How to Promote Eastern Red Cedar Growth

[PrairieShadow]

I've got 3 rows of ERC 1/2 mile long each on the west side of my property and another single row on the north side 1/2 mile long. Lots of trees. They are in tough alkaline soil, very little topsoil and lots of clay for the most part. I've used miracid in the past and that certainly seems to give them a boost but also seems to make the branches out grow the needles if that makes sense. What can I do to promote as much growth as fast as possibly from these trees?

Let's Discuss.

 

[Tree Spud]

Sprinkle lime around them as they prefer more acidic conditions. A soil test can help identify what ph you currently have.

 

[BuckSutherland]

How to Promote Eastern Red Cedar Growth​

^^^The same way you get all other trees to grow better. A fabric mat to smoother ALL of the weeds, mulch to protect the fabric from premature failure and help retain critical moisture, fertility and water. If you don't kill EVERY competing weed or blade of grass within 2 feet of your trees you aren't serious about wanting good growth. There is no substitute or magic foo foo juice for elimination of the competition. Killing the competition is without a doubt priority #1. Until you do that don't waste time worrying about anything else.

 

[PrairieShadow]

How to Promote Eastern Red Cedar Growth​

^^^The same way you get all other trees to grow better. A fabric mat to smoother ALL of the weeds, mulch to protect the fabric from premature failure and help retain critical moisture, fertility and water. If you don't kill EVERY competing weed or blade of grass within 2 feet of your trees you aren't serious about wanting good growth. There is no substitute or magic foo foo juice for elimination of the competition. Killing the competition is without a doubt priority #1. Until you do that don't waste time worrying about anything else.

They all are fabric'd. Sorry I didn't mention that as I sometimes forget that its not standard practice everywhere. Now onto that magic foo foo juice ;)

 

[willy]

Spray oust around cedars in spring after the weeds just start to green up. It won't kill the cedars but will kill about every weed and keep ground clear of weeds all season.

Follow herbicide label

 

[Catscratch]

The same way with any invasive... try to kill all of them! That seems to work for me, I'm loaded with them and they take over in a hurry.

Honestly would consider eliminating competition, amending soil, and fertilizing as the way to go.

 

[BuckSutherland]

They all are fabric'd. Sorry I didn't mention that as I sometimes forget that its not standard practice everywhere. Now onto that magic foo foo juice ;)

Is there mulch on the fabric?? From everything I see in my woods covering the fabric with "mulch" is just as critical as the fabric itself. The fabric is good, but the fabric+mulch= clearly better. If you have both of those in place I've been having good luck injecting 19-19-19 under the fabric mat. I pull the corner up on fabric, open a little slot with my wolverine shovel about 1-1.5 feet from base of the tree, pour in some fert, close the hole back up and put fabric back down. Best done early in the season so the trees have all season to utilize the nitrogen. I use about 1/3 of a pop can of fertilizer per tree.

 

[TreeDaddy]

Plant crabapples........ I did and everywhere I look, I find eastern red cedar........

bill

 

[hillrunner]

They take over everything here, impenetrable by man or beast.

 

[b116757]

At my place I’m killing them wholesale they grow like weeds. Not to say I hate them I do not but they will take over pasture ground given half a chance. I have a couple areas several acres thick with them that I leave alone for some heavy winter cover but most other areas I at least kill the female trees to slow their spread. My serious advice would be simply let them be and do nothing except perhaps water in case of an exceptional drought condition and the drought wouldn’t kill them but would retard growth.

 

[willy]

At my place I’m killing then wholesale they grow like weeds. Not to say I hate them I do not but they will take over pasture ground given half a chance. I have a couple areas several acres thick with them that I leave alone for some heavy winter cover but most other areas I at least kill the female trees to slow their spread. My serious advice would be simply let them be and do nothing except perhaps water in case of an exception drought condition and the drought wouldn’t kill them but would retard growth.

I agree, I like cedars where I want them otherwise they are a noxioius weed. One needs to pay attention to them getting started where one doesn't want them. The will take over. I love them as screens and bedding/thermal cover but that is the only place I want them. I try to kill them everywhere else.

 

[Tree Spud]

I don't necessarily agree with the need for weed matting cedars. I have them growing in my switchgrass fields. They grow very well despite the SG which is 6' high. Soil is sandy loam and I have never watered them.

