2014 Grafting Adventures of CrazyED

[CrazyEd]

Also have some Dunstan's grown from seed this spring. A few of them have gone a little yellow on me as of late. I am also wondering what my winter strategy should be. One 7 gallon roottrapper has 4 trees, the other has 3. Should I remove and plant in the ground in my nursery, or should I keep in bags and bury them?

 

[CrazyEd]

Also have this thing I picked up this summer on the side of a road. Tamarak. Was thinking about putting near / in our pond. Figure it might add some nice fall color, thoughts?

 

[NY_Terrence]

Nursery is looking great. Tallest tree is 85", it's a Sherry grafted in April 2014.

Awesome!!! A few questions...
(1). Are you afraid roots will be tangled when you dig them up?
(2). For next year's grafts, are you planning to give them more space between trees in the nursery?

 

[CrazyEd]

Awesome!!! A few questions...
(1). Are you afraid roots will be tangled when you dig them up?
(2). For next year's grafts, are you planning to give them more space between trees in the nursery?

Not worried about the roots. The soil is very loose, trees should come out with ease.

I would give more room if I had it, but I don't so I likely won't. Doesn't seem to be hurting them, they all are growing very well.

 

[deepsleep]

Also have this thing I picked up this summer on the side of a road. Tamarak. Was thinking about putting near / in our pond. Figure it might add some nice fall color, thoughts?

I have a solid 15 acres that is a mix of Tamarack and Poison Sumac. I have only been in it once, but it is amazing cover and sanctuary. They are pretty in the fall too. As I'm sure you know, they grow in very wet areas. I would grow some more, but I can't even grow Norways without a full cage, so that won't happen. Here is my neighbor in the old school coveralls showing me my Tamarack sanctuary the first winter after I bought my property 6 or 7 years ago. Nobody (to my konwledge) has been in there since.

 

[SD51555]

I would grow some more, but I can't even grow Norways without a full cage, so that won't happen.

Have you considered a big hinge project in early winter to bring some chow to the ground? If they're eating Norways, they're reaching pretty low on the desirability scale.

 

[CrazyEd]

Have you considered a big hinge project in early winter to bring some chow to the ground? If they're eating Norways, they're reaching pretty low on the desirability scale.

Been there done that. Black cherry works well but we only have BC in a few places on our properties. Where we do have BC we hinge the hell out of it, it produces great browse that gets hammered. Good cover too.

The rest of our property is red oak, Jack pine, and bur oak. Given the sandy soil we don't have much else that grows. Unlike many properties, getting sun to the ground doesn't mean there is an explosion of brush and vegetation, just doesn't happen in our area, or it just takes decades to happen.

 

[wiscwhip]

Nope ^^ just fills in with sparse penn sedge and the occasional mullein and a few other mostly worthless weeds, been there myself.

 

[wiscwhip]

CE, are your "red" oaks actually northern reds or are they typically black oak like we had on our place? We had about a 70%-30% mix of blacks to northern reds on our old place, out of the few oaks we had anyways(we were about 65% jackpine other than down in the creek bottoms).

 

[wiscwhip]

Never had a bur oak on any place that I hunted in Juneau Co., at least that I know of after I really started paying attention to that kind of stuff.

 

[CrazyEd]

All Northern red as far as I know. I'm not aware of any black oak. Definitely have bur, they do best where the black cherry grow, kind of near the bottom where our ponds are.

 

[sandbur]

Are there no red cedar on those sands?

And no pocket gophers?

 

[CrazyEd]

Are there no red cedar on those sands?

And no pocket gophers?

good call Art, we do have some red cedars. Thankfully, no pocket gophers.

 

[sandbur]

You need pocket gophers for the Sconny badgers.
The gophers have moved into my SLN trees that were planted two years ago. I have been using the gopher bait, but might need to try the traps again.

Sometimes gophers cannot dig and maintain tunnels in pure sand.

 

[CrazyEd]

Nursery is looking great. Tallest tree is 85", it's a Sherry grafted in April 2014.

I just measured this Sherry tree again. Somewhere between 93-94" tall now!

 

[buckvelvet]

Dang, what a great grower!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I can't wait to see what our Sherry tree at camp does next year now - based on what you're saying it's doing for you Ed. I just planted the Sherry this spring. Got it from SLN as a 4 ft. whip. It put out some branches this year, but not much height - not unusual for ANT. rootstock in the first year.

 

[CrazyEd]

Even though a bunch of trees in the nursery are going to the farm in spring I am making room for more grafts!

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[CrazyEd]

Not the greatest picture in the world, but the trees in my nursery look pretty stellar. I went through and tagged those that will get moved out this spring. I think I marked about 45 but in reality will probably hold 10 back that just don't quite make the cut. I am in no hurry to plant all these and would rather nurse them one more year and take out a bull whip. 8 will head to my best friends place in Oconto county. Another 3 for a neighbor at the farm, 1 for a good friend on the forum, and i'm thinking about 23 trees for me. We have some other big projects going on too so i'm in no rush.

Below, I cleared all the leaf matter around the trees. I'm going to get some mice traps out there real soon and try to get good control the pests. Hopefully I can get window screens on these sunday.

 

[Turkey Creek]

What kind of root systems do those trees have? Have any root shot pictures? I plant my trees a lot farther apart than that in my nursery, but often wonder if I am wasting space.