GRIN project

[Rally1148]

Well, I just requested a bunch of seeds (all but 1 species was collected in Michigan) to do a little amateur study, as well as get some free habitat materials. Also it'll be fun propagating the stuff.

Here is the plan:

"This amateur study is aimed at investigating two things. The first, and primary, is the effect, preference, and amount of damage (if any) induced on these native Michigan species by the Whitetailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) in comparison with that of the non-native invasive Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata). The second area of interest is the adaptability of the species selected in various habitat types within a 20 acre property in Montcalm County Michigan.

For the investigation of browse, species will be planted in and out of browse exclosures. Following propagation and a year of nursery growing to obtain adequate size for field planting, 2 or 4 specimens of each species will be planted in a single location. One or two of the specimens will have a browse exclosure made of concrete wire mesh placed around it. There will be multiple sites of the plantings in soil conditions ranging from dry sandy soils to wet muck. This portion of the study will work simultaneously with the aspect of adaptability.

Adaptability will be studied through the planting of the species in varying locations. Both survivability and plant growth (form, height, production) will be noted, and correlations between site conditions and form will be observed.

This study is aimed to be long-term, and with success, these species will be able to add floral and support faunal biodiversity with a specific interest in native pollinators. The study will be qualitative and, unless specifically requested, quantitative analysis will be limited to rough estimates of plant dimensions (height and width) and growth rates. These results will be reported publicly on one or two websites (habitat-talk.com & qdma.com), as well as shared with members of the Kalamazoo College Biology Department Faculty. The results will be geared to provide landowners a reference for the use of these native species in a multitude of situations, and specifically in areas where autumn olive is a prevalent species. Additionally, if requested, the qualitative results of this study can be used as comparative data within academia."

Sorry for mentioning "the dark side" by name!

Here is what I requested
PI 667230 - COR - Sambucus nigra subsp. canadensis
NA 64730 - NA - Cercis canadensis
NA 81223 - NA - Cornus florida
PI 662003 - NC7 - Aronia melanocarpa
PI 662004 - NC7 - Aronia x prunifolia
PI 468117 - NC7 - Cornus amomum
Ames 26997 - NC7 - Cornus racemosa
Ames 29415 - NC7 - Diervilla lonicera
PI 664867 - NC7 - Hypericum prolificum
Ames 28324 - NC7 - Physocarpus opulifolius
Ames 29429 - NC7 - Physocarpus opulifolius
PI 518502 - NC7 - Rhus glabra
Ames 29435 - NC7 - Rhus typhina


Hopefully it works out!

 

[Rally1148]

Well I've gotten all of my seed. I started to try to germinate two of the ninebarks (physocarpus opulifolius) and the Northern Bush Honeysuckle (the native kind) (Diervilla Lonicera).

In the excitement to get this thing going, it seems like I've made my first mistake! I forgot to float test the seeds that I used! After 4 days I've yet to see any sign of the seeds beginning to break and begin germination. I'm also not quite sure that the ninebark doesn't need stratification. I had some seeds from Prairie moon that I stratified for 60 days (as suggested) and they started right up. The NRCS said no treatment needed, so we'll see!

I'll make sure to keep this updated as I go, although it's going to be slow until I start pretreating in the fall!

 

[Kansas-andres]

Should be an interesting study. I dont believe I've ever seen deer browse or browse damage on autumn olive. I have quite a bit of AO on my land. I think it provides decent low cover for deer, but obviously the invasive aspect of the tree is a negative. keep us posted......

 

[Rally1148]

Should be an interesting study. I dont believe I've ever seen deer browse or browse damage on autumn olive. I have quite a bit of AO on my land. I think it provides decent low cover for deer, but obviously the invasive aspect of the tree is a negative. keep us posted......

I've only seen some on the very tips of new shoots. It absolutely provides some cover, which adds another challenge in replacing it. I don't want to get rid of all of it and eliminate all the structure in certain travel areas, but I DO want to get rid of it over time in those areas, once I get the natives going. I just think that there are natives that can provide structure and other +'s for the wildlife.

 

[Rally1148]

So I've got about 20 ninebark seeds from GRIN that are germinating! I'll be moving them outside in a bit.

