Norway Spruce Planting after logging

[Jim Timber]

We're a winter desert on my side of the big swamp just South of me. My neighbor about 3/4 mile away has an older pine stand that's also pretty open now, and then there's some pine or spruce planted in an old field across the road from him at about 1 mile from me and the deer seem to hole up in that over winter (there's a creek that remains open near by). Those trees have been under 6' for years and now they're starting to take off and fill in.

I put about 350 (black spruce) trees in a 3 acre block on my SW corner just East of where my neighbor logged 2 winters ago. As I get the aspen out, that area will turn into more of a transition edge corridor than it already is, and then the spruce should start coming in strong.

I have another 6 acre spot on my NW corner that borders my black ash swamp, which will have a much higher volume of aspen logged off of it (starting next month is the plan), and once that's been cut, I'm going to plant it densely in conifers as well. That could be next year, or maybe the year after. Really depends on finances right now.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I'm gonna try to get a few Black Hills spruce from some in-state nurseries next spring. I guess the Black spruce you speak of are for wetter ground, whereas the B.H. spruce are for avg. ground - which is my camp. We have Norways and white spruce now, but adding the B.H. for some diversity and a different look will hopefully be a good thing.

 

[wiscwhip]

Black Hills spruce is for more average ground, but it also is considered to be one of the most drought tolerant species of spruce as well. Where they are native in western SD they don't get much rain in most years.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Whip - We aren't known for long dry spells - usually - but we do get some summers where the heat and periods of sparse rainfall can turn the ground into concrete. Even during those periods, we normally will get a thunderstorm or shower within 2 to 3 weeks. That is out of the norm for us. Do you think B.H. spruce will do O.K. in that scenario ?? I never planted them before, but noticed several of our Pa. nurseries carry them. I don't recall hearing any of the locals speak of them either. All new for me.

Any thoughts or experiences are helpful. Any of you upper-middies have 'em ??

 

[wiscwhip]

They will be fine. It isn't like they "need" minimal rainfall or they drown, they are just adapted to live with much less of it than their spruce cousins. Black Hills spruce is a variant of white spruce, so plant them where you would plant the whites, not in the lower areas where black spruce do well. They also are very adapted to not drying out with hot, dry, summer winds, which could be even more beneficial if you were to put them on the windward side of any mixed conifer plantings. They might help keep the less wind tolerant conifers from taking the brunt of the winds.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Thanks Whip. Next spring ...... in they go !!