Looking for a weed barrier to plant long rows of trees

[nmu98]

I have been pretty successful this year at getting cuttings from our poplar trees to grow. The biggest problem has been weeding the trees. This year I put in about 1200 feet of trees and I marked them with PVC pipe so I could till right up to them. The weeds have started to take over the rows and when I pull them out, sometimes a tress will come with them. i also know the weeds are killing or slowing the growth of many trees.

So, next year, I plan to put a poplar row around 2 of our fields. I have been thinking of using a paper type felt mat that you can buy at the stores made as a weed barrier. This would allow me to till the area and put this down then poke a very small hole in the mat to put in the twig. I would hope that would keep out 99 percent of the weeds. I have no clue if that would scorch the trees since its black and would be a heat attractant?

Also, the price on getting 1200 feet of that stuff is crazy. So I am looking for ideas. It would be nice if this stuff would biodegrade over time. Anyone ever done this or have any ideas on a cheaper way of going about this?

 

[forgeblast]

Around my crep plantings i just use roundup. spray a row and then when the veg dies you can plant in there. I have only sprayed once this year and the weeks have been kept in check.

 

[Jim Thompson]

Try using old newspapers. They're cheap, easy to acquire, help to retain moisture and are biodegradable. Work well in vegetable gardens too.

Jim

 

[JCB]

nmu,

I tried landscape fabric on about 100 hazelnut seedlings I planted in an alfalfa field earlier this year. I used a better, commercial-quality product and cut a 100' x 4' sheet into 2' squares. I planted the seedlings in the middle of the 2' squares and placed a medium layer of mulch over everything to hold the fabric down.

So far it has worked fairly well, but not perfectly. The plan was to control weeds and give me a clear foot on each side of the seedling so I could mow without being overly cautious. That works good. However, weeds still make their way in right next to the seedlings and I have had to pull weeds a couple times this year already. Pulling weeds has not been a big deal and the process has been fairly fast because we're only talking a couple weeds, every other plant.

Using the fabric is fairly expensive. The fabric has reduced weed control from somewhat of a battle to more of an annoyance. I don't yet know if the fabric will perform well through a second season. It worked well enough in year one that I will be using it on anything/everything I plant this fall.

Joe

 

[nmu98]

Around my crep plantings i just use roundup. spray a row and then when the veg dies you can plant in there. I have only sprayed once this year and the weeks have been kept in check.

That is what I did this year and I cannot keep up. The biggest issue is that the seedling is so small (a twig) that I cannot see it well enough to spray in the spring.

Try using old newspapers. They're cheap, easy to acquire, help to retain moisture and are biodegradable. Work well in vegetable gardens too.

Jim

I have access to a ton of paper where I work, but 1200' feet of it is alot! If I am going through the work of putting it down, I need it to work, and I am not confident that paper will stop weeds long term. One good rain and a few rips later and I have problems.

nmu,

I tried landscape fabric on about 100 hazelnut seedlings I planted in an alfalfa field earlier this year. I used a better, commercial-quality product and cut a 100' x 4' sheet into 2' squares. I planted the seedlings in the middle of the 2' squares and placed a medium layer of mulch over everything to hold the fabric down.

So far it has worked fairly well, but not perfectly. The plan was to control weeds and give me a clear foot on each side of the seedling so I could mow without being overly cautious. That works good. However, weeds still make their way in right next to the seedlings and I have had to pull weeds a couple times this year already. Pulling weeds has not been a big deal and the process has been fairly fast because we're only talking a couple weeds, every other plant.

Using the fabric is fairly expensive. The fabric has reduced weed control from somewhat of a battle to more of an annoyance. I don't yet know if the fabric will perform well through a second season. It worked well enough in year one that I will be using it on anything/everything I plant this fall.

Joe

Could you share with me what projuct you purchased and how much it was? A few weeds around the tree would be fairly easy. 1200' of mulch would be bad I plan on putting dirt on the edges and a little on top in clumps. Maybe a few bales of hay if I find some extra.

 

[MMagis]

My thought is something like this, the peat pots.
Novosel Enterprises - Jiffy Peat Pots & Jiffy 7 Peat Pellets
Turned upside down with a slit from top to bottom. Place around tree like you would insulating foam around a pipe. A plastic drinking cup would be a lot cheaper, but these are biodegradable. There are a lot of different sizes, depending on how much room around the tree you want, and how much you want to pay. I’ve tried the landscaping fabric and it didn’t work well for me. It’s very time consuming, and if you don’t stake every bit of it down the grass just pushes it up.

 

[Jim Thompson]

"I have access to a ton of paper where I work, but 1200' feet of it is a lot! If I am going through the work of putting it down, I need it to work, and I am not confident that paper will stop weeds long term. One good rain and a few rips later and I have problems."


I don't know that anything other than heavy black plastic would work 100%. The newspaper, when used in multiple layers is pretty resilient, but one could reasonably expect it to last only one growing season. I've tried the landscaping fabric with not much success around shrubs on small scale. It's been awhile and there may well be much better products available now.

 

[JCB]

nmu,

The stuff I used was off the shelf, sold by the foot at the local garden center. They had several rolls of the stuff. The cheap stuff looked like a cheap black tarp, and was around $0.70/ft from a 4' wide roll. The better stuff was around $1.40/ft from a 4' wide roll. The better stuff was significantly heavier quality and has distinct top and bottom surfaces. Using the better quality stuff, my cost per tree is around $1.50.

