2013 Norway Spruce Plantings

[Bowsnbucks]

I might try a few Black Hills spruce too. They look and sound too good to ignore. Slow growth isn't a plus - but I'd like to try some in field corners and maybe make a wind-blocking row / screen for the future.

 

[chummer]

I have covereted 37 ag acres to ns over 40 years in the highest dpsm anywhere. Never had any browsed. Ns grow anywhere while ws die with wet feet. 300/acre for bedding. 3/0 wont do much the first 4 years then they take off. 12 foot wingspan so 12 foot spacing minimum. Visual road barriers are 3 staggered rows, 9 foot spacing. Yes, u get the 1,000 price@300. By far the best improvement we ever did.plant 1-7 acre patches. Spray 14 days prior, dont disc, never spray again. 10% loss.

How wet of soil can they take?

 

[chummer]

Soil that is always damp will kill ws. Ns or speckled alder would be better. We have full sun areas that have springs.

I have a dry beaver meadow. There are some wet spots but probably enough humps to get some cover going. I might try transplanting some hemlock in there to while deer numbers are near 0.

 

[dipper]

I collected a 100 Pound grain sack of ns cones from a neighbor's lawn last week. Cones go in a bucket next to my wood boiler where they open completely in 48 hours. Should have collected them earlier in the fall, but that sack is on pace to yield a gallon of seed. Would of been a ton more seed if I had my act in order.
Another addition to the nursery. To go along w my ws, jack pine, white pine projects. Might pick another sack, with the lack of snow.

 

[deepsleep]

I've planted at least 1000 NS and 500 WS and the only ones living are the caged ones around my yard. Everything else has been eaten to a stick. As I start taking apple cages off, I am going to start caging groups of 4-5 spruce in critical bedding areas. I just couldn't see buying any more cages. I must have 400-500 now. I have noticed a few wild Red Cedars popping up and the deer don't touch them. I struggle with the idea of planting a bunch of them with my apples but I may have to ever have a decent amount of thermal cover on my property.

 

[tooln]

Browse has not been an issue for me, but my DPSM is low.

 

[Big Snow Man]

Browse has not been an issue for me, but my DPSM is low.

 

[Big Snow Man]

I don't have problems with browse pressure but when the trees about 36" tall I get some die back and deer rubs on others.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Yep - the bucks will rub the spruce trees. We have it happen at camp. I cage some of them in areas I don't want to fail from browsing OR rubbing destruction, just like Deepsleep said he does. ( post #27 ). We get a few that are browsed in the depth of winter when nothing else is available, but only the ends of the tops. With more food plots planted ( brassicas, WW and WR, standing corn ), the browsing is less.

Our best deer-holding cover is where we logged about 30 acres 19 years ago and then planted Norway spruce, white spruce and white pine seedlings in that cut area. Hemlock seeded in by itself and now deer stay in there year-round. The 22 acres we logged this year will get some pockets of Ns, ws, witch hazel and hawthorn planted in it. It has big white, red, and chestnut oak for hard mast and seeding, and the spruces will add much-needed bedding/security cover. We'll also be planting some double rows of spruce to create " walkways " to our plots. Stand sites to follow !! :);)