White cedars, Techny Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis Techny)

[4wanderingeyes]

I am planting a bunch of white cedars this spring in the woods, knowing the deer will hammer them, so they will be caged. My question is, will there ever be a time when the cages around them can come off? I am planting them for the deer, but I assume whether it is 5 years from now, or 10, when ever I pull the cages off of them, the deer will eat anything they can reach from them. So did I waste money on a bunch of trees, that will need to stay caged, and will actually never have any advantage to the deer?

Right now I am thinking I just spent a bunch of money, and will be planting a very slow growing, and what will become a short term foodplot once the cages come off.

 

[Honker]

Once they get above browse height they will throw seed and those young trees will get browsed creating winter food. I have a lot of white cedar on my place and the deer don't browse them to death. I have a theory that high soil pH (~7.5-8.5) makes white cedar less desirable. That's just my theory. The deciduous trees on my place get hammered.

In a few years if you have a sacrificial tree you want to experiment on, put a bag of lime around it to push the pH obscenely high and see if the deer still aggressively browse it.

 

[BuckSutherland]

I currently have about 36 white cedars caged in my woods that I planted. Planting more this spring. I really have no plans to remove to remove the cage and that's fine. As the cedar grows through the cage I expect the deer to nip and bite the branches. At some point most of the growing will be happening over the top of the cages. I wanna keep the cages in place so they dont get rubbed to death. I hunt some land nearby to my woods that has some old growth mature white cedar. Those areas are bedding magnets. I'm not worried about anything having to do with the cages. They are staying in place....possibly forever. I could always prune them, but cage is staying.


At this point I'm saying the cedars are definitely worth the effort. They have an aroma that the deer go nuts for. I am planning to inject some 19-19-19 fertlizer into the soil about 12-16" from the central leader this spring. I expect mine to grow 1+ foot a year for the first couple years.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Buck, what diameter cages are you using for them? I have cut my 10 feet long, so that should be about 3.3 feet diameter. Leaving the cages on, and letting the deer eat what comes out of the cages was the only thought I had with them. Because if you remove the cages around me, they will eat anything they can reach, and destroy the main truck as well.

 

[BuckSutherland]

I try to cut my 100 foot rolls into 10 equal pieces. My cages are right around 36-38" diameter for most of them. They kinda look perfect for a cedar to grow through, and then eventually up and over. This is one of the two gallon pots I planted last spring. It actually put on a decent amount of growth in year zero with all the water I hauled into the woods for it. Lots of credit goes to the weed mat and the mulch for helping the tree grow. Gonna be on its own this year.

 

[Tree Spud]

I am planting a bunch of white cedars this spring in the woods, knowing the deer will hammer them, so they will be caged. My question is, will there ever be a time when the cages around them can come off? I am planting them for the deer, but I assume whether it is 5 years from now, or 10, when ever I pull the cages off of them, the deer will eat anything they can reach from them. So did I waste money on a bunch of trees, that will need to stay caged, and will actually never have any advantage to the deer?

Right now I am thinking I just spent a bunch of money, and will be planting a very slow growing, and what will become a short term foodplot once the cages come off.

Yes, if you look at mature white cedar, you will see most in deer country where the lower branches are all at ~5". That is because deer have browsed and/or rubbed to that level.

White cedar is very slow growing and you will need the central leader to be strong enough to with stand browsing and rubbing. You will probably need to cage them like an apple tree as the deer will reach over top of cage to browse the tops.

I planted some 3 years ago and some are just starting to reach towards 4' high. I planted mine with Norway spruce on 2 sides so the cedar will create the overhead winter canopy and the norway's will add thermal wind cover.

 

[greekfreak]

I am excited to plant close to 500 trees this spring. Thermal cover from cedars, pines, etc. is almost non-existent in my part of Ohio. 50 white cedars and 450 norway spruce.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I am excited to plant close to 500 trees this spring. Thermal cover from cedars, pines, etc. is almost non-existent in my part of Ohio. 50 white cedars and 450 norway spruce.

I only wish I would have planted them 10 years ago!

