BuckSutherland
5 year old buck +
And a LONG battle it has been...
Bought our property in 2012, after it was select cut and lost in foreclosure (mostly mature red oak). For the next 6 years we attempted to plant conifers to thicken the woods up cause we had very few. Mostly small plugs 4, 6 and 10s. We planted thousands of little plugs cause we were gonna overwhelm the woods with numbers. What a colossal waste of time and money that ended up being. All of those little plug were either swallowed up by the canopy or grazed off by the deer for little snacks. Hardly one of them survived in 6 years out of 1000s.
Fast forward to spring of 2019. I started buying the biggest plugs I could get from Itasca greenhouse and planting with a shovel. Trees did great in 2019, especially the ones that I laid some cardboard around the trees and killed the grass. Protecting them with cages sealed the deal. By spring of 2020 I realized the only way to properly grow a tree and see some results is to start with a decent sized plug or bareroot, install a 4x4 weed mat to kill the grass, and protect it if its a tree the deer like to browse (norways/ white pines). My results from the last two years have been IMPRESSIVE!!!
The stem diameter on a bunch of my norways increased dramatically this summer even with the complete lack of rain we had for most of the summer. The white pines I planted in May of 2019, have grown on average at least 2 feet already, and with decent rain will be over the top of the 4 foot cages by the end of next summer. I fully expect them to be 10-12 feet tall within 5 years. I expect no less then 200 young conifers will leap 18-24" with average rainfall in 2021. Its gonna be a game changer for my land. I give a lot of credit to installing some type of weed mat to kill the competition and let the tree roots establish. I have been using Dewit 5 oz stuff. It comes in 4x300' roll. Worth every damn penny. And of course if you plant a browse tree like a white pine or norway spruce you better give it some protection when its tender and young. A bunch of my norways will be hardened off enough by next year that I will be able to remove the cages and protect some of the new stuff I am planting.
Dont be a fool and waste time with these tiny plugs cause your too lazy to plant with a shovel. Worst damn advice I have ever seen. Instead of planting 500 small plugs 8 years ago we would have been 100 times better off planting 20 trees and taking care of them. Hopefully I can save some of you some time. Deer will likely just pull a bunch of those tiny plugs out for you in the first few days anyways.
Bought our property in 2012, after it was select cut and lost in foreclosure (mostly mature red oak). For the next 6 years we attempted to plant conifers to thicken the woods up cause we had very few. Mostly small plugs 4, 6 and 10s. We planted thousands of little plugs cause we were gonna overwhelm the woods with numbers. What a colossal waste of time and money that ended up being. All of those little plug were either swallowed up by the canopy or grazed off by the deer for little snacks. Hardly one of them survived in 6 years out of 1000s.
Fast forward to spring of 2019. I started buying the biggest plugs I could get from Itasca greenhouse and planting with a shovel. Trees did great in 2019, especially the ones that I laid some cardboard around the trees and killed the grass. Protecting them with cages sealed the deal. By spring of 2020 I realized the only way to properly grow a tree and see some results is to start with a decent sized plug or bareroot, install a 4x4 weed mat to kill the grass, and protect it if its a tree the deer like to browse (norways/ white pines). My results from the last two years have been IMPRESSIVE!!!
The stem diameter on a bunch of my norways increased dramatically this summer even with the complete lack of rain we had for most of the summer. The white pines I planted in May of 2019, have grown on average at least 2 feet already, and with decent rain will be over the top of the 4 foot cages by the end of next summer. I fully expect them to be 10-12 feet tall within 5 years. I expect no less then 200 young conifers will leap 18-24" with average rainfall in 2021. Its gonna be a game changer for my land. I give a lot of credit to installing some type of weed mat to kill the competition and let the tree roots establish. I have been using Dewit 5 oz stuff. It comes in 4x300' roll. Worth every damn penny. And of course if you plant a browse tree like a white pine or norway spruce you better give it some protection when its tender and young. A bunch of my norways will be hardened off enough by next year that I will be able to remove the cages and protect some of the new stuff I am planting.
Dont be a fool and waste time with these tiny plugs cause your too lazy to plant with a shovel. Worst damn advice I have ever seen. Instead of planting 500 small plugs 8 years ago we would have been 100 times better off planting 20 trees and taking care of them. Hopefully I can save some of you some time. Deer will likely just pull a bunch of those tiny plugs out for you in the first few days anyways.