I thought I could tell the difference between red and silky. They are almost identical looking at the stems in winter. One way to tell is to cut to the pith. Silky will have a salmon/ light brown pith and the red osier will have a white pith. I was very surprised, I would of put money down that the one patch was silky. Red in left. Silky right.
Silky/ red osier dogwood cutting id
- Thread starter ruskbucks
- Start date
chucker66
5 year old buck +
So which one do the deer prefer?
It seems red osier is more popular. I have seen red osier at my friends land get browsed extremely heavy in his swamp. Red grows better in wet ground. I feel silky is underrated. I have seen it browsed in very low deer density areas. I would think if you only had silky it would get hit almost as red. The deer also browse the leaves and berries of dogwoods. Silky will also grow in wet or drier spots than red. Grey I have seen grow on drier high ground. I don't think you can go wrong with either for deer preference. I would try both if possible with the reds in the wetter areas.
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
I have done a bunch of research, ROD is pretty universal and will grow in most places, and from what I read, is the preferred. Silky or grey can grow in wet ground, but prefers to grow next to wet areas, and is also readily browsed. This year I am focusing on ROD, then I will add others in in later years. If I had found any grey I would have bought some to add as well, but the few places that sold it was either sold out, or they wanted triple what I found the Red for.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Agree the ROD seems to get hit harder by deer than the silky. We have planted both here, I just like the look of ROD better especially this time of year with snow on the ground.
The gray grows naturally all over here along outside edges of woods and fence rows, I haven’t really noticed it getting browsed bad at all. It is almost invasive the way it creeps out from the woods. It grows into more of a decent tree here than silky or ROD do…they stay more spindley and shrub looking.
The gray grows naturally all over here along outside edges of woods and fence rows, I haven’t really noticed it getting browsed bad at all. It is almost invasive the way it creeps out from the woods. It grows into more of a decent tree here than silky or ROD do…they stay more spindley and shrub looking.
Yes that's it. If you scraped into the pith far enough and it is white, it is. You can see a distinct color change if it was silky. I went on a walk thru some marshes yesterday. I will say the red is definitely preferred. It was hammered everywhere. There was silky growing there too. Some of it was browsed but not like the red. I'm going to continue to plant red, yellow, and silky.
chucker66
5 year old buck +
Great I found a nice stash at work at the edge of the parking lot.
How should the cuttings be?
4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
If you can grab extra, I would gladly pay you for some :)
chucker66
5 year old buck +
I will grab as much as I can and there's no need for payment, glad to share.
H20fwler
5 year old buck +
Great I found a nice stash at work at the edge of the parking lot.
I cut them about a foot long in early spring and if ground is soft enough I poke a hole with an electric fence post and push them in until about 3”-4” is above ground with at least two buds showing.
nice. You can see the bud about a inch from the bottom in your pic. I cut mine about what you cut , just cut on a angle so it goes into the ground easy. Also allows you to tell top from bottom fast. I then cut the top flat about a inch above a bud. They usually end up around a foot give or take either way. What has worked best for me is to just leave 1 bud and about 3 inches of the cutting out of the ground. I believe the cutting puts more energy into the roots instead of the leaves. I have had cuttings leaf out great when having multiple buds out of the ground only to die. I pulled them out and the hardly had any roots.Great I found a nice stash at work at the edge of the parking lot.
chucker66
5 year old buck +
If anyone is driving HWY 25 from Barron to Menomonie and wants some ROD I saw 7 or 8 bunches on the way down to Menomonie last night right along the side of the road. It could be Silky but now I find myself looking in the ditches everywhere I go. I used to look for deer and geese in the fields, now I look for ROD. My wife still hates it either way haha.
cavey
5 year old buck +
Its all over, look on the right of way areas, where they mow, those are the best for cuttings, new growth 18" or better, nice and straight - there is a bunch on Hwy 12 west all the way out past Wilson from Menomonie as well. Stay away from the west south west side of Menomonie - thats all mine -- lol But you are right once you start looking for it you will see it all over, next you will start wanting the really red looking ones!
In a road side spot like that you can cut them fast.... I either direct plant them later or cut wax and bag them and plant them into a sand stooling bed for a year or two later to trans plant.
2-3 buds in and 1-2 buds out of the ground, Simple as that... dont over think it just go with the volume approach. Stab in and move on, or bed and lift later with root systems.
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4wanderingeyes
5 year old buck +
What sucks is I am somewhat color blind, so I cant just spot them as I am driving. I ask my wife to keep an eye out as I am driving, but I look over and she is playing on her phone. I need to just take her for a ride, and make sure she leaves her phone at home.
chucker66
5 year old buck +
On the North exit from HWY 70 to 53 there is bunch over there on that side of the road. Next time you are in Spooner, bring your clippers with you
So I am out plowing the snow this morning and look over by my neighbors garage and he has a huge ROD growing there. I'm sure he will let me take some cuttings from there.
That's impressive. Is your bed just all sand?. Also I have only direct planted my cuttings. If you were to harvest some now is there a good way to store them till the ground thaws?
chucker66
5 year old buck +
What I was thinking about doing is to harvest some and try to get it started in my basement and then it might be ready in 2 or 3 months to put into the ground. That way I get a good jump on it. I have 2 twigs in water right now so we will see what they do in a week.
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