Bulk Native Seed Dealers?

[Telemark]

I cannot find giant ragweed for sale anywhere. I would like to plant that in some wet areas. Anyone seen giant ragweed online currently?

I'm in exactly the same situation. There's a ditch where giant ragweed would help screen the field from the road and choke out the teasel that has formed a monoculture there. Apparently giant ragweed seed is a superior for birds. I would really like to get quail or pheasant established there some day when I can afford it.

 

[SwampCat]

My common ragweed is well utilized by deer. The dont mess with giant ragweed. Some of the stems are at least 1.5” in diameter and 12 ft tall

 

[Newbie]

If I had a whole field that was a blank canvas, and the equipment to start from zero, I would nuke the whole thing until it was completely dead. Then I would sow the most diverse mix of forbs I could manage to put together, along with 2lbs per acre of switchgrass, and I would plant native shrubs throughout. I would plant 5-8 oaks in the white oak family. This would give you good cover with plentiful food, and should be ideal for deer most days of the year. I would use this spot as a staging area between bedding and small annual plots with fruit trees. I would have a tower blind overlooking this area for rifle and muzzleloader season, and I would try to keep the area about 200 yards edge to edge. A 200x200 yard square is about 8.5 acres.

In the small annual plots, I would plant either a brassica/annual clover mix or soybean/sunflower/sorghum mix and rotate between the two, with every fifth year or so being a soil-building blend. It keeps the continual effort and cost to a minimum, while providing an incredible amount of nutrition and cover for the deer and other wildlife. The plots would be about 60 yards in diameter, with a beech tree bang in the center for a communal scrape. This would give me a 30 yard bow shot from anywhere around the edge of the plot, and I would have several stands for various wind conditions. A 60 yard diameter circle is about 0.6 acres. Three of these would be under two acres total, which would be relatively easy and cheap to manage.

For bedding, I would nuke the field and plant 2lbs per acre of switchgrass, with a few other grasses like bluestem, and rings of spruce with white pine in the center. Eventually, the spruce and pine would give them pockets of overhead and horizontal cover, with the more open areas allowing them to sun themselves while still in good cover. I'd plant some nice hardwoods in there, too, to give them summer shade. This area can be unlimited in size, and should ideally have some hardwood forest nearby, preferably with some arborvitae, red oaks, and honey locust for winter survival food.

That's my vision for a northern whitetail paradise.

You and I have a very similar vision.

The area I'm discussing is similar, albeit smaller. Approx 200yds long, 50-60yd wide. Could be longer and/or wider depending on where I start and end the project. That being said, your description is very similar to what I'm imagining. I have cuttings and bareroot willow, ROD cuttings and bare root, a few crabs on order, considering a few pears as well. I may grab a couple 4-6ft spruce in burlap from my neighbor to plunk in if I have the space. It backs up to huge SE facing hillside (steep) and approx 3000 acres of undisturbed hardwood forest. It transitions down to my destination food plots (4acre total) at the bottom of my land and I have a small 0.5 acre kill plot situated right next to this area downhill through an old logging road (roughly 50-70yd away) The clearing is flanked by a mixture of hardwoods including some red and white oak. So similar to your vision, I'm hoping to make it a buffet of hard/soft mast, some woody browse and forb mix throughout the summer. I may add a few spruce here & there to block lines of site, direct deer flow, and give it the deer sanctuary feel. There is an elevated box blind at the upper end of the clearing, but I will likely hang a few tree stands on either side for different winds that I can bowhunt from. I'd love to have this area cleared of all downed timber & debris, but it is pretty wet year round & I'm afraid of getting my tractor stuck and/or doing more damage than good to whatever topsoil exists. So it may remain a crisscross of downed timber, with plenty of shrubs throughout. At the least, I'll cut some trails through to help direct traffic.

 

[Telemark]

Ah, wet areas are a conundrum. I am planting mine with annuals. I'll get native willows and ROD in there soon enough. That spot is in Canada, and I don't want to plant anything foreign that could potentially get out of hand. It's not a priority at the moment. It needs to be drained a bit before I put ral effort into it. There's an old beverage dam keeping it from draining properly, so I probably need to get in there with a mini excavator or a tractor and dig a swail and rip a hole in the dam. It's Canada, so I'm not allowed to use explosives.

 

[Newbie]

Ah, wet areas are a conundrum. I am planting mine with annuals. I'll get native willows and ROD in there soon enough. That spot is in Canada, and I don't want to plant anything foreign that could potentially get out of hand. It's not a priority at the moment. It needs to be drained a bit before I put ral effort into it. There's an old beverage dam keeping it from draining properly, so I probably need to get in there with a mini excavator or a tractor and dig a swail and rip a hole in the dam. It's Canada, so I'm not allowed to use explosives.

Yes, they surely are. In my case, more-so from not allowing me to get in there and work for 6mo of the year than anything else. It isn't wet enough that I'd have concerns planting the species we've discussed, including fruit trees or our standard food plotting species, but there are soft spots that worry me from running heavy equipment on it. If I waited until late summer I'm sure I'd be fine, but I plan to get the ball rolling on it this spring so I'll work with what I can do.