Norway spruce trees planting

[iceman10]

So I have a few of these to plant & I have a question about them .
I have a bunch of plantra tree tubes that I could split & zip tie together to make a big tree tube , would this be a good idea or should I do an open enclosure fence around them? Thanks


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[sandbur]

So I have a few of these to plant & I have a question about them .
I have a bunch of plantra tree tubes that I could split & zip tie together to make a big tree tube , would this be a good idea or should I do an open enclosure fence around them? Thanks


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Years back, I tried what you said on just a couple of white pine. It didn’t work. Young bucks love to fight with the tree tube.

The second problem was that I got tall leader growth, but it didn’t harden off properly in the fall and I had die back. It would depend on your fall/ winter season, but I don’t favor tubes on evergreens in my environment.


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[Tree Spud]

So I have a few of these to plant & I have a question about them .
I have a bunch of plantra tree tubes that I could split & zip tie together to make a big tree tube , would this be a good idea or should I do an open enclosure fence around them? Thanks


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Tree tubes will kill pines ... that was my experience. Even tried the 2' variety of tubes, same result.

 

[iceman10]

These are only 2ft so I will put a cage around it . Thanks for the info


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[bigboreblr]

Cant speak for norway spruces, but my blue spruces I dont cage at all.

Your enemy will be weeds, water, and weed whackers. Put some cardboard or fabric and mulch down and keep it watered the 1st year, maybe be nice and water during dry spells on year 2.

I get a bit of nibble here n there, but nothing horrible. Hardiness zone 5A, tons of cottontail rabbits, woodchucks, and deer on my property.

I dont feel a norway spruce would be any more palatible to an animal than blue spruce. could be wrong.

 

[homerj1]

I dont feel a norway spruce would be any more palatible to an animal than blue spruce. could be wrong.

Definitely wrong in my experience. I've seen every kind of spruce browsed except blue.

 

[bigboreblr]

Definitely wrong in my experience. I've seen every kind of spruce browsed except blue.

My bad.............

in NY they called red cedar a starvation food. There's tons of red dogwood, vines, and shrub hedgerows all over my neighborhood. No lack of good winter browse. They seem to nibble the cedars, even in the summer. Lower 4ft thinner and bottom 2ft just about bare, but they grow fine. I fertilizer, clover around, clearance vines, and water them during dry spell. My cedars might me more palatible because theyre well cared for, atkeast grow 2-3x faster than uncared. Those cedars are my privacy screen from the pool to the road.

 

[Fair oak]

Anyone ever use a dibble bar for 2-3’ bare root conifers in heavy clay? How about an earth auger in heavy clay for larger transplants? I planted 50 bare root spruce last spring with a flat shovel and I broke the shovel 1/2 way through. Looking for the best way to plant 100-200 conifers next spring.

I will be planting about 100 bare root spruce and I’m also looking at transplanting as many 3-4’ spruce and balsams as I can handle. I have tons of 3-6’ conifers for transplanting on my Wisconsin properties and am looking at adding more conifer cover to my UP property. My Wisconsin property is mostly sand so at least those are easy digging. Even better that they are free and I’ve had good luck transplanting conifers in the past but never in heavy clay. Hoping I could use an earth auger and drill 3-4 holes next to each other and knock out the center. Thanks!

 

[bigboreblr]

I've done white spruce, poplar, red cedar, and white pine with a dibbler. I have the heavy duty lenoard planting bar. Besides clay, I have a fair share of rocks to pick through. Woth larger bare roots, survival rate is lower than the smaller ones. With larger bareroots, sometimes the roots shoot our 5-6 feet, so its alot of dibblin'.

The last round of trees I did both dibbling and shovel. The state nursery says dibbling is better. But, my in-laws next door are bothered by a new home built in their backyard. So, I turn a a good 3ft circle of dirt. Mixed in some better soil, some lime, and fertilizer. Dibbled bareroots get agriform tablets as well as the pines I planted with a shovel. Despite a dry summer and bi-weekly watering. The pines did alot better. ONly lost 1 out of 10. Lost about 6 or 7 out of 25 white spruces.

Did another experiment too. mulched some spruces and left some alone. Did the same with 1/2 my antonovka's bareroot apple trees. MAde a huge difference. Did so well, I mulched the other half of the spruces.

Short story long....... It's not how many you can do, it's how many you can do well. 1800 feet..... Do what you can well a year...... Spread it over a few years if needed.

