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Your 2019 Projects&Plans

* Continue my assault on buckthorn. I’ve killed at least 1500 already this habitat season

* Trim the miles of deer trails I have created over the last three years.

* Plant the 100 trees I have ordered (so far) in my newly designed destination plot. This includes a variety of pears, 2 crab apples, 4 Japanese persimmons, 3 Chinese chestnuts, ERC, Norway Spruce, ROD, hazelnut, American plum, and several other browse species.

* Build a homemade elevated blind so I can take my young girls on a few hunts this year.

* Complete the prep work for the first leg of my road screen. 1100’ in total.

* Overseed my switch buffer in the destination food plot. Mow the heavy foxtail areas and spray before green up.

* Find a well balanced cover crop cocktail with species that will either terminate after mowing or will be easy to spray while maintaining a good C/N ratio so I don’t starve fall plots of N. I really want to find the right balance of nutrient recycling without the need to add fertilizer.

* Address my ridge top hinge cut failures. Back in 2016 before I knew anything I cut a swath of trees, very large trees in fact on a small ridge. It was about 40’ wide and 600’ long. It was a buck bedding area with rubs all over. After I was done it has been void of deer activity ever since. I need to clean up all the large trees and provide better access.

* edge feather one section of my 2nd plot.

* Thin a really good bedding area next to my best kill plot. The area is starting to mature. I’ll girdle everything big or harvest the tree if I can.

* Tranplant as many cedars as I can into my core bedding area.
 
  1. Amazingly, we have no snow and the backyard isn't frozen. And I found some vole damage in the nursery so I spent this afternoon on that. I transplanted my poor growing pear grafts and rootstock into a consolidated bed and put out lots of poison to knock out the voles in that and the other beds.
  2. Next I need to check on my columnar apple seeds and start stratifying them. Start indoors and then move into nursery beds.
  3. Plan what roostock to order, won't be many, just a few OHxF97 or 87 pear that would be planted in the nursery and grafted in 2020.
  4. Decide whether to order 1 pear tree, a variety I haven't seen offered before.
  5. Mail my order to NH State Nursery for some red spruce.
  6. Decide whether to order 50 persimmon from Missouri MDC. Clear out a spot for them if I order.
  7. Decide what pear scionwood to ask for field grafting this spring. Mostly looking for fireblight resistant eating pears.
  8. Move a dozen grafted apple and pear trees out of the nursery. Wish I had gotten that done before winter.
  9. Prune and collect scionwood.
  10. Chainsaw work - as much as I can get to. Has not been much the last few years but very pleased with how our earlier thinning thickened up the mountain laurel.
  11. Build a new shooting blind or two
  12. Some restoration work on an older blind - new windows and replace tar paper/paint
  13. One corn and bean plot with electric fence. I'd like to convert the unfenced ones to clover.
 
We have a long South facing hillside that I have been thinning over the past few years. I don't have much spare time and I have even less money so it's been slow. Female buckthorn trees are priority. I'm just hoping to get enough sunlight to the floor to get some native grass regeneration. Hopefully some day it will be thick enough to carry a decent fire.

I am hoping to get 8 crab apples planted on the edge of one of my plots. They will be obviously used as a food source but also used as markers for planting the plot in strips. I'd like to do more but I think I can realistically plant and cage that number of trees without running short on time or money.

Hopefully my apple seeds that I collected off of a tree thats about done for will germinate and I can get a few saplings out of it.

I have an unknown variety of apple or crab apple for all I know (greenhorn) that I'd like to "release". There is some Siberian Elm growing around it that I'm going to cut down. This tree has a yellow apple that is about 2" in diameter. It is an early dropper (mid July to mid Aug) and the deer love it.

I'm going to do some plot experimenting as always to keep narrowing down what the deer want to eat.

Keep running the trap line and removing yotes. Caught 4 in December. If I can get 4 in Jan and 4 in Feb I'll be ok with that. I did just put out a bait pile yesterday however so my catch rate is bound to go up drastically.
 
I need to do some cleanup work with the saw... cut some brush growing in fence rows where it isn't wanted, clean up some lanes, and cut a few trees before they fall into plots. I need to pull off cages on all current fruit trees for maintenance/trimming/training. At that time hopefully I can cut some scions.

Trees I have ordered to plant in late March or early April:
2 - 30-06
6 - Droptine
2 - Violi's
2 - Winter Wildlife

Still debating on whether to order a few Late hanging pears from Wildlife group.

Rootstocks ordered for grafting:
25 - MM111
6 - OHxF 97
8 - P18

I have 10 trees I want to pull from the nursery and transplant in strategic locations. I also plan to plant two larger peach trees this year, a redhaven and something else. In May I'll get a delivery of 750 MG rhizomes to plant in a spot where I'm trying to increase deer activity. I spot sprayed circles for those last fall. This year I want to spray for weeds/grass around my fruit trees better. I'm also prepared to spray for bugs/disease as needed (already purchased all the pesticides, etc). I have one more spot where I can kill off grass and hopefully make a turnip/rye plot for winter food. My deer really respond to that. To me it's worth it even if I run the risk of having a negative impact on hunting. Will continue the battle against poison hemlock and canada thistle. Not sure if it's the best use of habitat dollars, but I hate driving down into my happy place and seeing that crap going to seed. Finally, the last things I can think of for now, are building one more shooting house in a good, low-impact doe spot, and continuing to recon the property with ever smarter trail cam use.
 
