Cages, weed mats and mulch

[BuckSutherland]

They really work.


5 years ago I only had 1 pine tree of any sort on my land (we planted and caged it in 2012= year 1). Now I am approaching 200. I had 1 white cedar and now I am to 60 (they really thrive on my soil). I went from about 15 spruce trees to 700+. Not all of those have a cage, but weed mat and mulch.


I had an area of struggling spruce last year and finally got time to redo the old weed mats and get decent mulch on them. They have damn near doubled in size in one year. I was really impressed how hard they hit the gas. Starting to see very significant growth on stuff that is getting to year 4, 5 and 6. Last year was the first year that the earliest planted trees bared fruit. This year I found the very first burr oak acorns from trees planted in 2014.


Pretty happy to see how the older stuff is doing so well. This year's planting and last year's has some mortality. Could sure use 4-5" of rain. Lots of my stuff looks pretty respectable. Would love to see how it would respond to a big soaker.

 

[b116757]

Maybe try some hemlock deer will happily brows them and they are a beautiful tree in my opinion particularly nice mixed into a stand of hardwoods.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Maybe try some hemlock deer will happily brows them and they are a beautiful tree in my opinion particularly nice mixed into a stand of hardwoods.

I have 4 western hemlocks from University of Idaho. Also have 8 Canadian hemlock from potted trees.com. The Canadians were planted last year and look good. They are in pretty heavy shade and still growing pretty good. Kinda tough to find Hemlock seedlings. I planted them along the main travel corridor I have been building. This winter I plan to get the chainsaw out and make a little more sunlight for them.

 

[Tree Spud]

Buck, looks great. I think quality of soil and consistent moisture have a big impact on growth.

Btw... Hemlock is shade tolerant and a very good understory tree.

 

[b116757]

On my mother’s place growing up we had a small natural stand of densely packed seedling hemlock. I sat in a mature white pine many an evening watching does browsing on the hemlock’s as they passed through the area. On my uncle’s place he had mature hemlock intermingled among mostly mature NRO that was a fun place to hunt when the acorns where hitting the ground sitting in huge hemlock tree surrounded by oaks.

 

[bwoods11]

Makes a huge difference, and growth is much better as well !

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Looks Good @BuckSutherland

I've been a disciple of your support for mat/mulch/cage after your input on the "norway spruce decisions" thread. I've failed on the mulch part but it's been very evident how much getting the weed mats and cages has helped compared to the trees where I failed to get mat/cage down last year!

Hemlocks weren't on my radar but they sound like the perfect species to add conifer thermal cover in my woods that are currently completely conifer free.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Btw... Hemlock is shade tolerant and a very good understory tree.

YEP. The best natural hemlock nurseries here in Pa. are along mountain streams in shaded woods. So many seedling & sapling hemlocks it's like walking through hedges. Bigger hemlocks are targeted by the "hemlock wooly adelgid." They suck sap from hemlock needles and weaken the trees - many older hemlocks die from the stress.

BuckSutherland - your evergreens all look really good. I'll bet your deer will like traveling along where they're planted, and / or using them for thermal / security cover. Nice mix of conifers!

 

[b116757]

Hemlock as younger trees wil provide cover as older mature trees in a closed canopy they self prune lower branches

 

[BuckSutherland]

I will be adding more Canadian hemlock when I can find some decent sized. I got 8 from potted trees.com. They were nice. A few of them are really growing good. They are likely struggling to get 60 mins of sun per day. I have about 30 basswood and popple trees I wanna knock out after hunting season. That should get those hemlocks 3-4 hours of sun per day. I dont wanna cut down the bigger maples around them so the shade will remain. Indeed I planted them for their shade tolerance.

Here's a few other pictures of stuff I'm growing and eating.

 

[bwoods11]

The Common Wild Apple turbo charge !! They shoot up fast !

 

[BuckSutherland]

Looks Good @BuckSutherland

I've been a disciple of your support for mat/mulch/cage after your input on the "norway spruce decisions" thread. I've failed on the mulch part but it's been very evident how much getting the weed mats and cages has helped compared to the trees where I failed to get mat/cage down last year!

Hemlocks weren't on my radar but they sound like the perfect species to add conifer thermal cover in my woods that are currently completely conifer free.

