Rubbing posts - giant cuttings?

[John-W-WI]

Last weekend I finally got around to trying the "giant cuttings" for rubbing posts. The longest one was 20' 6" long (3 year old hybrid poplar). I had planted some too close together and they needed to be thinned.

Length:


Here is one of them before we put it in the ground:


I augered an 18" hole about 3 1/2 feet deep:




I planted them in a couple of locations. In both locations I planted one with all of the branches removed and another with all of the branches left on the tree (except the very bottom that went in the hole):


I will document this process better in the future, but this is a good start. It will be interesting to see what they do. They are all in a foodplot ready to be rubbed (and have a few branches tied down for licking branches).

-John

 

[Riggsgwp->]

I'm guessing the bucks will have those destroyed by fall:)

 

[John-W-WI]

I hope so. but they are 2 - 3" in diameter. Hopefully they last until the snow flies?

If they live and start actively growing maybe they'll make it through the season?

-John

 

[dipper]

What are the odds they make it? That is alot of length above ground. I wonder if 6' above ground and 4' would up the survuval odds? Keep us posted.

 

[outdoorstom]

This is going to be interesting to watch. I hope they take off. It's amazing how much rubbing poplars can take and survive.

 

[ruskbucks]

I broke off a tag alder branch last year and stuck it into the ground. I had a camera over it, it's funny just about every deer walked over and checked it out. Bucks broke all the branches off. They just can't resist it.

 

[brushpile]

If they grow, a buck can't kill them. A buck can top kill a Hybrid Poplar, but it'll come back from the roots every time. Once Hybrid Poplar is rooted it's a weed, and established roots send up a big tree in one season.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I actually did something similar several years back, except I used hybrid willows. I was concerned about bucks rubbing my 5 year old pine and spruce rows, so I wanted to see if I could make a living buck rub post to attract the attention of the bucks and hopefully save a few pines in the process. I cut 10 foot lengths of a hybrid willow that were around 3"-4" in diameter. I buried them about 3 feet in the soil and left about 7 feet exposed above ground. This was just a large post - no small branches, limbs or leaves. The stumps did attract some attention from the bucks since they were on corners and edges where the bucks liked to rub the pines. The willows put on about 2' of new growth the first year (off the top of the tree), but they were set back when a bear decided to tear off all of the new growth. The bears on my WI land seem to enjoy destroying my habitat improvement projects. The next year the top seemed to die off, but new growth came from the bottom of the tree where it made contact with the soil. I planted those trees 3 or 4 years ago and they're still alive, but the new growth has been minimal and coming from the ground line rather than at the top of the tree like the first year.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some leaves and possible minimal growth on the top of your large hybrid poplars the first year, but I'm guessing the new roots won't be able to keep up with the top growth and the top may die back the second year. But I would expect to get growth at the soil line after that. I'm really interested in the results of your trial, please keep us posted. I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one that comes up with odd ideas. I should have

To attract bucks in large plots into shooting range, I often bury 10' tall trees to make an artificial rubbing tree/licking branch/scrape branch 15 yards from my stand. This seems to increase the chances for a buck to walk in range when hunting on a larger food plot. I've never had any trees survive this process and I've tested a number of different types of trees, including boxelder which are pretty tough to kill. The boxelder produced leaves initially, then died off after a month or so.

 

[John-W-WI]

I'm guessing the 2 I planted on the bottom of the field with tons of water below ground have a chance. I'll be amazed if the 2 on the top of the field (5" of dirt then blow sand) make it.

I'll keep this updated as the summer progresses.

I wish I would have thought of hybrid willows... I could have saved a couple in the nursery (not processed them into cuttings). Maybe next year.

-John

 

[tooln]

When doing something like this would you add any hormone?

 

[John-W-WI]

When doing something like this would you add any hormone?

We didn't use any hormone on these... Probably wouldn't have hurt though.

 

[John-W-WI]

An update on the giant cuttings.

Both of the trees planted on the lower side of the field (with lots of ground water) are doing well:

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Even the tree with most of the branches left is actively growing.

​

 

[John-W-WI]

The trees on the upper side (much more dry) are alive (I had a bad angle on the tree with the branches removed, but it has leaves growing like the one at the bottom of the field):

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The tree with all of the branches isn't doing very well (there are a LOT of branches on it) Leaves have grown, but it looks very sick:

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The 2 planted on the upper side will be lucky to survive (maybe the one without branches will, not sure).

But I think the 2 on the lower side are going to make it until the bucks have their way with them. We'll see what happens after that.

-John

​

 

[LuckyIL]

Interesting!

 

[John-W-WI]

The giant cuttings have continued to do extremely well. Here are the 2 on the upper side of the field. The far tree with all of the branches made it afterall. We had a LOT of rain this season, which I'm sure helped.

​

 

[John-W-WI]

Both trees on the bottom side did well too. On the tree with branches, I tied the branches down today to make them into licking branches:

​

The tree without branches got tied down into one big licking branch. I tied it to itself, so it is low enough, but can "turn" on itself. Not sure if that will work or not. I guess we'll see!

​

I put a camera on them, to see how the deer respond:

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Unfortunately this experiment wasn't done near a treestand. So I won't be hunting over them. Maybe next year.

Thanks,

-John

 

[dipper]

John I bought a post hole digger this summer. I'm thinking 9' cuttings. 4' in the ground 5' above the browse line. I think that's the only way I could grow hp. So you thinking less branches is better?
I'm also going to be trying what I believe to be gray dogwood in a sedge grass marsh. Has anyone had luck with big dogwood cuttings? I want to give the marsh more character. I don't need a forest.
Also Sandbur willows, and luck with those giant cuttings?

 

[scott44]

Cool looking John

 

[John-W-WI]

John I bought a post hole digger this summer. I'm thinking 9' cuttings. 4' in the ground 5' above the browse line. I think that's the only way I could grow hp. So you thinking less branches is better?
I'm also going to be trying what I believe to be gray dogwood in a sedge grass marsh. Has anyone had luck with big dogwood cuttings? I want to give the marsh more character. I don't need a forest.
Also Sandbur willows, and luck with those giant cuttings?

Yeah dipper, the 20' cuttings I started with were overkill. I was just curious if something that big would make it. Something in the 9' - 10' range should work well. Ideally the top of the cutting would have some branches to tie down in the fall. I might start trying to grow a few for my personal use with these dimensions in mind. Maybe train them a little so they are the right shape and size when I want to use them. The branches would need to be almost 10' off the ground before they were harvested. Kind of tricky to prune way up there :) I do think less branches are better. In a dry year, this would be even more important IMHO.

I can't say how big dogwoods would do. HP is the only "giant" I've tested so far.

I've grown willows from 3" tiny sticks all the way up to 10' rods. I don't think you can kill any willow if it gets water.

-John

 

[homegrownbucks]

I plants 100 7 to 9 foot poles 2 years ago in spring, poplar and willow. I tried to get then deep but it was dry and I got in about 18 inches on average. We had a drought and I got 20 to 30% survival. We put one where the water to our geothermal system drains and it took off of course. Poplar did better than willow, even in the irrigated area.

We also stick random willow branches in the bottom of our valleys in reed canary and they have done great

I'm planning on doing a bunch of large poplar like this next spring, they seem much better than willow for screening