Habitat Happening: Live Blog!
- Thread starter SD51555
- Start date
CrazyEd
5 year old buck +
Yes they are very similar price (depends on species and size) and they are 1 million times easier to plant than a bareroot. Bareroots are also a lot more sensitive in the fact that you can't let them sit around very long, they should be planted immediately once you have them in hand. Plugs you can keep in the containers for a year or more, just keep them watered.
CrazyEd
5 year old buck +
Flexibility! Survivability! (from itasac's website)
- Roots planted in soil plug, essentially undisturbed, so there's no planting check (reduced growth).
- Longer planting season - essentially from Spring frost out to early Fall, most sites, most years.
- Seedlings may be held in the container by the customer until it is convenient to plant, provided they are kept watered.
- Seedlings are usually shipped in the container and are well protected, there is little chance of damage or mortality due to shipping.
- Survival rates are high, as the containerized seedlings handle poor planting techniques, rough sites, and dry weather conditions better.
- Flexibility of having durable planting stock that can be planted into the Summer for planting on sites not ready in the Spring.
LessRice
5 year old buck +
500+ of combined species for 4a is .25 at Itasca
SD51555
5 year old buck +
On top of that, they give ya extra trees too. In each of our flats there were some cells that didn't produce a tree, so they put more in each one. We never officially counted, but I bet we got an extra 5-10% more trees than what we bought. I ordered 250 RO Dogwoods, and I could swear we planted over 300 just by counting cells we put into each bucket times the number of buckets.
We'd plant a hundred and figure we only had 150 left, and it seemed like we hadn't even put a dent in the dogwoods.
We'd plant a hundred and figure we only had 150 left, and it seemed like we hadn't even put a dent in the dogwoods.
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SD51555
5 year old buck +
We used a root stimluant/water gel that Itasca provided. The owner told me that this was the last year they were carrying it. I can't remember why. But yes, we did dip in a water gel.
Then we got a good rain overnight. Not sure how much, but the ground is holding water on the surface everywhere.
I'm gonna sneak out this afternoon and seed some oats down on trails where we ripped them up with the four wheeler. Looks like another good rain coming today.
West Branch
5 year old buck +
Thanks for sharing! I am picking mine up from Itasca Greenhouse tomorrow morning. It looks like planting will be wet for me this weekend.
If I don't get a few extra trees I will be disappointed ;).
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Update time. I planted these trees in the spring.
The dogwood are doing well. They deer took 8-12 inches off of each one. There is still plenty left, and from what I understand, they should be fine. So glad I got all that planted.
Bur oak plug
Spruce 4a plug. It's either white or black.
The dogwood are doing well. They deer took 8-12 inches off of each one. There is still plenty left, and from what I understand, they should be fine. So glad I got all that planted.
Bur oak plug
Spruce 4a plug. It's either white or black.
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Winter Update: These spruce were planted this spring. If you recall from the first page of this thread, here's what they looked like when I got them. They were just stems with a few little spurs coming off them.
Here's what they look like after their first season in the ground.
Here's what they look like after their first season in the ground.
Jim Timber
5 year old buck +
I can't believe I missed this thread until now... Holy smokes those things are BIG! I got totally robbed on my norways. :(
At least I've got everything coming from Itasca next year. :D Now I'm all excited about my plugs.
Thanks for sharing!
At least I've got everything coming from Itasca next year. :D Now I'm all excited about my plugs.
Thanks for sharing!
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
What kinds of trees are you planting this year, SD ??
SD51555
5 year old buck +
Here we go! First some thoughts...
*If you have an order for Norway or White Spruce with Itasca, you better call ahead to confirm they have them. I was told when I arrived that their whites and norways had a bad winter and I wasn't going to get any. I ended up opting for an extra 198 black and skipped the last 198, so I've only got 396 spruce plugs for this year.
Black Spruce
The rye/radish plot. We had a large basswood limb break off and dump into the plot. We're working to get that cleaned up this weekend.
The rye has started coming back, and the deer are already feeding in it.
We were walking around and found a large patch of these trees. They seem like a softwood tree, but i've never seen these kinds of blooms before. Anyone ID this thing? Should I kill it?
*If you have an order for Norway or White Spruce with Itasca, you better call ahead to confirm they have them. I was told when I arrived that their whites and norways had a bad winter and I wasn't going to get any. I ended up opting for an extra 198 black and skipped the last 198, so I've only got 396 spruce plugs for this year.
Black Spruce
The rye/radish plot. We had a large basswood limb break off and dump into the plot. We're working to get that cleaned up this weekend.
The rye has started coming back, and the deer are already feeding in it.
We were walking around and found a large patch of these trees. They seem like a softwood tree, but i've never seen these kinds of blooms before. Anyone ID this thing? Should I kill it?
SD51555
5 year old buck +
It looks like we also suffered a major die off among our spruces planted last spring. I would venture to guess 19 out of 20 look like this or worse. We found very few that were ok. The black spruce seemed to handle winter better. Wish I had planted more of them. Nursery said it was due to lack of snow. Who'da thunk a good winter for deer was gonna whack our spruce plantings?
We found two wolf kills on our place. Here's one of them.
The siberian crab apples are already pushing out leaves. I opened up a few tubes to check to see if they needed to be pruned.
Here's one of my cranberry in a 6' tube. I learned from my first go around that I need to keep these pruned. Here's the before.
After
We found two wolf kills on our place. Here's one of them.
The siberian crab apples are already pushing out leaves. I opened up a few tubes to check to see if they needed to be pruned.
Here's one of my cranberry in a 6' tube. I learned from my first go around that I need to keep these pruned. Here's the before.
After
Attachments
SD51555
5 year old buck +
I never thought to look for leaves. I'll go back and see what's laying there.
