Fruit tree question

Mattyq2402

5 year old buck +
My main food plot that houses 16 fruit trees is pretty full. I want to leave some tillable for greens for a one two punch. I had a friend John Eberhart hunt my place and he reccomended extending my field out a 100 yard finger lane point and add apple trees along it. He tacked a tree for me and I actually killed an ancient property legend last year out of the tree.

My question is in order to plant the finger/lane id have to drop some maple trees. Ive already been told by a forester that the hillside below this lane approximately 1 to 1.5 acres needs canopy opened and a reccomended old field regrowth here. Will i have to spray/kill stumps from the trees I take out? If so what do i need to know? I dont have access to a dozer or backhoe.

I have 9 crabs coming from northern whitetail and blue hill. I get a lot of bedding off of this point and feel this would be a strong staging area before they enter the greenfield and orchard. Will the stump roots compete with the apple trees? Plan is to push cut trees into brush piles. Thanks in advance!
 
I have done this on several plots and it works great. In fact I am just finishing up the exact same project on another plot and I am adding 4 trees to this plot this spring. The roots of the stumps will be a non issue for your apple trees. As long as your apple trees are getting enough sunlight they will do great. You will have to cut back growth in about 7-10 years again to make sure the apple trees are not getting shaded out again. It does take some sweat equity but these are great projects.
 
Like to hear that. Do you reccomend any treatment to the stumps or just leave them as is?
 
The deer will most likely eat the sprouts from the stumps. If they don't kill everything that sprouts in a few years just cut them back again.
 
Stump sprouts get some serious attention on my property and are a great attractor, plus they make a heck of a bush from trees like box elder - and natural cover when concealing a tower blind. Caveat - I haven't dumped enough maple in "open" areas to comment on them specifically.
 
The deer will most likely eat the sprouts from the stumps. If they don't kill everything that sprouts in a few years just cut them back again.

Just leave them be, you are only worried about your apple trees being shaded. Like the Prof stated, the deer will browse the new shoots. I have actually just hinge cut some of these areas that I did. When I do this it is a 30-50 yard clear cut/hinge cut buffer zone between the woods and the plot and apple trees. Whatever it takes to make sure the apple trees are going to get full sunlight. The deer like the thick area it creates to stage in before entering the plot. Like I said, you may have to cut it back or portions of it back in 7 years or so to make sure your apple trees aren't getting shaded out.
 
You know John Eberhart? That guy is one of the best hunters of all time.
 
Like to hear that. Do you reccomend any treatment to the stumps or just leave them as is?

Here is a good science based podcast regarding stump regeneration: https://extension.msstate.edu/deer-...episode-007-mineral-stumps-for-deer-nutrition

MSU deer lab calls them mineral stumps. If you don't have time to listen to the entire article, here is a quick synopsis:

When you cut down a tree and don't use herbicides to kill it, it responds by pushing up new growth either from the stump (often called water sprouts or suckers) or from the roots (often called root suckers). Because the previous tree had transferred a large amount of energy to the large root system and the well established root system can mine minerals from many levels of the soil, when the tree greens up, rather than the nutrition and minerals being distributed across the large leaf mass of a standing tree, it is concentrated in the smaller amount of foliage on the suckers. Deer recognize and are attracted to this higher nutritional food.

Thanks,

Jack
 
You know John Eberhart? That guy is one of the best hunters of all time.
John is awesome. I live in Arizona so I dont get but a week or so to hunt every year. Having 65 acres, scouting it can burn it up fast when i come in to hunt. I got with John when I bought my first saddle and for him helping me I threw out that I had some ground i wasnt going to be able to hunt that year. I told him he could have at it, in exchange he would provide me with his set ups, why he set up there and property reccomendations as far as orchard location. He tacked 2 trees for me and in five years, 4 mature bucks have been taken from these. Im trying to clear this lane extending the plot and orchard into the woods where he told me to and add the fruit. Hes really a great guy, spent a lot of time going over my place with me and based on the success Ive had I trust his intel 100%!
 
John is awesome. I live in Arizona so I dont get but a week or so to hunt every year. Having 65 acres, scouting it can burn it up fast when i come in to hunt. I got with John when I bought my first saddle and for him helping me I threw out that I had some ground i wasnt going to be able to hunt that year. I told him he could have at it, in exchange he would provide me with his set ups, why he set up there and property reccomendations as far as orchard location. He tacked 2 trees for me and in five years, 4 mature bucks have been taken from these. Im trying to clear this lane extending the plot and orchard into the woods where he told me to and add the fruit. Hes really a great guy, spent a lot of time going over my place with me and based on the success Ive had I trust his intel 100%!
I think John is a snake oil salesman. His statements about “forget the wind” are misleading at best. He claims to be a public land hunter, but then throws in the “or knock for permission”. Ohh really? Like knock where? Like at the scent lok people’s private 1000’s of acres. I’ve never heard a decent word of advice from the guy. Every pod cast I’ve ever heard turns into an almost identical commercial for ”activated carbon” .
But the shoot anything that moves MI crowd will believe anything their native son says.

sorry, rant over
 
I think John is a snake oil salesman. His statements about “forget the wind” are misleading at best. He claims to be a public land hunter, but then throws in the “or knock for permission”. Ohh really? Like knock where? Like at the scent lok people’s private 1000’s of acres. I’ve never heard a decent word of advice from the guy. Every pod cast I’ve ever heard turns into an almost identical commercial for ”activated carbon” .
But the shoot anything that moves MI crowd will believe anything their native son says.

sorry, rant over

I've never seen him sell anything. And I've never seen him say "forget the wind." I've seen him say several times that once he's in a tree he doesn't worry about the wind. His advice is no-nonsense real world advice based on skill and perseverance. His results speak for themselves.
 
He never pushed anything on me, just helped me with the Learning curve. As far as the nock on doors stuff, he gained access to a family friends property who only allows pay hunting, he got in there for free, they won't even let me hunt it, hes a smooth talker I guess.... I did already have some scentlok, I wear it back in Ohio but out west it's worthless, id ruin it in a day with all the cactus and cat claw out here. His insight on how to hunt my place has made a world of a difference, so much that he knows he has a place to stop at if he ever makes it back down my way.
 
John Eberhart is the real deal. He does have 100% confidence in his scent routine, and if that turns you off, then ignore that part and listen to all the other knowledge he has to offer.

As far as the free permission, he hunts friends’ properties and asks for permission, but has never leased land, paid a dollar to hunt anywhere, or ever hunted Whitetails with an outfitter. He never claimed to be 100% public, but he has killed a pile of deer in Michigan. It has made him a bit cocky IMO, but he has the bucks on the wall to back it up. I prefer Dan Infalt myself as he shows a bit more humility and loves teaching and talking hunting tactics, but between the two of them you probably won’t find a better, more knowledgeable public land deer hunter.


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Dan gave me a property template years ago as well and the stand sites by his aerial and topo were very very close to John's.

With that said and what I've taken from you guys I think I know right where my trees are going to be placed. I think John's idea was a staging area in the woods about 40 yards back from the orchard and food edge, that's where he said to put the best bang for your buck apple trees.

I have a forestry tech, habitat specialist taking a look at it late this week, it will be nice to grab his ideas on where he thinks and where some cutting needs to take place. High canopy red maple is what dominates my place and there is very limited security cover.
 
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