 

[goatman]

Throw some urea around them.

 

[BuckSutherland]

I don't necessarily agree with the need for weed matting cedars. I have them growing in my switchgrass fields. They grow very well despite the SG which is 6' high. Soil is sandy loam and I have never watered them.

The OP didn't ask how to grow them. He asked how to get the fastest growth possible. No doubt red cedar can grow and do well in extremely shitty conditions. I dont doubt that one bit. It is an absolute 100% fact that trees do BETTER when you remove the grass competition around them. Grass roots interfere with tree roots plain and simple (allelopathy). There's a really big difference between optimal and good enough when it comes to trees.

​

Weed mat on trees= good
Covering the weed mat with a bunch of mulch= better

Fertilizing trees by throwing some fert on the ground= good
injecting the same fertilizer into the soil down towards the roots= better

 

[bigboreblr]

You need to lower pH, likely need to put down some sulphur.

 

[PrairieShadow]

Is there mulch on the fabric?? From everything I see in my woods covering the fabric with "mulch" is just as critical as the fabric itself. The fabric is good, but the fabric+mulch= clearly better. If you have both of those in place I've been having good luck injecting 19-19-19 under the fabric mat. I pull the corner up on fabric, open a little slot with my wolverine shovel about 1-1.5 feet from base of the tree, pour in some fert, close the hole back up and put fabric back down. Best done early in the season so the trees have all season to utilize the nitrogen. I use about 1/3 of a pop can of fertilizer per tree.

I see just the opposite with my trees Buck. If I put anything on top of the fabric, weed seeds end up growing right on top of the fabric, the roots find there way down through the fabric and defeat the entire purpose of the fabric. I'm not in a wooded area at all. In fact the exact opposite being strictly prairie/farmland. Maybe that has something to do with our differing opinions on fabric.

 

[PrairieShadow]

Plant crabapples........ I did and everywhere I look, I find eastern red cedar........

bill

good to know, I've got 50-60 apples of some sort in the ground or will be in the ground this spring.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

Sprinkle lime around them as they prefer more acidic conditions. A soil test can help identify what ph you currently have.

Hey Tree Spud. Wouldn't liming them raise the pH? I don't have ERC's around here. Never even seen one. Whenever I watch Growing Deer TV Dr. Wood's philosophy seems to be "the only good cedar is a dead and burned cedar."

 

[PrairieShadow]

Hey Tree Spud. Wouldn't liming them raise the pH? I don't have ERC's around here. Never even seen one. Whenever I watch Growing Deer TV Dr. Wood's philosophy seems to be "the only good cedar is a dead and burned cedar."

If everyone who hates their ERC, feel free to send them to me. They are the single best tree I have found for screens and winter cover out here on the prairie. They can withstand wet feet for a while. They can also go through extended droughts with no seeming ill effects once established. They don't spread like crazy here. Yeah I might find one now and then where I don't want it but no way are they taking over anything here.

 

[BuckSutherland]

I see just the opposite with my trees Buck. If I put anything on top of the fabric, weed seeds end up growing right on top of the fabric, the roots find there way down through the fabric and defeat the entire purpose of the fabric. I'm not in a wooded area at all. In fact the exact opposite being strictly prairie/farmland. Maybe that has something to do with our differing opinions on fabric.

I use the dewitt pro 5 landscape fabric. I use about a 4x4 chunk. Most of the time I cut a small X or L into the material so I can slide it over the tree after its planted, then stake it down, then mulch on top. Some of my bigger older trees I slit the fabric all the way to the edge and then wrap around the tree. The slit mats definitely allow more stuff to grow in that seam over time (grass escapes, other weeds, other tree seedlings). I like to throw small chunks of flat wood on those. The ones with X or L I usually get sealed back up pretty good. I dont think anything can grow through my fabric, but it definitely tries to grow around it. I have used poor fabric in the past (the first stuff I bought off Amazon) and the weeds defeated it quickly. Weeds went right through that stuff. So far my Dewitt holds up excellent on my land.


Here is a Canadian Hemlock I planted last April. Photo taken in August. I deal with about 25% grass, 25%ferns, 25% broadleaf weeds, 25% other tree seedlings is on average what I deal with for competition. These little things put on real nice growth for me in first few months of last year. The heavy fern areas on my land really choke the conifers and push from the bottom up on my mats. I have to keep plenty of weight on those.