 

[BuckSutherland]

I am excited to plant close to 500 trees this spring. Thermal cover from cedars, pines, etc. is almost non-existent in my part of Ohio. 50 white cedars and 450 norway spruce.

Hope you have a bunch of cages...

 

[Tree Spud]

Hope you have a bunch of cages...

Ditto ..... white cedar = deer candy

 

[BuckSutherland]

Two gallon white cedars planted on my land last year look great. Most of them have nice dark green color to them. No signs of disturbance to any of my cages....

 

[OakSeeds]

Don't know if anyone has addressed this issue; but, white cedar don't do very well without lots of sun.
We planted some (with cages) several years ago and when some pretty much got shaded out, they are essentially toast in a few years.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Don't know if anyone has addressed this issue; but, white cedar don't do very well without lots of sun.
We planted some (with cages) several years ago and when some pretty much got shaded out, they are essentially toast in a few years.

My plan is to plant a row on each end of a food plot. A row going north south on the west, and east side of the food plot. So one row will get sun in mid morning until late after noon, the other row will get sun from mid day until evening. I hope this will be enough sun.

I was originally going to plant them in my yard for a visual barrier to a plot, but I didn’t want to attract more deer into my yard, so I figured I would plant them in my food plot and cage them good, blocking the food plot from my yard that is about 100 yards away.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

Also, follow bucks lead and use a smaller diameter mesh cage. Rabbits are also very fond of WC. Think I have 3 out of 25 left.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I bought several 100' rolls of the 2x4 mesh. That should be small enough to keep rabbits out, but rabbits have never been a problem around here yet. Too many wolves and other predators in the area.

 

[OakSeeds]

4we's ... That might be enough for them to fluorish; I threw my comment out as a remark about our experience so anyone contemplating planting WC would be aware of a potential shade issue. Hope they work great for you.

 

[bigboreblr]

Once they're about 6 or 7ft tall you can let them go. If browse is really bad, they'll get beaten hard. If the deer dont get too hungry over the winter by you, the 1st 4ft will be mostly gone. Some new will be there every year and theyll eat most of it.

Dont een try without cages. IF you run out of cage, put the rest in pots on the porch or something. I plant a few of my bareroots in pots, so I can fill in dead spots. The deer walked onto my utility trailer I kept them on and ate them while standing on the trailer in the summer. Every one without a cage got destroyed....

My deer at home have plenty to eat over the winter. Last year the EHD disease came by and killed more deer than it spared..... The deer still ate my red cedar trees. They're 8-15ft tall and just about bare on the 1st 4 feet. Even with daikon raddish they can eat at their feet....... NYSDEC website lists red cedar as starvation food in NY. Seen them nibble them in the summer while im on the front proch drinking my morning coffee.

Cedar's do grow slowly. But, I spread lime and fertilizer, clip out the vines that try to grow in them, plant clover by their feet, and most importantly water them during dry spells. NY gets a week or two that they could use a drink, so its not a horrible ordeal to water my 8 acre spot. 20 apple trees, 50 young spruces, and a thicket of red cedar keeping the pool private from the road.......

 

[BuckSutherland]

Finally got a good look at my woods last weekend. I have been so damn busy with work that I havent had much time to check out all of my plantings. I am VERY HAPPY to report that my white cedars (in cages, with a weed mat) are in EXCELLENT condition.

2020- 10 1 gallon pots
2021- 20 2 gallon pots
2021- 4 road ditch transplants
2022- 12 2 gallon pots

The two gallon pots from 2021 look phenomenal. I think a few of those suckers have doubled in size since I planted them. On my ground survival and drought tolerance has been awesome. I only lost 1 of the transplants. The ones I have planted on higher ground are doing really well. I am getting better growth out of them then most of my fir and spruce trees. Oaks, Pines and white cedar really thrive in my soils. Lots of clay. Most of my cedars have bushed out 4-6" and look well on their way to gaining 10-12" of height. They look really healthy.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I think my ferns are doing better then yours

 

[4wanderingeyes]

The snow knocked my white cedars down flat, I hope they recover!