My land was nearly void of conifers when we bought it in 2012. Perhaps 25-30 decent balsam fir. One mature old white cedar, ZERO pines, maybe 8-12 old mature spruce trees, and zero young ones. No red cedar, no other types of fir, zero tamaracks. Now about 1/3 of the balsam fir has died. From 2012-2018 we planted THOUSANDS of conifers (spruce, pine, fir) with no weed mat or cage. I dont know if 20 of them made it. If they did they are mostly black spruce. 1 white pine we caged made it.

Fast forward to 2019 and I really started caging, weed mat and mulch. Wont be long and I will be at 200+ pines, 100+ white cedar, 1,000 spruce ( mostly white spruce uncaged), and maybe 100 assorted firs (douglass, concolor, grand, cannan, frasier, balsam) and a dozen hemlocks.


I'm getting ready to pull all the cages off my spruce trees. Seems like after year 4 -5 they leave mine alone. The cages will remain on my white pines, cedar and hemlock. I wont plant many fir trees anymore. Mainly balsam fir that I can rip out as ditch transplants. Fir trees are really slow on my land. Need to get some ponderosa pines going next year. I planted some western white pine last year from Idaho. Pines grow really fast on my land. So do the white cedars. Spruce has struggled a bit, but the ones getting to year 5 are really starting to go.


Get the mulch on. It does make a difference. I lost a few 2023 seedlings cause they got nuked before I could get the mulch down to help protect them. In 5 years, I have never had a rodent issue with mulch in Cass county.

 

[TreeDaddy]

What material is your weed mat?

What type of mulch? Does it make any difference? Hardwood v pine bark,etc

bill

 

[BuckSutherland]

What material is your weed mat?

What type of mulch? Does it make any difference? Hardwood v pine bark,etc

bill

I mulch with whatever is available. Sometimes I go to town and buy the cheapest stuff I can find. Other times I use decomposing trees for mulch. Basswood, aspen and birch make great mulch. The stuff I buy from the store stinks. I dont think a mouse would like it at all. Have probably done about 200 weed mats this year. Half were done with bags and the other half with tree liter. It all seems to work good. Just as long as there is a fair amount of weight and cover on the weed mat. Any time I am near a weed matted tree and there is easy mulch laying there I scrap it up and throw it on. Doesnt hurt to add a little more after a few years.

I like to use Dewitt 5oz 4x250 rolls landscape fabric rolls. Make sure its 5 oz.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Spruce has struggled a bit, but the ones getting to year 5 are really starting to go.

That's kind-of the schedule here too. First 2 or 3 years, they're just getting their root systems established amid all the other plant competition. Year 4, I see some pick up in growth - but after that, the spruce take off for us. THEN - the growth spurts from one year to the next are pretty noteworthy. Bucks here will rub spruce BIG-TIME, so I let the cages on until about year 7 or 8 to let them get big enough to survive buck damage. FWIW. Hang in there!!

 

[ajtxwi]

Looks awesome! We have been experimenting with 2x4 wire fence cages recently... over the last couple of months, have placed about 70 cages and might add the mulch if I can work it in. Going to pick up another roll of fencing today.

 

[Angus 1895]

I would like to request some beaked hazel nuts please!

 

[BuckSutherland]

I would like to request some beaked hazel nuts please!

Mine is all naturally occurring. It grows good anywhere the chainsaw has been. The deer browse it really hard when its younger. I've never really paid much attention to the nuts until this year and dont know much about them. I have been told the critters are gonna clean them up fast when they ripen. I'm not sure when that is. Not sure how much I will get back there either. I'm swamped with work.


I also have quite a bit of chokecherry growing where the chainsaw has been. I went around last time up and marked them with pink fluorescent paint. I'm gonna wipe out some competition and mulch and cage a few. I wanna make my own jelly someday. Probably found 30-35 of them.

 

[Angus 1895]

I would like the actual nuts.

I bought a bare root beaked hazelnut and it’s growing. I have started several regular hazelnuts.

the cows don’t seem to want to graze them so I would like to plant more.

Thanks

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I also have quite a bit of chokecherry growing where the chainsaw has been. I went around last time up and marked them with pink fluorescent paint. I'm gonna wipe out some competition and mulch and cage a few. I wanna make my own jelly someday. Probably found 30-35 of them.

Have you noticed bears hammering them?? We just planted about 1 dozen at camp ....... and we have bears. I hope we can grow them up to a size that they can survive bears & feed other critters / birds.