How to plant and protect white cedars

[chickenlittle]

I have planted some white cedars but I have not followed too closely. Some on a field edge got browsed while others seem to have escaped notice the weeds. I am mostly planting spruce for future thermal cover. Not many mature hemlocks left on us due to the adelgid but some areas are thick with young trees. We have lots of young white pines in our hardwood stands too but they only good for a few years as the lower limbs drop off. In some spots, I top the white pines to keep them short.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

I am not sure either. I would say there were more deer there about 10 years ago but the area I hunt just south of Sturgeon Bay is definitely not lacking. I am also aware that is the prime 300 acres in the area without a doubt.
Some people just a mile down the road might not think the population is doing ok.

I planted Norway Spruce the last 3 season and was told up and down that that deer would not eat them. Well they did. Not all but most of them. Now the plants are 6 to 12 inches talk and we never got enough snow to hide them the last 2 winters so that might be a factor. After 1500 trees I am really scared to toss another 500 out there for them to eat next February. Seems to be a loosing battle at this point.

 

[Honker]

I think it would be interesting to plant a white cedar and cage it for a year or two and bring the pH up to around 8 and then remove the cage and see if they hit it.

I can plant conifers with minimal browsing damage, but if I try to plant anything deciduous I had better have a cage on it. The deer have decimated roughly 10,000 hardwoods we've planted in the last 10 years.

 

[Bluecollaroutdoors]

Thanks for that Smsmith. I will take a look at the price and if they would work for me. I just want some evergreens in specific spots. I really don't care what they are. Just a visual blocker as much as anything.

 

[chummer]

I have been convinced to bud cap at least some of them. Plugged a thousand Norways last spring and the deer were eating them the night I started. I'll probably try squares of cardboard and a staple gun for starters.

Try using index cards or cut window screen into small squares for bud caps.

 

[Tree Spud]

I've seen that repeatedly stated here and elsewhere. Total B.S. in my experience. Norway spruces have been browsed on all three properties I've planted them in two different states. White spruce was/is browsed a lot less than Norway, black and blue spruces even less than whites.

Stu ... I agree ...

I used to plant ~1500-2000 trees a year with ~1000 being conifers (spruce, cedar, pines, etc). Every winter the conifers would get browsed with the new buds above the snow line ... even the Norway spruce. Never had a conifer get to 5-6' as the few that survived were rubbed by the bucks.

Two winters ago I started caging Norway spruce that I planted 2-3 years prior. Every tree was browsed and never got taller than 18". After the 1st year of caging I saw up to a foot of new growth.

Out of a 4' x 100' roll of utility fence, I can get ~ 13 gages that are 2.5'. That's about $5 per cage. Last year we decided to cage all conifers we plant and caged 200 Norway & blue spruce, and will probably cage 300 this spring. As the spruces grow I can open the cage up and let it expand as the spruce diameter increases. Once the spruce gets to 5-6' I can remove the cage and reuse on new plantings.

Cages may sound expensive but after having tried every thing else, its working and I am starting to see results. We are planting the spruces in blocks of 25-50 trees for bedding & thermal cover.

 

[rocksnstumps]

That dollars per cage seems high maybe a miscalc somewhere but agree that of the spruces norways r the most heavily browsed. In a situation with heavy sod, too much of being setback and eventually the grass can kill a tree if not kept back. Course than they get browsed more cause easy to find, gotta do something

 

[Tree Spud]

That dollars per cage seems high maybe a miscalc somewhere but agree that of the spruces norways r the most heavily browsed. In a situation with heavy sod, too much of being setback and eventually the grass can kill a tree if not kept back. Course than they get browsed more cause easy to find, gotta do something

You are correct, it is actually ~ $5 per cage, maybe less if you find the welded wire fence on sale. A 100' roll is $67 at HD.

I corrected the above :)