Drought and Dead Seedlings

[Jerry]

I have been planting DNR seedlings for 4 years now. I've tubed several hundred of them. This past spring I put 100 red, bur, and swamp white oaks in tubes. I did my second round of the year spraying for weeds around all of them yesterday. I'd say the 100 I planted this past spring have 75% kill due to the severe drought we are having. That was a lot of work for that kind of die off. And I am still losing them because we still aren't getting rains and a bad heat wave is headed our way.

Does anyone have experience with drought killed seedlings resprouting from their roots the following year?

I also planted a couple thousand nuts and had less than 5% germination from what I can tell.

 

[Barndog56]

It's been a rough year for new plantings.

If they were previously established you might see some root sprouts, but with the stuff you just planted in spring I'd be surprised if any of them came back.

I don't know what you do at planting, but if you can mulch them heavily, along with your weed killing, that gives them much better odds.

 

[SwampCat]

I have lost two plantings of 15,000 bedded loblolly pine seedlings to drought - twice. Have lost 15,000 four year old loblolly pine to extended flooding. Have lost 12,000 loblolly pine due to inability to grow in calcarous soil - my fault for even trying. Mother nature is unforgiving.

 

[Jerry]

Yeah, no mulch. It is hard enough and expensive enough to tube and spray a few hundred. Mulch would do me in. I've had pretty good luck up until now. What little showers we've had this year just skirted me and it was a very dry fall and winter before that.

I guess I will mark the dead ones and leave them where they are. Then just replant next spring. I easily have 75 dead in tubes right now.

 

[buckdeer1]

I planted a bunch of oaks and tubed over half for a USDA study.The only failures I had was trees that were planted in hard pan.With the tubed ones I had a survival rate of 74%.But don't remember what kind of rainfall we had the year after.

 

[buckdeer1]

Might try dipping the roots moisture miser

 

[Angus 1895]

Drought blows!

I been toting water around for years. Year number one is a beach.

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Yeah, no mulch. It is hard enough and expensive enough to tube and spray a few hundred. Mulch would do me in. I've had pretty good luck up until now. What little showers we've had this year just skirted me and it was a very dry fall and winter before that.

I guess I will mark the dead ones and leave them where they are. Then just replant next spring. I easily have 75 dead in tubes right now.

I planted several hundred tree seedlings this spring and placed most in tubes. I have about the same rate of survival. Some were clearly better than others. Hazelnuts and persimmons really struggled. The oaks have done pretty well.

I think you have the right idea by just marking the dead ones. I would assume that they are dead if they have not leafed out by now. The good thing is that you have the tube and stake in place already. Should be fairly easy to replace with a new seedling next spring.

 

[b116757]

I fought drought last year also with a summer drought the same spring I planted several hundered trees tubed and weed matted them. I watered the fruit trees and chestnuts the oaks I didn’t bother watering too many to fool with. Several species didn’t seem to be bothered much by the drought last summer Nuttall’s in particular have done well despite the drought. I did have some of the oaks defoliate do to the drought and leaf back out this spring so there is a possibility not all is lost in your planting. If the seedling freely pulls out of the soil they are screwed but if they hold tight there maybe hope for them. I’m going to collect a good number of acorns from a couple local sources this fall and plug into my tube locations next spring that I’ve lost trees. I’ll winter over the acorns in the fridge to help my germination rate.

 

[Troubles Trees]

I feel your pain brother, I found higher success rates using the gel that nurseries dip roots in before shipping. I just add a 1/4 cup or so of the dry beads to the soil at the bottom, I have also added peat to the soil and not sure which way is best but I did have less die off of 1st year seedlings. I do have a 30 gallon sprayer tank fitted for my 4 wheller now that I use to water during dry spells on anything young so that obviously changes things but if it is an option.

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[b116757]

I did use a mycorrhizal root dip on my planting it may have helped idk. I used this one

MYCHORRIZAL ROOT DIP

MYCHORRIZAL ROOT DIP HELPS FEED THE ROOTS DIRECTLY WHEN A TREE IS PLANTED.

www.treepro.com

 

[Jerry]

The suggestion to bury and acorn or 2 in the tubes next to the perceived dead seedling is a good one. That would be easy to do provided I find viable seed this year.

The problem with marking the tubes and replanting seedlings is that I am replanting before leaf out so I just don't know for sure if they will resprout by then.

There is just no easy way around it. Thanks for all the suggestions everyone!