Norway seedlings & competition

[Mortenson]

This past winter I plugged 3 acres of Norway 4a on 12x12 spacing. I had circles already killed the prior fall, and midway thru this 1st growing season the circles were still free of weeds and grass. When I checked on them last week they were very hard to find. The grass and weeds towered over them, although upon close inspection they still had a pretty clean circle around each tree.

Will these trees make it like this? Or is it essential that I get them all located and sprayed again next spring? I like the fact that they may be hidden from winter deer browsing as it stands, but obviously I need to keep them growing. I feel like they had 1 good rainy summer to get rooted in. This spot is impossible to mow, but not impossible to spray with a backpack. But again, they're very hard to find at this point.

Anyone have experience with this?

 

[tooln]

Spring 0f 2013 I planted 1300 Norway spruce, in a 2.5 acre clear cut. No prep, no nothing. They are competing with whatever else is coming back up. I seldom go ito this area as it is a sanctuary. They were 3 year old bare roots about 6-10". The pics were taken in the spring of 2015, Ruger 22 to show size. They'll be fine.

 

[rocksnstumps]

I would make the effort to spray around as many as you can next spring if they are planted in heavy sod. My first experience is with white spruce. Sprayed lines to kill sod before planting thousands but only had time to spray around some the second year. Noticeable difference in height 5 yrs later and still that way after ten. I think its important to get the tops beyond browse stage sooner than later to jump start good growth as a tree vs more bush like.

Second data point is a small planting of norway spruce which I sprayed around them after planting two summers ago but this year was out of town pretty much all summer for work. No grass control 2nd yr and I'm having a hard time finding many still left this fall. Heavy sod is tough to compete with unless you help them along. Even if they make it, they might be half the size in 10 yrs they could have been

 

[Buckly]

It only makes sense that less competition around the tree can only help it grow faster. The other stuff sucks the water and nutrients away from the trees. I'm in the camp of keeping them clean and as weed free as possible. There's lots of options to do that with Norways.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Yes, I guess my point was doing some TLC the first couple of years makes a big difference just to get em started. After they are in the ground a couple of years, I think you get diminishing returns on your efforts, they'll do fine on their own.

For prep of trees in the pine/spruce area, take a look at the dbletree threads on tree planting on iowawhitetail forums (aka lickcreek in later forums he posted) I think he covers most of it in the first 4-5 pages. I think the thread is over 100 pages now and still going if you have lots of spare time. We all miss the contributions that he so tirelessly helped out others with, I remember first seeing that thread when it was on like on page 2 or 3.