I'm trying to get in touch with Northern Whitetail Crabs to place an order, but thus far two inquiries via their website and two e-mails have gone unanswered. I tried their number too, but nobody picked up. Are they still open for business? Has anybody else placed an order with them this year? From what I've read here, their stock is great, but that doesn't matter if I can't reach them.
 
Knehrke said:
I'm trying to get in touch with Northern Whitetail Crabs to place an order, but thus far two inquiries via their website and two e-mails have gone unanswered. I tried their number too, but nobody picked up. Are they still open for business? Has anybody else placed an order with them this year? From what I've read here, their stock is great, but that doesn't matter if I can't reach them.
Click to expand...
I feel your pain... they seem to be a little behind the times. My emails and web requests went unanswered for weeks. Now I stepped into the stone age and started phone call tag with them. We just never seem to connect. Call and leave a message and they'll call you back, hopefully you catch it!

Edit- I just got a call from them and ordered my trees. Mentioned that some of us have been trying by email/ web and he acknowledged that phone is the best way to get in touch with him
 
Last edited:
Knehrke said:
I'm trying to get in touch with Northern Whitetail Crabs to place an order, but thus far two inquiries via their website and two e-mails have gone unanswered. I tried their number too, but nobody picked up. Are they still open for business? Has anybody else placed an order with them this year? From what I've read here, their stock is great, but that doesn't matter if I can't reach them.
Click to expand...
I emailed them last week to get more details about each variety of crab trees they offer on their web page but no reply. They focus on the hype their trees have towards attracting Whitetails but fall short on some details that concerns me.
 
I talked to one of them about 3 weeks ago or so by phone. He told me their computer system was giving them fits, and if I wanted to place an order to call them and place the order by phone. I mentioned this on another thread here - I think someone started the thread just on Northern Whitetail Crabs. He did say to leave a message on their answering machine / service & they'd return the call. He DID tell me they are ramping up their inventory to have more trees available in future years - FWIW.

NWC phone # - (570) 452-4589
 
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Thank you for the information. I will try to call them again. It's tough playing phone tag because I simply don't answer my cell phone from numbers that I don't recognize. There's too much crap telemarketing, even though I'm on the national do not call registry. If I remember, I will program their number into my phone so I know it's them.

I've got to say though, you have to really want some of their trees...
 
I am still trying to gets some answers from NWC. They have yet to answer my E-Mail. If you read their web page there is certainly a lot of question that crops up about what they tell about their product/s. I presented these questions in a E-Mail sent. Stay tuned.
 
I ordered from NWC this year. Talked with them on the phone a few times. Seemed like a good group of dudes. Left a voicemail and they got right back to me.

Ordering from them was just as easy as the other 6 nurseries I've ordered from this year.
Prices were better than most. Will have more input after they hit the ground this spring.
 
Appleman said:
I am still trying to gets some answers from NWC. They have yet to answer my E-Mail. If you read their web page there is certainly a lot of question that crops up about what they tell about their product/s. I presented these questions in a E-Mail sent. Stay tuned.
Click to expand...
From what I gathered during my conversation with him was not to expect a email reply, so you likely need to call. I agree there's much to question based on their web page. I only ordered since they're so highly spoken of on this forum. It certainly is easier to order from other places where a few clicks on screen at any time of day can have my order in.
 
I placed an order with NWC last month by phone. They don’t dig their trees until April and are a relatively small operation. They are great to work with and from my experience two years in a row I’m definitely comfortable recommending them. Excellent root system on their trees and outstanding customer service.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
PoorSand said:
Three-month temperature and precipitation outlooks from the National Weather Service:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/lead01/off01_temp.gif
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/lead01/off01_prcp.gif
Click to expand...
While I'd rather have a bit too much rain than too little, cringe a bit seeing the forecast for wetter than normal conditions for us in North Florida.

2018 dumped almost 20 inches more than normal on us, and December proved the wettest month of all with over 15 inches of rain. Have a muddy spot or two in my driveway that are getting fairly tough to drive through without fear of getting stuck.

Haven't had time to share a list in the thread yet, but working on my driveway will likely be at the top of my list if the prediction proves true.
 
I'll continue to graft, shape, & spray my young orchard I have some blind maintenance to do this year as well as a few food plots. K.I.S.S. :)
 
I am also going to look into building a portable biochar making thingymabob. I have plenty of trees that I have cut down over the years and stacked up along 2 different plots. I know we have debated the effectiveness of bio char but i figure It will be quite easy and cheep to build and can burn the branches and what not. More or less a 55 gal barrel split in two the long way and welded together in a trough that is double the length. Throw an axle and a couple wheels on it and a hitch and bam. I could burn it any where down trees are and easily transport it to my different plots. Thoughts?
 
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