Thoughts on planting maple seeds in alfalfa

[forgeblast]

look into crp or crep programs, the .gov will cost share you to plant trees. if you do a search in rural living you will see my crp planting.

I would not till it up. What i have/would do is take a backback sprayer of round up and every 15 feet where you want to plant spray a row, then go back the other way. you will end up with a checker board. this keeps the soil from eroding all over the place.
where the lines intersect plant a tree. use tree tubes, bluex are the cheap ones, tubex are the expensive ones....worth it in my opinion. go with the 5' if deer are around.
they also protect against voles. voles will eat the roots of any trees you plant if you do not have the grass around the tubes low/rounded up and have tubes. they can do more damage then the deer.
I planted 150 trees and 70 shrubes in 3 days by having it all planned out(by myself). I also went and pre dug some holes because our area is rocky.
If you have seedlings either tube them, or plant them in a protected area until they get bigger and then transplant.
another trick to reforest a field is to take 50' of 4' chicken wire/fencing. make a big circle and stake it to the ground. nature will grow in there, but the deer will not jump in they dont want to be fenced in. (i saw this done at a local park with a good deal of success).
good luck

 

[Ford850]

It depends on your goal. If you want to grow lumber, then planting in rows and keeping all competitive vegetation down is the way to go. I didn't plan for lumber though. I started my project 5 years ago. Now I add a new 10' strip next to exisiting fence rows each year, about 2500' in length total. The long narrow strips are easy to prepare and plant. I wanted some acres to go back to forest but didn't want to wait for the natural process. By planting seeds that I can get at no cost I have planted several acres and have thousands of trees that are growing fast now. They are growing above the weeds that they have fought for the past several years. It takes about 3 years for them to really get a boost in growth and now many are growing 2 - 3 feet each year. Some of the first trees are over 10' tall now. Most of the trees are the various hardwoods, but there are a lot of poplar, sasafras, apple, etc that are volunteers starting now in the thinner areas. For the first 3 years it looks like there are only a handful of trees that germinated in a strip, and then when they break out of the weeds there are actually hundreds. The deer, rabbits, and turkey love the thick cover. Just as the briars and rose starts to get thick, the trees are growing above that. Overall I am pleased with the results and enjoy adding to it each year.

 

[MossRoad]

I hate to have all my trees in rows, but I think trying to take the easy way out is going to result in poor production. I guess its time to til up more alfalfa and plant some trees.

Thanks for the input guys.

You don't have to plant them in rows. It just depends on what you want. Production timber?
Firewood factory?
Or a forest with no formal rows.

You can take a dibble (a pokey thing to poke holes in the ground) and just plant them where you want them. Just leave enough room so you can take a small tractor, quad, etc... pulling a sprayer in there to side spray them once a year. Or you could use a backpack or tank sprayer, too. It will take more work than planting in rows, but the end result will be what you want. :thumbsup: