The Front 12

[PatinPA]

I sent them an email. I didn't see it on the website anywhere.

 

[PatinPA]

He got back to me. They'll have availability after this growing season in the fall.

 

[PatinPA]

Aroun September 1st to be more exact.

He got back to me. They'll have availability after this growing season in the fall

 

[PatinPA]

Planted 3 Mutsu apple trees and 1 Kieffer yesterday as a start to spring chores. I got these at Lowes in the fall last year. I checked with the nursery the apples are on M-111. Forgot to ask about the pear. They're not the best trees but I think I paid $10 a piece for 3/4" Dia. trees. Took some pics of my tree planting process. I didn't think about it until after the worst hole. First a shovel is not required.

First pickaxe the rocks loose, then pick them out and place them in a pile. This one actually had a little soil in it. The hole before this required most of that 5 gal. bucket of potting soil to fill back in.


Then when I'm done, I put the rocks back around the base for help in weed suppression.


I need to get some cages. I thought I had some but apparently I'm out. The tubed trees are persimmon seedlings. I'm pretty sure they didn't make it but I'll move them elsewhere if they did.

 

[Troubles Trees]

I've seen their ad on craigslist before. Always wanted to check them out. They're only about 25 min. from me. Any idea when their sales are? Everything I see on the website is out of stock.
Snyder County Conservation District has a decent tree sale up that way too. I think they're pick up only though. I've been pretty impressed with what I've gotten from them.

I'm trying for the food diversity. Now all I have to do is wait for them to grow up.

I did talk to Ryan and he isn't doing spring sales this year, he didn't state why but he said he increased his inventory and will have 3 times the amount of trees when his sales start this year on September 1st. Set your alarm for an hour before sales start and be ready if you really want some, the popular trees sell out frickin fast!

 

[PatinPA]

I did talk to Ryan and he isn't doing spring sales this year, he didn't state why but he said he increased his inventory and will have 3 times the amount of trees when his sales start this year on September 1st. Set your alarm for an hour before sales start and be ready if you really want some, the popular trees sell out frickin fast!

Ya I plan on it. I might take a drive up there and see if I can put in an order beforehand.

 

[PatinPA]

Got a little bit of time to work on my 2nd food plot. First step is picking up all the dead branches. Thought I put them to some use to I made plot screens with them on either side. Hopefully at some point this will allow me to sneak in and buck have to access the plot to look for doe. Next step will be to bring a rake and start raking the leaves and smaller branches away. I did a soil test for this location this year. I wasn't expecting it to be very good but lime application was 24,000 lbs/acre. It'll probably be 1/4 acre all said and done but I'm not sure 3 ton is even possible considering wheelbarrow is my only access.

 

[PatinPA]

Persimmons and Allegheny Chinkapins are starting to grow well after about 3 years.

 

[PatinPA]

Got my new kill plot cleared finally. Also found one of my first indiscriminate plantings. A sawtooth oak, still alive but not much bigger than when I planted it as a seedling. And I also found a new invasive I get to deal with. Mile a minute. Yay. I'm going to spray and lime this weekend. Soil test said I need 24,000 lbs of lime/acre. I measured this after I was done at about 1/20th of an acre. That's still 1200 lbs of lime. Oof, I'll probably put 300 lbs on this year. I think I'm only going to put oats/rye on this plot so I'm not too worried about it this year. It'll grow.

 

[PatinPA]

That new plot might be the ticket.

 

[PatinPA]

Clover/chicory/oats plot is coming up nicely. Another week of rain, forecast for this week. Still need to get some fertilizer on it.


Brassica planting in the new plot. It's only 1/20th of an acre. Put in 1# radish, 1/4# PTT, 1/4# sugar beets. Wanted to see if it could make it. Will broadcast rye/wheat on it in September.

