trees so they can be damaged by winds easily. It's just the way they are. I have never heard of the sycamore disease you mentioned. Around here....you see a sycamore (and they are pretty unique and easy to spot) you found water of some sort. If you can't get cottonwood or boxelder to out grow deer browse you need to cage EVERYTHING. I swear around here you can watch a cottonwood sapling grow! I just though the spreading of seeds may get you a greater volume in less work. Members of the maple and ash family tend to be heavy producers of seed and simply discing an area, spreading the seed and discing again I think could get you many, many seedlings. I was just trying to think of ways to overwhelm the deer with numbers. Planting and caging everything sounds tedious, daunting and expensive. See if your DNR sells trees and shrubs. I know mine does and I can get 100 for like 35$ of all sorts of native species, and they are more than just sticks. My DNR however doesn't sell out side of the state. Might even want to look into some cost share programs as well, just to see if you can get some help that way.
 
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