White cedar (THUJA OCCIDENTALIS) supplier?

4wanderingeyes

5 year old buck +
With the other threads, and nurseries. Does anyone have a good, cheap supply of white cedar? Wisconsin DNR had them cheap, but I waited to long to order them, now they are gone. Anyone have a supplier that wont break the bank?
 
If you were still in MN, Meeker county SWCD will have them for $10 for one gallon pot. I absolutely love these trees. If I find cedar trees where I hunt I find buck sign. I will be up to 50 planted on my land after this spring. Was at 1 two years ago. All of them are caged. Chief river has some bare roots, but they seem small.
 
If you were still in MN, Meeker county SWCD will have them for $10 for one gallon pot. I absolutely love these trees. If I find cedar trees where I hunt I find buck sign. I will be up to 50 planted on my land after this spring. Was at 1 two years ago. All of them are caged. Chief river has some bare roots, but they seem small.


I see there are several different options of White cedar, what do you have, or recommend?
 
I get all my white cedar from SWCD. Year one I plant 10- 1 gallon pots. Last year I moved to 20- 2 gallon pots. I will be doing 20- 2 gallon pots again this year. Really nice trees. Here are the ones I got from last year. Root system on them was massive. Caged, weed mat, deep mulch. They handled the drought as good as anything I have. Planted a bunch in places I'm trying to make as primary bedding.

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I have purchased white and norway spruce bareroots from Lodholz North Star Acres in the past. Pretty sure they have white cedar too. Always got the bigger 2-1 or maybe 2-2 transplants for planting in old pastures vs. the smaller ones for better survival. Most of their evergreens if you order in 250 count bundles you got the 500 tree price which is their best. I bought from them a number of years ago and nice sizes. Have read some recent orders with plug sized trees were very small and some unhappy reports. Dunno, never bought plugs from them. Back when when I bought it was run by father/son foresters. The old fella passed on and now run by son and his wife. But honestly the son is probably in his 50s and has been in the business for decades as well. Just another data point to check.
 
I have not bought anything from these guys but am strongly thinking about it this spring. Mainly for Norway Spruce and Black Hills Spruce. They are located near Cadott east of Eau Claire
https://www.paintcreeknursery.com/white-cedar.aspx


I just ordered Black Hills Spruce, and some White Cedars from them. I figured they were close enough, I will give them a try.
 
I have not bought anything from these guys but am strongly thinking about it this spring. Mainly for Norway Spruce and Black Hills Spruce. They are located near Cadott east of Eau Claire
https://www.paintcreeknursery.com/white-cedar.aspx
I order trees from paint creek every year. Always been happy with them. Never ordered cedar, but I have ordered Norway's, plums, highbush cranberries, and a few of their crabs. Price is very good also.
 
I order trees from paint creek every year. Always been happy with them. Never ordered cedar, but I have ordered Norway's, plums, highbush cranberries, and a few of their crabs. Price is very good also.
I will be ordering this week too. I go down to Cadott once a year to get Maple Syrup supplies too.
 
Steele County SWCD in MN has 24-30" white cedars in 2 gallon pots still available. I just bought 20 of them at $14/tree plus tax. Came out to $15/tree.
 
^^^^That's a great price. Pretty sure they will look exactly like mine in the picture above. Think most of the SWCD trees come from Schumacher's in SW MN. Dont forget to cage them or you will be serving up a $300 meal to a bunch of deer. I was very pleased with my 2 gallon pots from last year.
 
^^^^That's a great price. Pretty sure they will look exactly like mine in the picture above. Think most of the SWCD trees come from Schumacher's in SW MN. Dont forget to cage them or you will be serving up a $300 meal to a bunch of deer. I was very pleased with my 2 gallon pots from last year.
How tall/big will they have to be before you feel safe removing the cages?
 
On white cedars? I think deer will always eat what they can reach. And they will for sure be able to eat faster then the tree can grow, unless you have hundreds of trees that are large enough to grow fast enough to outpace the deer.

White cedar is deer candy.
 
They definitely love to eat them, I just curious how tall the tree needs to be before it can survive the deer browse.
 
How tall/big will they have to be before you feel safe removing the cages?


I dont plan on removing the cages from my white cedars in at least 10 years, if ever. As the trees grow and stretch past the cage I will let the deer prune them. I use 2x4 4foot tall 14 gauge welded wire from tractor supply. I use a 10 foot piece to make my cages.


This is one of the two gallon pots I planted last fall. It put on excellent growth for me last year in its first season. Went through major drought. Its up on top of a hill. I'm trying to make a horseshoe shaped thermal bedding area that blocks N, NW, and NE winds so they can face the south and get sun. Should be a premo spot eventually since I will have about 40-50 conifers here, a few swamp white oaks, red oaks, some crab apples, common wild apple, and plenty of desirable trees to drop around there to create some great browse. Also has water right at the bottom of the hill, and a nice shooting lane to one of my stands. Its a 10 year project, but will be epic someday. Puts the deer in the center of my property with excellent travel corridors and escape routes for them. 1 of 4 bedding areas I have that bucks will need to cruise to find the ladies. Cedar draws the bucks like a magnet in my hood. I wont grow a cedar without a cage.

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Hey Buck, when you plant fur trees, do you add fertilizer when planting? Add any later? Do you use Watersorb when planting them? I have planted many fruit trees, with no issues, hundreds of pine trees that none survived the deer, or first couple years.
 
I have never fertilized a planted conifer. I have never added any type of root stimulant or anything else. If there is deer shit laying next to the hole when I plant I usually kick some of that in, and maybe some leaves and other stuff to make a little additional organic matter. When I plant these potted trees I grab a pail or two of nearby ponded water that is kinda easy to find on my land in the spring and soak it after planting. Then put the mat on, add some mulch and a cage and walk away.


Last year I injected some 19-19-19 fertilizer to my second year burr oaks in tubes. The response was massive. I plan to fertilize ALL of my previously planted trees this year (conifers too). Not sure if I will do the new trees, or give them a year on their own first.
 
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