As for the updates on my land this year:
1. All of my apples survived, and it looks like most of my grafts have taken, or are having buds swell. We'll see in a few weeks how much more progress they make.
2. I planted lots of ROD last year. This was on some pretty dry sandy ground. ALL of them made it, and a few are flowering! I pruned, mulched them with about 3 inches of composting leaves, sprinkled a handful of 12-4-8 fertilizer (it was clearance for 89 cents). I pulled the grass that was coming through, and mulched over that. I guess this is a testament to the adaptability of ROD!
3. I found lots of self seeded dogwoods, and 4 of 5 hawthorns. I threw some fert around the dogwoods, and I'll be doing the same for the hawthorns after I clear some canopy.
4. All the wild apples I found, and pruned and cleared canopy around were LOADED with blossoms. I threw out some fert on these, and I'll get to spraying around them in a few weeks. I'm still deciding if I should be spraying these trees or not (I'd really like to not spray any of my trees, but we'll see)
5. I planted about 15 ninebark (from prairiemoon, so a MN source, which I would rather not plant in favor of using the Michigan ones). I got 10 red oak seedligns in, 4 whites ( I believe they are SWO, but I might be mistaking them for chestnut oaks), and all of my sargent apple cuttings in. I have about 20 more ninebark, and 10 assorted oaks (these are from 1-3 gallon DIY smartpots). I'm planting in our veggie garden, which I actually discovered has a fair amount of clay. We've grown veggies there, so I'm hoping we won't have a problem with drainage. I planted them in used 5 inch in ground mesh rootmaker bags, and I have some larger bags that I got from bigrock. I planted one ninebark out into the field, and put an old spruce tree basket over it (I'll fence it later).
6. I did the same as #2 on my hazelnut bush.
7. Disked my future native prairie. We're making a new plan, and just disking, and then spraying once. We'll no-till into that in a few weeks.

NEXT ON THE LIST:

1. Mulch my apple trees with manure and give a bit more fert. I'm still deciding whether to put wood chips on top of that.
2. Clear a big old maple that is hanging over an apple tree. We'll need to use a come-along to pull it away from the tree. It's a 2 person job.
3. open some canopy around my newly discovered hawthorns. I won't clear the entire area, but they are in a complete canopy, so I want them to get a little bit more sun.
4. find places to put my SWO's. I've got plenty of reds, and a few (like literally 2-3) whites, so I want to add some new species. The trouble is that I don't want to make more shade anywhere near my native prairie planting or apple trees.
5. Plant the rest of my seedlings. I'm thinking about putting a few more ninebark in the field, rather than the garden.
6. clear some A/O to allow more room for the thicket of dogwoods coming up. Eventually I want to put plum, dogwoods, ninebark and redbud in this area. I need to do it in stages though.
7. Order my prairie seed!


Things are looking good! I'll have some pictures in the next few days!

 

[Rally1148]

The first picture is my setup for all of the plants I grew this winter. I ended up having to till in about half a yard (half of a 1 yard bucket) of 2 year old ground stump. I ammended with bloodmeal, 89 cent plant food, and some starter fertilizer. This is a picture of a sucker cutting that I took from the sargent crab in our backyard at home. These are in the small rootmaker bags, but I have some larger oaks, hazelnuts and ROD that I'll be using 15 inch bags for. I ordered 20 5' tree tubes that I'll be using for my oaks. I'm thinking that I'll cut a few of them in half to use in the garden, and the others I'll use for in the field.

A day of field work, some Trampled by Turtles (for you MN guys) and some Devil Makes Three (for the Vermont folks), a few 2 hearted or oberons and I'm a happy camper!

 

[Rally1148]

Here is a picture of what I do for my trees. I hand pulled the weeds around the base, and then spread a good 4-5 inches of decomposing leaves. I'll go back and spray round up around the edge of the cages. I threw in a handful of plant food as well.

This next picture is a testament to the versatility of ROD. This is one of 20 that I planted on some of the drier ground that I have. It's mainly grasses that grow around it. I do the same as with the apples, but I add a layer of wood chips to add some more moisture holding potential. A few of these ROD even have flowers this year!

 

[kabic]

The first picture is my setup for all of the plants I grew this winter. I ended up having to till in about half a yard (half of a 1 yard bucket) of 2 year old ground stump. I ammended with bloodmeal, 89 cent plant food, and some starter fertilizer. This is a picture of a sucker cutting that I took from the sargent crab in our backyard at home. These are in the small rootmaker bags, but I have some larger oaks, hazelnuts and ROD that I'll be using 15 inch bags for. I ordered 20 5' tree tubes that I'll be using for my oaks. I'm thinking that I'll cut a few of them in half to use in the garden, and the others I'll use for in the field.

A day of field work, some Trampled by Turtles (for you MN guys) and some Devil Makes Three (for the Vermont folks), a few 2 hearted or oberons and I'm a happy camper!

