BuckSutherland
5 year old buck +
This picture pretty much sums up why I like white pine. A true monarch that towers over the rest of the forest.
Winning the battle to establish conifers
- Thread starter BuckSutherland
- Start date
bwoods11
5 year old buck +
This is complete sarcasm....but
Probably the MN DNR or a duck group . In my area, they hate trees. They bulldoze them on public land, and discourage plantings. They want grass only. I have thousands of planted spruce, cedar and pine, and all the wildlife in the area are on my place, the big grassland next door has 10% of what I have.
I realize you are in Northern MN. In the farm country a pine, cedar or spruce tree line is a skunk paradise according to one USFW employee. They eat the duck eggs.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Around our camp we have so many white pine seedlings from mature trees that we can't get rid of them fast enough. Deer don't eat them here, but will nip Norway spruce tops when they're young. Any Norways I want to establish for keeps must be caged. 14" seedling Norways with cages are now 7 to 8 ft. tall after 6 or 7 years. Without cages .............. either eaten off or far behind the caged ones - maybe 2 ft. tall. Cages for balsam fir too here.
Our bucks LOVE to rub on spruce. Once cages come off, we know we'll lose some lower limbs to rubbing. Once the spruce get to 7 - 8 ft. tall, rubbing doesn't kill them - it just makes them a bit ugly for a few years until they heal.
Our bucks LOVE to rub on spruce. Once cages come off, we know we'll lose some lower limbs to rubbing. Once the spruce get to 7 - 8 ft. tall, rubbing doesn't kill them - it just makes them a bit ugly for a few years until they heal.
Mortenson
5 year old buck +
Same here. All 990 I planted are now gone. They were the tiny 4a plugs put in with the Jim Gem OST dibble. They went in beautifully. Just didn't stay in. The deer pulled a bunch out the first night just to be mean. MG and wild plums are working slightly better for me.
j-bird
Moderator
I transplant red cedar all the time for my slowly growing road screen. I tend to get 90% success, but I am planting in full sun as well. Only issue with cedar is the CAR issues with fruit trees. It's not a disaster...you just have to make sure you have CAR resistant fruit trees. Red cedar can loose it's lower limbs as they get older as well. My road screen is a layer of woven wire fence with vine honeysuckle nearest the road, then a row of red cedar and then a row of MG....I figure that ought to do it!
jsasker007
5 year old buck +
I'm in central minnesota and can plant spruce trees and leave them uncaged(thank god). Pine trees don't make it very often but once in awhile i'll find a spot where a couple survived. I've gotten lazy enough to skip anything that requires cages if i'm planting large quantities.
bwoods11
5 year old buck +
Survival on my Otter Tail County Farm has been pretty good despite not protecting the spruce, pine or tamarack .
High deer numbers as well. Best I can suspect is newly planted CRP grass has helped.
We did cage a few pines and they are doing much better in the cage!
High deer numbers as well. Best I can suspect is newly planted CRP grass has helped.
We did cage a few pines and they are doing much better in the cage!
Attachments
BuckSutherland
5 year old buck +
^^^^Take a weed whip and buzz around them then throw a couple pieces of cardboard down and then something like a couple small rocks or a few limbs to weigh the cardboard down. Wont cost you a dime might take 3-5 mins per tree. Try to smoother all the grass within 2 feet of the tree. Dont let the cardboard rub on the tree trunk at all. See how they do against the ones that have full time grass pressure.
Duck Creek
A good 3 year old buck
I've planted hundreds of norway, white spruce, and white pine seedlings. Norways and white pine get hammered by the rabbits and deer. Yet the white spruce go almost untouched. Without cages I've had 0 percent success with norways and white pine. White spruce I'm probably around 95 percent success. Most of the white spruce I've lost have been self inflicted. Mower/roundup
SE WI low land
Needless to say I only plant white spruce anymore.
SE WI low land
Needless to say I only plant white spruce anymore.
meyerske
5 year old buck +
BuckSutherland
5 year old buck +
^^^Obviously they grow slower in the shade like everything, but I like them along with balsam fir where they are gonna see more shade than sun. If you crush some needles on them they stink a little. Also the needles seem to harden off sooner compared to other conifers. They are quite bristly compared to norways, balsam fir or what pine. It has to be a combination of those two things that kinda keeps deer from nipping them compared to norways. I have been tucking them into the canopy along the road to work on screening along with some balsam firs.
rocksnstumps
5 year old buck +
Full sun not totally required but not as shade tolerant as something like hemlock. But if you want to get growth like this in one season, best plan for a lot of sun. The crushed needle smell gives rise to the nickname of skunk spruce or cat spruce.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
White spruce will tolerate wet feet better than many conifers for short periods of time; however, extended standing water or flooding would be a problem. Can tolerate some shade, but does best in full sun.
Best conifer for wet conditions, and best shade tolerance, would be black spruce.
rocksnstumps
5 year old buck +
Hordes of hungry deer will browse the leaders in early spring here right after the snow melts and nothing has started to green up because frost still in the ground. That can be about a 2 week window some springs. Key is they munch a couple inches only, not eat them to the ground. Biggest drawbacks are a loss of some growth and forming double leaders. Does add a couple yrs to the timeline before they can grow above browse height.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Black spruce do OK in shade?? I have a north-facing mountain road where shade is fairly heavy except for the May - June - July high sun angle. Full woods too, all the way to the road. I need something to fill in a few spots. We have native hemlocks, but Hemlock wooly adelgid numbers are sucking our hemlocks to death. I can't count on hemlocks anymore. One more "foreign bug import" that's killing our forests.
Tree Spud
5 year old buck +
I have seen the same experience as RocksnStumps. Remember rabbits will also browse tree tops & side branches during the winter. Deep snow will allow them to reach that main leader new growth.
bwoods11
5 year old buck +
Most of my spruce has not been eaten by deer. This year, however, the deer pulled almost all my plugs out of the ground in one location. Bastards! $300 down the tubes. This is a high deer density area, that borders a no hunting park. It was like they have never seen them before?
I ordered bigger spruce plugs and I will cage all of them, plus add some cedar.
I ordered bigger spruce plugs and I will cage all of them, plus add some cedar.