Even though I have good access to mulch, I did not put it everywhere. I only put mulch around the seedling to hold the fabric down.

The attachment show the current results. I've weeded the seedlings once or twice and mowed as normal. So far I'm pretty happy with the results. The trees are doing fine and I haven't ran over any seedlings with the mower yet.

 

[vsumoski]

nmu,

Would any of these work?

Rain-Flo Irrigation - Varieties of Plastic Mulch

BTW got word today that my 4520 is 'frozen' Aug. 18th.

Vince

 

[nmu98]

My thought is something like this, the peat pots.
Novosel Enterprises - Jiffy Peat Pots & Jiffy 7 Peat Pellets
Turned upside down with a slit from top to bottom. Place around tree like you would insulating foam around a pipe. A plastic drinking cup would be a lot cheaper, but these are biodegradable. There are a lot of different sizes, depending on how much room around the tree you want, and how much you want to pay. I致e tried the landscaping fabric and it didn稚 work well for me. It痴 very time consuming, and if you don稚 stake every bit of it down the grass just pushes it up.

Thats a great idea. The issue with poplar cuttings is that they need sun. If the weeds grow over the top of them, they stop growing. So I would need a 2 foot pot. On a different note; I use those exact pots to grow our maples for the nursury. Great pots.

nmu,

The stuff I used was off the shelf, sold by the foot at the local garden center. They had several rolls of the stuff. The cheap stuff looked like a cheap black tarp, and was around $0.70/ft from a 4' wide roll. The better stuff was around $1.40/ft from a 4' wide roll. The better stuff was significantly heavier quality and has distinct top and bottom surfaces. Using the better quality stuff, my cost per tree is around $1.50.

Even though I have good access to mulch, I did not put it everywhere. I only put mulch around the seedling to hold the fabric down.

The attachment show the current results. I've weeded the seedlings once or twice and mowed as normal. So far I'm pretty happy with the results. The trees are doing fine and I haven't ran over any seedlings with the mower yet.

Looks good. I need to run this stuff in one solid piece and just poke some small holes for the cuttings. Your stuff looks to be working! We can get free wood chips from the Township, but the labor of putting them on the fabric for 1200 feet would start adding up.... I just do not have much money to work with on this project as it does very little for production.

nmu,

Would any of these work?

Rain-Flo Irrigation - Varieties of Plastic Mulch

BTW got word today that my 4520 is 'frozen' Aug. 18th.

Vince

Frozen? I think mine started out to be delivered August 11th and last I talked to the guys (July 24th) they said the delivery date was August 20th. I am glad I still have the 3720 til it comes in! I did see my 400cx while I was there.....

 

[clemsonfor]

Last year i bought the fabric and used it for my vegtable garden, ran it then poked holes in it to plant, weed free mostly. I used about the midgrad from walmart, lowes is the same i just saved a buck or two and went to walmart. The thing is that it is not supposed to be exposed to sun as this causes more rapid deterioration, so you would need to have it covered in a thin layer of mulch if this is for more than say 2 years. My garden fabric stayed out all year till i started the garden this year exposed, it was still basically intact this spring and i reused some of it that did not tear when i removed it. 2years and it prolly would let weeds through easy if not covered from sun.

Use a trafic cone to cover trees and spray with a glyphasate. The cone goes over the tree and then its sprayed around.

 

[LBrown59]

Ya see the pine trees in the upper right corner of this picture.
There are the six of the 15 or sixteen that survied that i carried up there in my pockets and planted in 1974 when i was working for the Wayne Nation Forest.
One of the Free fring benfits of working there was free tree seedlings.
There was nothing but an empty hay field joining my land at that time .
I couldn't keep up with the keeping weeds from squeezing them out so gave up on that so the weeds took over and crowed all the other ones I'd planted out.
Today three is a 7 house subdivision in that former hay field that was built 20 or 25 years ago
Knowing what I know now I wish these 6 had not survived either.
Notice the buildings behind the pine trees. The buildings are in the subdivision .
Limbs are regulary falling on the subdivision and have to be trimed back away from the buildings.
To hire some one to remove these 6 big trees would be quite expensive.
To think I could have avoided this headache and expense simply by never planting them in the first place.
This is the second time I've found out that free can be one of the most expensive thing you can own.

 

[nmu98]

This probably sounds odd, but I am thinking of burying a wheat straw bale about 1/2 way into the ground and placing the cutting inside the bale. We have pretty heavy ground in this area and I think the spring rains will keep it wet enough to get the tree started.

The wheat should be full of nitrogen and compost well leaving me a weed free area for a few years, maybe.:laughing:

I have read about wheat straw gardens, but never used like this.

Any thoughts?

I can bale our wheat fields now for about $.65 per bale if I do not break anything...

 

[1bush2hog]

I picked up some of the weed block fabric 2'X2' squares from a forestry supply house several years ago and used them when I set out 1000+ seedlings. The squares had an X cut in the middle and used 4 L shaped pins to hold down the corners

These lasted about 3-4 years, and kept the weeds out and allowed moisture thru. They were not too cheap, and did require some additional labor (appx. 1 min per seedling), but I will use them again when I set out more seedlings this winter, as they did a great job of keeping grass and weeds down around the trees. I did occasionally have to pull a few strands of grass or weeds that managed to make it thru the X, but not on many trees at all.