Scott's habitat improvements

[Bowsnbucks]

Fantastic pix from Co. !! I have family living right near Pikes Peak in the Springs. Those views are breathtaking.

 

[scott44]

Went and trimmed some branches and pulled cards today. Food plots at my sister's are doing really good.









Little thinner in the pines but still ok.





I think a little predator control is in order.

 

[Native Hunter]

Man you have things looking neat. Loved all the pics!

 

[buckvelvet]

Love this pic, I assume LC mix and its looks fantastic, way to be fellow Michigander!

 

[scott44]

Love this pic, I assume LC mix and its looks fantastic, way to be fellow Michigander!

Yea it the LC cereal grain mix, went a little heavier because this is really sandy soil, we've got some timely rains and it looks good. Not much experience on sandy soils so I didn't know the seeding rate. THx

 

[buckvelvet]

On my horrid ground i do the method of

50# WR
50# Oats
5# GHR
8# MED RED
5# Alsike
1# Chic

Per acre seeding but with new plots or with some that are producing less rye heads i use 100# WR.

 

[wiscwhip]

Yea it the LC cereal grain mix, went a little heavier because this is really sandy soil, we've got some timely rains and it looks good. Not much experience on sandy soils so I didn't know the seeding rate. THx

Depending on your level of "sandy", it looks to me like your doing just fine. We had sand very much like CrazyED has on his place and our plots were generally more sparse than what you have in your photos. Looks great actually, and the deer look like they are ok with it as well.

bv has a good starting point in his above post, you can always tweak it from there.

 

[scott44]

Depending on your level of "sandy", it looks to me like your doing just fine. We had sand very much like CrazyED has on his place and our plots were generally more sparse than what you have in your photos. Looks great actually, and the deer look like they are ok with it as well.

bv has a good starting point in his above post, you can always tweak it from there.

I don't think it's quite that sandy but a lot sandier than I'm used to, we have real heavy clay with no sand.

On my horrid ground i do the method of

50# WR
50# Oats
5# GHR
8# MED RED
5# Alsike
1# Chic

Per acre seeding but with new plots or with some that are producing less rye heads i use 100# WR.

This is about what I planted minus the chickory and substitute ladino for Aslike add Peas

 

[buckvelvet]

I have to many deer where i'm at, peas in anything less than a 5 acre stand would get annihilated, kinda like soy beans. I shutter at the thought. :)

 

[scott44]

A few picks of 3 of the more mature bucks on our place, dates and times on the second pic is wrong it was last week.

 

[Spiider]

Great pics as usual!

 

[scott44]

I had my son take some pics when he pulled the cards and he got fancy and took a panoramic, this is looking north and ends up looking SE. Not really clear but it gives you a view of one of our plots.

 

[scott44]

Mid Sept I stuck a camera up were deer have a trail doing through the switch to the plots, the switch in the back is a couple years older than the switch in the front. All the trees in this area are ash and are dying so I planted Norways in there this spring.





Did a drive around the section just to see what was going on and found the dairy farm up the road is chopping all their corn hopefully this means more sightings.



Not a really clear pic but this guy looks good.

 

[scott44]

I picked up a Ultra Pro X camera, kinda like a Go-Pro but a third the cost. Tried it out tonight in the stand, not bad.

 

[huntall]

Looks good!

 

[scott44]

Couple areas on th edge of some switch that I hinged, they are using it for bedding some, I planted some Norways in there to take off in the next couple years because the hinged trees were Ash and emrerals ash borer is bad here.

 

[Spiider]

Looks like a really nice spot! Good job!

 

[John-W-WI]

So you have EAB in your area?

We don't but it's on its way.

How fast do the ash trees die once they show up?

I have some pretty large ash stands (I've had some removed for firewood just because they are ultimately doomed). I've often wondered what the remaining areas would look like once EAB shows up.

-John

 

[scott44]

So you have EAB in your area?

We don't but it's on its way.

How fast do the ash trees die once they show up?

I have some pretty large ash stands (I've had some removed for firewood just because they are ultimately doomed). I've often wondered what the remaining areas would look like once EAB shows up.

-John

Once it showed up on our place it took only 2-3yrs and all the ash trees with any size were gone, there are still some small ones like I hinged here that are around but they seem to be going also.

 

[scott44]

Game plan for this year is chestnuts, the last couple years I've started both oaks and chestnuts in Rootmakers. This years it's going to be mostly chestnuts, I thnk I have enough for 6 trays. I have some chinese, and a hybrid wilflife mix from Empire which has Chinese, Seguin, and Allegheny chinkapin and some from Chestnut Ridge. So it's going to be a mix.



Last spring I took about 3 acres of our hay field and planted some norways, red cedars and various oaks and chestnuts in it. Norways are doing pretty good but the red cedars I'm not sure about, this is the first time I've planted red cedars and all summer and early fall they looked green and good, I haven't checked on the probably since Sept sometime and was suprised to see the brown is this normal for red cedars or are they toast?