 

[Fair oak]

I will pick up a heavy duty dibble bar. The Leonard bar looks solid! That should work fine for the smaller bare roots I purchase. For the larger 3-4’ transplants I might just try my ice auger with an earth auger. Drill however many holes I need to in order to get the hole as big as the root ball. I don’t have many rocks, just gooey sticky clay. Anyone that has stuck a shovel in heavy clay knows just how tough it is to dig a hole with a shovel. The little bit of shoveling I’ve done on my heavy clay ground was to drain some water from an access trail and it was downright miserable.

 

[Fair oak]

The trees I’ve seen that I planted this past spring are doing good so far but I think the true test is the 1st winter?

As far as transplanting 3-4’ spruce and balsams, what I’ve done in the past is cut all the way around the tree with a shovel and try and get the dirt and everything in a bucket. I then dug a hole a little bigger than the bucket and dropped the root ball in and back filled and compacted. The only thing is, I’ve only done maybe 10 trees this way and I believe 8 of them are doing well but it’s a pretty small sample size and it was all done on sandier soil so not sure what to expect on heavy clay.

 

[bigboreblr]

After awhile, that dibbler bar gets heavy.......

 

[BuckSutherland]

Anyone ever use a dibble bar for 2-3’ bare root conifers in heavy clay? How about an earth auger in heavy clay for larger transplants? I planted 50 bare root spruce last spring with a flat shovel and I broke the shovel 1/2 way through. Looking for the best way to plant 100-200 conifers next spring.

I will be planting about 100 bare root spruce and I’m also looking at transplanting as many 3-4’ spruce and balsams as I can handle. I have tons of 3-6’ conifers for transplanting on my Wisconsin properties and am looking at adding more conifer cover to my UP property. My Wisconsin property is mostly sand so at least those are easy digging. Even better that they are free and I’ve had good luck transplanting conifers in the past but never in heavy clay. Hoping I could use an earth auger and drill 3-4 holes next to each other and knock out the center. Thanks!

Sounds like you need a wolverine. I plant everything with mine.. plugs, bareroots, transplanted ditch trees, 1-2 gallon pots. It is completely indestructible from human use. Nice sharp cutting edge lets me chop right through tree roots. I started planting in the snow this year and piled the snow to water my trees.

 

[TheGroveEstate]

So I have a few of these to plant & I have a question about them .
I have a bunch of plantra tree tubes that I could split & zip tie together to make a big tree tube , would this be a good idea or should I do an open enclosure fence around them? Thanks


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I have a friend who’s a Certified Arborist. I asked him the same question a few years ago. He said never put tubes on any Evergreens, only deciduous trees.

Cage your spruce, if they are exposed to desiccant winter winds then adding burlap around the cage can help avoid winter burn until they get roots established.

 

[Teeder]

Interesting, I have a couple dozen norways tubed and haven't lost a single one. I'm using 2' tubes and doubled up the diameter. They were tiny when I put them in. Coming out the tops now. I'll take the tubes off this spring. Also have a couple white pines in tubes with the same result. These tubes are vented, so maybe that makes a difference?

 

[sandbur]

Interesting, I have a couple dozen norways tubed and haven't lost a single one. I'm using 2' tubes and doubled up the diameter. They were tiny when I put them in. Coming out the tops now. I'll take the tubes off this spring. Also have a couple white pines in tubes with the same result. These tubes are vented, so maybe that makes a difference?

I once tried tubing some white pines with taller tubes than you used. They grew like mad and died back over winter. I don’t think they hardened off enough before our winters. I haven’t grown a white pine yet, they get rubbed. Nearly the same for balsam fir. I probably need to plant a thousand of each at a time to get by this.


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[4wanderingeyes]

I once tried tubing some white pines with taller tubes than you used. They grew like mad and died back over winter. I don’t think they hardened off enough before our winters. I haven’t grown a white pine yet, they get rubbed. Nearly the same for balsam fir. I probably need to plant a thousand of each at a time to get by this.


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I planted 1500 about 6 years ago, cant find a one today.

 

[sandbur]

I planted 1500 about 6 years ago, cant find a one today.

I have a neighbor that planted some along a ditch bottom that was devoid of cover and they have done well. I don’t think deer used that area much, when the trees were small.


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[Kooch]

Do you guys that plant a lot at once water them? I know if I’d planted trees this spring they would have all perished without supplemental water.


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[Bill]

I planted 1500 about 6 years ago, cant find a one today.

Did the same with Norway spruce. Same result. But every time I go into that imaginary bedding area I still look for one.