 

[PatinPA]

Checked on my new brassica plot. It's kind of blah but I didn't expect much out of it. Going to take a while to build up the soil. I loaded it up with WR and WW. Supposed to get rain this week. Might plant some more this coming weekend too. On another note though, those white oaks are dropping a bunch of acorns. Hopefully there are still some there in another month. Not sure why but I rarely see buck in the summer and for some reason, this time of summer I see very few deer. Went from getting 40-50 pics a week on each camera to 5-10. Always freaks me out a month before season, even though I know they'll be back end of September/beginning of October.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

Look at it as a work in progress. It's going to take a while to turn rock, bark, and roots into soil. After a few more years of no till rye and buckwheat with some more tree clearing you'll be well on your way.

 

[PatinPA]

I was digging through old pics to find one of a buck looking at the camera and I found some of when I first bought my property and what it looked like when I bought it. It's a shame those old hemlocks were goners. It would've been beautiful to see them full of limbs. It would've been thick enough just with them. I need to get a good pic of what it looks like now four years later. It's getting pretty thick although it's all black birch and briars. This is pretty much the location of my long narrow plot in the middle of the property.

 

[PatinPA]

Wanted to document this stuff in my land tour thread. Got around to tearing out the old spring house. The foundation of it cracked and broke a couple of years ago and the wooden cover shifted over. The foundation was undermined anyway so it really was doing nothing anyway. There is already plenty of water around so I don't think it will be much of an attraction but the spring house was doing nothing and if it fills up I can at least have close water to water trees. Also found out that I am getting my first nuts from an Allegheny chinquapin. Did the throw part of my brassica throw and mow. Hopefully get the mowing part done tomorrow. Got chased out by some pretty loud, close thunder, but never got any rain.


I was going to move the concrete out of it but damn they were heavy. The deer are just going to have to deal with it.
Filling up

Woohoo nuts

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I'm guessing that due to the hemlocks & black birch, your land is on the north side of the mountain?? They are both shade-loving trees, and we see those same trees on the north slopes of our mountains. Also the shadows & sun position in some of your pics point to north side.

Good deal on the chink nuts. Good to have there.

Are you going to dig the spring deeper to collect more water in case you need it for trees?? Does it run year-round?? Nice to have handy!!!

Openings and sunlight are gonna be a big plus, IMO.

 

[PatinPA]

I'm guessing that due to the hemlocks & black birch, your land is on the north side of the mountain?? They are both shade-loving trees, and we see those same trees on the north slopes of our mountains. Also the shadows & sun position in some of your pics point to north side.

Good deal on the chink nuts. Good to have there.

Are you going to dig the spring deeper to collect more water in case you need it for trees?? Does it run year-round?? Nice to have handy!!!

Openings and sunlight are gonna be a big plus, IMO.

Yes north side. I'll probably dig the spring deeper. I want to see how it holds water first. I only had 3/4 in. water line to use for the overflow. Probably won't be enough in the spring I suppose.

If it gets really dry in the summer it completely dries up. Probably why the camp stop using it.

 

[PatinPA]

Well I got a few things done. Kept feeling progressively worse all weekend and sure enough, tested positive for covid. What a way to ruin a good long weekend.

Anyway at least got daikon radish, PTT, and some sugar beets seeded and the plots mowed. We didn't get the rain that we were supposed to get but it is raining a bit as I type this.

Nuked the mile-a-minute with a strong mix of Gly. I'm sure I'll have to go clean some up. I've been finding it pop up everywhere now. No idea where it came from.



Bows, here is what the black birch looks like. It's 8-10 feet tall and thick in places. This is a deer trail crossing the driveway. I attempted to block it because it crosses downwind of one of my stands. They just plowed through it anyway.

 

[Troubles Trees]

Looks good Patin, how old is your Chinquapins? I wanted early dropping nuts but hindsight I wish they would put on more growth first, mine look identical to yours in size and this will be the 5th year they have been in the ground.

 

[PatinPA]

I

Looks good Patin, how old is your Chinquapins? I wanted early dropping nuts but hindsight I wish they would put on more growth first, mine look identical to yours in size and this will be the 5th year they have been in the ground.

Mine are about the same. Those and the persimmons were some of my first plantings. Probably been in the ground for 4 years now. I have two that are that size. Most of the others are barely coming out of 4 ft. tubes.