Winning the battle to establish conifers

[BuckSutherland]

I took these photos in my woods between Christmas and New Years. It took until 2020, for me to understand that a weed mat is absolutely mandatory to get instant tree growth. Since then my trees have really taken off. Certain trees MUST be in a cage or they have ZERO chance to survive in my woods. I bud capped about 300 of my most important trees., including caged trees . They are doing great despite going through 3 years of very harsh drought from 2021-2023.

White cedar and white pine thrive in my woods. Spruce are much slower. Firs are finding it nearly impossible to compete with our slimy clay subsoil. Tamarack and hemlock seem to do pretty good. I have over 500 trees that are likely to make massive leaps this year if we can just get decent precipitation. I am gonna have some fantastic bedrooms and travel corridors in a couple years. All of the conifers in these pictures have a weed mat and its made their growth explode.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

They look great!

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Boy, they look good, Buck. You've gotten some really good growth going by the year you planted them. Cages and mats do give them a good start.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Boy, they look good, Buck. You've gotten some really good growth going by the year you planted them. Cages and mats do give them a good start.

I didn't do my first cage until 2019. I used some cardboard around some white pines that year and their growth took off right away. That's when the light bulb went off. My first weed mats weren't installed until 2020. The spruce (mostly black and white) pictured below did not get weed mats until late August 2022. They doubled in size in 2023, and by late summer we were well into extreme drought. I was blown away that they could double in size in one year in those shitty conditions. The power of the weed mat and smothering the competition.....


I will be cutting up some of that crap on the ground and using it to further "mulch" the trees. They have some, but not quite enough. This spot will block N, W, NW winds and leave the sky open to the south for deer bedding along the switchgrass.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

That's a great set-up. I'll bet your deer will make good use of the wind protection once the spruce fill in a bit. I agree with your weed mat thoughts. Early weed and grass competition slow the establishment of any trees - and I think spruce are more vulnerable than maybe deciduous trees are. At least that's been my experience. I've done some of the same plantings at camp (using spruce to block the same winds you mentioned) creating sun-warmed bedding spots on the south sides. We can use more tall grasses for bedding though, something we have too little of. Your switch looks well-established there.

Nice work!

 

[bwoods11]

I cage them all now! It makes a huge difference!

 

[BuckSutherland]

On Sunday, the third week of rifle season ended in MN. This year I spent about 60% of my time exploring public lands. I enjoy different scenery and doing some habitat hunting. It gets old hunting the same stands for me. I really like to find where the deer are hiding during maximum pressure. By the third weekend they are usually on ultra high alert. In our little area the deer like to go nocturnal.


On the final Saturday and Sunday, I went to a new piece about 12 miles from my land that I have been eyeing up. Its a bit of a low, flat, swampy, boggy piece. There are ultra thick pockets in this woods (balsam fir and tag alder). Also mixed in are a few tiny pockets of recent logging. There are a lot of white cedars in this woods and some of it is centuries old and nearly impassable. It was magnificent in there.


I was walking down the highway along the road frontage. A really nice deer trail through the tall grass headed into what looked like really thick young balsam fir woods. I decided to head in and follow the trail a bit. It opened up rather quickly into a small logging pocket. Kicked several does out within 100 yards of the highway. Decided to hook south and found very heavy deer sign. Set up under some old cedars and within 30 mins had a really nice group of does bust me from behind. I was on the ground. Next morning I went back to the same area. Within 15 mins a nice group of does got within 40 yards and had my wind. That old hag conquered me with ease. Big group busted out. 15 mins after that another nice group of does was coming in from another direction. They eventually worked away from me into some really thick stuff.


To make a long story short... I found some REALLY good habitat and it was holding a ton of deer for my area.


The really heavy traveled stuff was full of fresh droppings. It had... copious amounts of young browse very close by, thick horizontal cover (especially the white cedar), excellent grass cover, excellent overhead cover, fantastic young conifer regrowth in the open pockets, wonderful edges, water, and a field of open grass about 1/4 mile away. Some of the best deer cover I have ever seen. Very limited shooting available where they were moving. Its what I would like for my land. South away from the does I found much more buck sign. Can't wait to hunt it from a stand next year. I checked out a couple spots out there and kicked a few more deer out in the afternoon.



Here's a few pics. Deer were mainly moving inside the thick cedar edges. Wasn't much room to shoot if a buck would have been strolling through. The most deer I saw all season was on the last day. That was rewarding.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Also found this cool bear den. It was 45 degrees out on Sunday. I'm guessing he was still out eating. There was a 3-4" depression in the soil. I beat that old white cedar has been dead a long time. I found several other big cedars blown down that looked like awesome bear dens. Some of the trees I saw must be much older than MN. Some of them were ancient.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

^ ^ ^ ^ Perfect for a bear. Your pics remind me of Maine. I've hunted terrain up there that looks like the spots in your pics. Thick is where it's at!!

Your attraction to exploring new areas to see what's out there .... sounds like me over the years. I've covered many miles scouting - and it was all fun! You don't know until you go. Glad you found some new hotspots. Great looking territory!

 

[Brian662]

Cool spots Buck and glad you revived this old thread, lots of good info here. Love to see the progress things have made for you, gives me hope my stuff will do the same.

 

[BuckSutherland]

Cool spots Buck and glad you revived this old thread, lots of good info here. Love to see the progress things have made for you, gives me hope my stuff will do the same.

Here is the same white pine. Made quite the leap in 23 months. Figure it at least double in size. Went from about 5 to 10 feet tall in two years. Some of my 2019 and 2020 white pines are really growing like crazy now. I bent the tree down to slap on a bud cap just in case we get a really big heavy/sloppy snow. Found that one out the hard way.

 

[BuckSutherland]

This pic is taken from about the same spot 23 months apart.

 

[BuckSutherland]

A few additional pictures that I took on Monday while I put bud caps on my caged cedars and white pines. I have a bunch of additional photos from some gov't land down the road that I want to share as well. Its the reason I revived this thread.

 

[bwoods11]

That’s impressive!!