Mulch for apple trees

[wooduck]

One pair has first litter spring , by mid summer that years young are having litters , with no predation or control's 3000 young in one season

 

[homerj]

Most farm stores carry bait chunks labeled for vole control , We prefer the chunks as they don't travel out of the tubes , the one we are using now is a green , weather resistant

Any chance you could post a pic of your pvc tube/trap setups?

 

[Charman03]

Just go to do it yourself pest control and get some green contrac blocks and bait stations. Also works wonders around the house/garage/barn for rodents

 

[JackTerp]

Get rid of rats, mice and voles.

 

[wooduck]

The video above is a great example , we use tubes around our farm buildings and have cats and dogs and have had no problems from them getting dead voles or bait

 

[Yarg]

Thats why the bait stations vole consumes bait goes to sleep dies , i doubt one poisoned vole would contain enough active ingredient to kill an off target animal 40 to 50 times their size . The animal would have to be fortunate or un fortunate enough to find and consume enough volume to make them sick

I have been doing this for years have never seen dead voles above ground and have never seen off target animals either sick or other wise legal baits are designed to achieve the job and no more its not like years ago with ddt when an animal ate some and it traveled thru the food chain ect.

I did a little reading and it seems that there is a lot of information on collateral damage to raptors and fury predetors when using rodenticides. I like to introduce trees but would hate to poison the Friendly's

 

[homerj]

The voles will cause other damage other than root feeding good apple tree establishment requires vole control when tree gets older not as big of an issue , use all the guards screen that makes you happy , why wont habitat guys just kill the voles its easy your checking the trees often doesnty take a lot of effort to place some bait in a pvc tube and your done

How many pvc tube/bait stations per acre is necessary to put a dent in the vole population?

 

[wooduck]

We use about 20 per acre start now and check every two weeks or so until snow , we have ours marked with a flag and check last near mid dec , by then bait use will lessen as the voles are gone

 

[homerj]

We use about 20 per acre start now and check every two weeks or so until snow , we have ours marked with a flag and check last near mid dec , by then bait use will lessen as the voles are gone

Thanks for the reply. Do you use Rozol or some kind of bait available without a license? Would strychnine gopher bait be worth trying?

 

[wooduck]

We use some rozol don't do the strychnine any thing above ground I believe is a no no , look at the farm stores they sell bait bars green color you can put in tubes you will see voles on the label

 

[j-bird]

Just keep in mind that poison can affect unintended critters (animals that prey on those critters you are poisoning). If you have dogs around you can make them sick if they get a hold of one of the poisoned animals as well..... I prefer to use gravel around my trees and leave some open ground and a few dead trees so the hawks and the like can help thin out the vole/mice

 

[Barndog56]

I've got 10 trees on B9 rootstock up by the house. They aren't caged as deer don't come near the house and our cats take care of the mice and rabbits. I'm trying a living mulch, called Ajuga. Ajuga, also known as bugleweed or carpetweed, are shallow rooted, low growing, and spread thru stolons.

I planted 4 plants around each tree. It should spread and fill in the area underneath each tree in a couple of years, blocking out weed growth, and shading the soil to keep it moist and prevent overheating.

I'm trying this in an effort to prevent having to repeat applications of woof chips or straw every year. At planting time this past spring these newly grafted trees were surrounded by cardboard and a wood chip based mulch. The Ajuga was planted about a month a go, and was purchased from Hirt's Gardens. https://hirts.com/search.php?Search=&search_query=Ajuga

I'll update in the future as it grows.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Like where ur going barndog. Playing around with living mulch myself. Only concern for me would be Ajuga is supposedly only hardy down to -23. Would be fine a little further south, but a no go for me.

Playing with red clover chicory and wood chips at the moment. One shallow, one deep rooted to bring up resources deep in the ground. Then lay over and die feeding the topsoil. If they slow the growth a tad I'm not overly concerned.

Trying to get away from synthetic covers.

 

[Barndog56]

Ajuga is usually listed as good to zone 3. Don't forget that snow is a good insulator, averaging out to about an R value of 1 per inch, so a foot of snow insulates as well as a 2x4 wall with fiberglass insulation. So if your Ajuga is burried under a couple feet of snow, it'll be good to lower temps.

My orchard floor is mostly red and white clover, but trying to find something lower and thicker for right under the trees.

 

[sandbur]

Ajuga is usually listed as good to zone 3. Don't forget that snow is a good insulator, averaging out to about an R value of 1 per inch, so a foot of snow insulates as well as a 2x4 wall with fiberglass insulation. So if your Ajuga is burried under a couple feet of snow, it'll be good to lower temps.

My orchard floor is mostly red and white clover, but trying to find something lower and thicker for right under the trees.

Higher grass cover or clover around the trees could act as insulation and catch more snow.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I would recommend putting aluminum window screen around those young tree trunks or one varmint could quickly move in and girdle them in winter. The meadow voles and mice can move under the snow undetected and they are pretty good at finding young tree growth like you have there.

I've had good luck in MN using leaves, grass clippings, bark chunks from wood splitting and random sticks for a thick layer of mulch around young trees. I do this for the first couple years, but once they get established I let the mulch rot down and allow the vegetation to grow there. Typically a mix of grass and clover moves in pretty quickly. I go this route to limit competition early and to build up sandy soil when the mulch rots down in a year or two.