Privacy screen tree planting questions

[bigboreblr]

IF you can put the time in, prepping the planting site does wonders. Amending and loosening up the soil. If the spot needs lime, spread it now. 3ft circle and get down to 2ft. Not too loose of stuff A gallon of peat moss in that hole will help alot. I like to use agriform tablets too.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Even if you don't amend the area each tree is planted, killing off the sod/grass makes a big difference in initial growth rates. I just used roundup in each row being planted a few weeks prior. Later that summer after planting you will get a flush of annual weeds in the rows but those broadleaf weeds are really not that bad compared to sod.

Going forward with any more planting I'm not going to be amending any holes but will always try to kill the grass first.

 

[BuckSutherland]

^^^

This is exactly why I recommend a high quality fabric weed mat. I like 4'x4'. In order to get optimal tree growth the number 1 thing any grower can do is KILL THE WEEDS AND GRASS. The fabric mat smoothers and kills everything around the tree. This allows a young tree's roots to rapidly expand and not compete with surrounding vegetation for sunlight, nutrients and water. Round up is gonna last short term. A good weed mat with mulch is gonna last 5+ years and require zero chemicals to be successful.

 

[rocksnstumps]

^^^ weed mat not practical in big volume. Like not gonna cage thousands of trees either.

But modify for your situation at hand. For a small amount of fruit trees will cage and weed mat. But .... if you are trying to get some patches of ROD or in my case hazelnuts to grow and spread, they are not gonna spread well unless you remove the weed mat after awhile.

I even just use tree tubes for crabapples typically. They grow like weeds by me usually so tube is removed fairly quickly and just replaced with narrow enclosure to prevent rubbing. Like others, after decades of doing stuff we learn what gives good results on your dirt.

 

[Prairie Acres]

This is exactly why I recommend a high quality fabric weed mat. I like 4'x4'.

I read in another thread that's a few years old, you recommending DeWitt 4'X300' fabric, cut into 4'x4" mats. Like this product... Amazon weed mats? I'm ready to buy weed mats.

 

[BuckSutherland]

^^^ weed mat not practical in big volume. Like not gonna cage thousands of trees either.

But modify for your situation at hand. For a small amount of fruit trees will cage and weed mat. But .... if you are trying to get some patches of ROD or in my case hazelnuts to grow and spread, they are not gonna spread well unless you remove the weed mat after awhile.

I even just use tree tubes for crabapples typically. They grow like weeds by me usually so tube is removed fairly quickly and just replaced with narrow enclosure to prevent rubbing. Like others, after decades of doing stuff we learn what gives good results on your dirt.

If I sprayed round up in the spring or fall other weeds would take over and smoother the trees out by the end of June. Mostly ferns, thistle and horsetail on my land up north MN. Down in southern MN if I would spray roundup to kill grasses it would immediately be taken over by burr cucumber, giant ragweed, thistle and waterhemp. Roundup doesn't have any residual and is ineffective on a whole bunch of other weeds. I don't like the idea of getting rid of one weed only to inherit 4-5 more in its place. I'd rather just get rid of all of them, especially in a 70 yard privacy screen.


I'd gladly challenge the person planting 1,000 trees and walking away to compete with the guy planting 100 trees and giving them premium care. After 5 years the guy that planted 100 trees and took care of them would be miles ahead of the guy that planted 1,000 trees and gave the deer a bunch of easy browse. I have done 100 weed mats per day on established trees a few times. Once I installed the weed mats the trees finally took off.


For a guy (Prairie Acres) planting a 70 yard stretch of conifers for a privacy screen the full package is the best way to get instant results. There is no reason to ever remove the weed mat from the conifer because its not a root suckering shrub.

 

[BuckSutherland]

I read in another thread that's a few years old, you recommending DeWitt 4'X300' fabric, cut into 4'x4" mats. Like this product... Amazon weed mats? I'm ready to buy weed mats.

Be careful ordering online. You want to get 5oz fabric or better. I have ordered 5oz a few times and they delivered 3.2oz in its place. You want the thickest stuff you can find. 3.2 oz fabric will only get you a few years before it breaks down and the weeds start pushing through. I'm gonna try to buy mine in person this year.


I do like the 4x4 size. That gives any tree you plant 16sq ft of space with no competition. I strongly suggest adding mulch to the top of the weed mat. It helps with moisture retention, weed smothering and keeping the tree from being cooked. Underneath my weed mats are a great place to find copious amounts of night crawlers for fishing. Night crawlers will also be highly beneficial to your young trees.

 

[rocksnstumps]

Take it easy Buck. I should have started a new thread with that video on conifers instead of tagging on this one.

Agree for the OP and his short 70 yards, weed mats and babying stuff is the way to go. Just making comments that not everything is absolutes.

And when we planted an entire 40 acres in conifers on one property, we sure as heck didn't think we needed to weed mat everything. Neither did the other millions of acres planted with forestry practices in the last century by others.

Critical areas in small quantities, weed mats and whatever you have at your disposal is probably worth your time and money.

Also glad that your soils are that productive that by end of June weeds might snuff out your trees. Not the case in all areas. You will get broadleafs by end of summer, but as I've stated they are diddly squat compared to grass in tree competition.

The unintentional diversion..... squirrel!

Now where was I? Oh yeah. The comments about thicket forming shrubs and NOT having weed mats present to enable that to happen was based on growing hazelnuts on my land.

Again apologize as maybe should have just started a new thread to avoid only talking about a low number of trees like the OP has. But these topics get brought up over again and again so did not want to lose some continuity while still adding to the conifer discussion.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Yep - every place is different. ^ ^ ^ ^ We didn't cage every spruce we planted, just the ones we wanted to insure would survive in strategic locations. Weed mats did our apple & crab trees a ton of good - kept competition from any weeds & grass down to about zero in the early years of establishment.