Anyone with Tree Farming Experience?

[coog]

Amp,
I've got all the hedge apples you could want.I've got 160 acres, about half woods (should say, would like to get down to half woods) I've got White,Blackjack,Post and Burr Oaks, Hickory, Walnut ,Hedge and lots and lots of Cedar.The Hedge rows are great, but they do spread into places that you don't want them.One, maybe two Cedars are plenty; they are terrible water thieves (one acre Cedar infestation uses 55,000 gallons of water/year)Drive around KS and OK; it should be a prairie, not a hedge/cedar wasteland.I'm not sure how to transplant the Plum.I like it, but it invariably choose the middle of a field to plant itself.Let me know if you'd like to visit (with your spade and some buckets)and we'll set it up.

 

[roger 4400]

If I can help.....2 years ago, I planted 2,100 trees. I had an old clearance that was farmed 40 years ago. I use my finishing mower to Cut everything as low a s I could. Then BY HAND with a showel for each plant I made a hole and put every 2,100 plants in earth taking care to cover all the roots, spread them as well as I could.
600 yellow birch that were 8 in to 12 in high ( most of them survived) spaced them 10ft by 10 ft.
500 Tamaracks or larch, 18 in. to 24 in. high nude roots 7ft apart ( some of those trees are up to 7 feet now and I live in Quebec).
1000 norwegian spruce ( like white spruce but grows 30% faster) were 18 in. tall nude roots 7 ft apart ( over 90 to 95% alive).
So I guess that in less than 2 days you can easily plant 250 plants....but your back might be soared. I did it in 10 days and only had help of my wife 3 days (she works elsewere). Look in the woods around for NATUREL growth of the species you want to plant, the best way to see if they will adapted.
For your infos, I have also a 8 years white spruce plantation, over 800 and they are 7 to 12 feet high.
And on a land I bought a few years ago, +- 3,500 red pines that are use for telephone posts, those are 6 to 10 in,DBH and over 45 ft tall. It,s a very nice project , keep on. ( sorry for the english mistakes, I was raised in French). Roger

 

[roger 4400]

Sorry forgot to tell you.....
Black cherry DO NOT TOLERATE SHADE, they have to be in the open, plant them together, this way other growing faster specie will not cover them....theyre only competition will be from other cherry so equal...
For your hard maple ....no problem they tolerate shade it,s why in Quebec we have some mountains almost pure maple( I have 145 acres of sugar maple forest) they *killed** all the non tolerant to shade trees. But they need a well drained soil, if your soil is badly drained go with red maple, less value but it grows fast and like humid soil.
For walnut.....I,m JEALOUS....they do not grow overhere, too cold ( all my kitchen cabinets are black walnut that I made myself)........Good luck . Roger

 

[davitk]

The snow has finally melted here in southern Wisconsin. Boy, winter was hard on our trees, we have white cedar, white pine, blue spruce, black spruce, quaking aspen, swamp white oak, red oak, silver maple and tamarack, about three thousand, which we have planted over the last four years. Many of the pines and cedars were bent flat to the ground by the snow , putting a 90 degree kink in the trunk (praying they bounce back), while the hardwoods turned into browse for the moles. That of course is my fault, for letting the grass grow up around the trees in order to hide them from the deer, not realizing I had created a perfect habitat for the moles. I am a proud undergraduate of the School of Hard Knocks

So this year, instead of planting more we will be focusing on what we have, and that means lots more spraying, mowing and watering (unless our summer turns out like our winter, in which case everything will likely drown and then we can start from scratch). Here's a pic of my new 300 gallon watering can:

 

[drtydeed]

I have a tree farm in NE PA I've tried fruit trees,don't do well acid in soil, coal regon. I have mostly red oak,Cherry and Hard Maple.The deer are hard on everything. What grows best is evergreen trees. They thrive on acid, seedlings are mostly covered by snow and deer can't feed on them. I plant many different types and they add color to the dead woods in winter.

K2007, where are you located? I'm always looking for suppliers (we do a lot of tree installs). Have any western Green Giants?

PM me if your near nazareth and if you sell to contractors. Thanks

 

[john_bud]

250 trees with two guys and two spuds - about 2-3 hours of work. Putting on tree shelters will be an all day chore.

You will want to get some 5 gal buckets to put the trees into with some water. Put about 30 trees in each bucket and let them suck up water for about 10-60 minutes before planting.

Mow the grass down tight and round it up. Later when the grass sprouts back to 2-3", get a grass killer like Poast or Poast plus (sethoxidim) and spot spray around the trees in a 3' circle. Use tree shelters to keep the deer out. If you do anything with the soil, weeds will sprout and choke the trees out.

By the way, the deer love to rub the shelters, rub the trees, eat the buds etc. I have 200 black walnut bushes that are 10 years old and 3' tall. Would have been trees, but the deer eat the buds about this time of year and they sprout into bushes. Naturally, in the fall the bucks rub the extra branches to death so in spring it's a 2' bush again. Oh, and they only do it after dark so I can't even return the favor and chow on them!

I know for planting 2+3 year old white pine one person can do 1000 trees in a weekend with 2 buckets & 1 shovel. (pass the ibuprofin)

Around here, deer kill more trees than anything else. 250 can be munched to death in an evening by 4-5 deer - no sweat.

jb

 

[AceDeuce]

Thanks for the advice. I only get a 1-2 chances a year to head up North and visit the property so anything I do will have to be fairly self-sustaining, hence all the careful planning. I know some species don't like their feet wet, so I've picked an area that is fairly well drained. The property gets a lot of lake-effect weather so even high spots should get plenty of water, unlike here in VA where everything died last year during the worst drought in decades.

I've been debating about tree spacing... I want the trees to grow straight and natrually prune themselves but I don't want too much competition. All I need room for is a 5' bushog. I've been thinking about 9' equidistant spacing in a "diamond" pattern [vs. a square grid] to maximize acreage utilization. Any thoughts?

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

great thread with lots of good info...

i'm hopint to settle up on this 40 acres...

we've beening thinking of planting some walnut, oak, maple and cherry (all for the kids)

maybe some ginseng, mushrooms and anthing else for us.....

keep the good info coming and post your findings.....

 

[AceDeuce]

I'll post some pictures afterwards.

 

[hayden]

You will need to pick your species carefully. If you are planting in an open field, only shade intollerant species will grow. These are typically refered to a Pioneer species sinc ethey are teh first to take hold in abandoned fields. Once you have an established forest, you can start to grow shade tollerant trees like sugar maple, but that will be 20-40 years from now.

There are two books that I highly recommend. The first is "Common Sense Forestry" by Hans Morsbach. It's very readable with lots of practical advise from a guy who's done just what you are planning to do. Little things like keeping the grass back long enough for the trees to out-grow the grass can prove very difficult.

Another is "Working with your Woodland" by Beattie, Thompson, and Levine. It more scientific and written by professional foresters, but is still very readable.