I'm not 100% sure, but I dont think the picture of the fellow with the beard was one of your intended pictures to attach

 

[West Branch]

I'm not 100% sure, but I dont think the picture of the fellow with the beard was one of your intended pictures to attach

I think he wanted to show how happy he was after the 2 hearted ales. And also the title of the thread is "GRIN Request" :D

 

[kabic]

I think he wanted to show how happy he was after the 2 hearted ales. And also the title of the thread is "GRIN Request" :D

I believe you are right...

 

[chickenlittle]

How many seeds did you get from GRIN for each species? I would like to get some but I probably only want to plant a handful of anything.

 

[wiscwhip]

From what I gathered, they only give you a handful of each germplasm.

 

[Rally1148]

I think he wanted to show how happy he was after the 2 hearted ales. And also the title of the thread is "GRIN Request" :D

I figured that I needed to show my grin for the GRIN!

 

[Rally1148]

How many seeds did you get from GRIN for each species? I would like to get some but I probably only want to plant a handful of anything.

It depended on the species. For some I recieved 100 or 200 seeds, while others I received only 25 seeds. I'll have to look again when I get back home, but I think that I got 25 seeds for about half of the species, and the other half I received 100 or 200.

 

[chickenlittle]

Thanks. I figured seeds would be lots more than I would grow. I'll find some habitat research partners on here that will grow what I won't use.

 

[Rally1148]

Finished getting everything in the ground. I'm really impressed with the roots on the plants. I think that the media I used was a huge help. It was 5:1:1 pine bark fines (must be bark): Perlite: Peat. I threw in some CR fertilizer, and some pelleted lime. Super airy, and lets roots grow really well. It also didn't seem to hold water so much that it negatively affected the trees. I tubed my small oaks, as they were still whipping around in the wind, so hopefully everything works!

Does anyone know what the plant in the first picture is? I was thinking elderberry.

 

[Rally1148]

I stopped by a native plant nursery in Kzoo and picked up a few plants to replace my A/O. Hopefully they'll serve as seed sources for the future. I got Elderberry, pasture rose, round headed bush clover, slender bush clover, rattlesnake master, and a bunch of wild indigos. Pictures to come soon!

 

[Rally1148]

I FOUND THE AMERICAN CHESTNUT TREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was in a different area than I found the leaves in the fall, which makes me think that there might be another tree somewhere. I'll know for sure this fall when I go check for nuts. It was beautiful. Straight, 50' tall, and about 10 inches DBH.

The 2nd picture are some indigo, wood lilly, compass plant, bush clovers and lead plant.
The 3rd is one of the 2 elderberries that I got, a maple leaf viburnum, and a pasture rose (for my living fence). I'm excited to get these into the ground!
The 4th is more bush clover, some sand milkweed, and rattlesnake master.

View attachment 5326

 

[Rally1148]

Now, finally some actual updates on the GRIN project. The first are a bunch of the ninebark that I received. These were started in April, but haven't really been getting full sun because I've had to move them inside and outside when I leave town or if it is raining hard. I have seed from 2 different areas, both in Michigan. I used the cheapie seed starters with some holes melted into the side, and I've been fertilizing them with a liquid fert from the hydro store. Today I potted some of them up into the RM18's. I'm using a mix of peat and perlite with a few tsp of worm castings (like 4 tsp in 5-8 gallons of soil). I used a rough 60:40 peat: perlite mix.

I'll be doing the rest tomorrow! So far so good!

 

[Rally1148]

Well I've gotten a lot of natives in the ground this last weekend. #1 Here are some of the elderberries I got in. #2 check out the roots on this compass plant! No wonder they can survive a long time! #3 On the right hand side of the picture is a native stand of milkweed, and on the left are 2 "sand milkweed" that I planted. Hopefully they take off! #4 Also, I tried out a "prairie rose". it's supposed to be a spreading plant that is good for a "living fence"


#5 Also, anyone know what these flowers are? I don't remember seeing them prior to this year. The last

I decided to just use this thread to post the stages of not only my GRIN project, but also what I do as far as increasing natives and helping pollinators on my property.

#6 The is a nice thicket of dogwood that is coming up. You can see that A/O that I cut this summer to let the doggy get some more sun. I think that this escaped the super heavy browse pressure years because it was next to a road, and had AO over it. Now that the pressure is down a bit, it's gotten a foot hold. It's nice to see some native regen, particularly those species that I'd consider planting (future seed source) AND are great for the wildlife. Unfortunately this is popping up right next to the road in an area that is used by the deer to travel from a swamp across the road (that we own) to our property and one of the neighboring fields. All in all, it's great, and I'm not too mad about where it's coming up.