Tree planting?

I was curious what some of the experts can tell me about planting some (hundreds) of trees? The main goal is to prevent road hunters from being able to shoot/shine our fields. I planted a thousand white spruce last year to try and separate a large field and failed I was wondering what types of trees would have the best chance to survive, provide a thick heavy tree line within ten years (preferably sooner) and hopefully not be favorable food for browsing? Any tips to help with planting is also greatly appreciated thanks for any help!

I would go with a double row if you can. A row of popple to make a quick screen and a row of white spruce for permanent cover. What made your last planting unsucessful?

Over the course of the last six years I’ve planted nearly a 100,000 trees at work and at home and what kills the most of them has been grass that out competes the young seedlings. I use a bucket attached to a handle to cover my trees and spray glyphosate around them at least once a season to keep competition down. Once they reach their 3rd year they should be able to make it on their own. If you are having trouble with deer damage, red cedar, popple, tag alder can all typically overcome deer damage.

Another thought would be to plant a tall annual along the road for blocking the sight line until you can establish trees. Sorghum or corn would work well for keeping the roadhunters at bay.

My dad utilizes the NRCS office back home. They seem to have a great handle on the types of trees for that region. We are doing the same thing this year, even though Dad is calling it a snow fence for the road.

Long term we plan to line the outside of this whole 100 acres.

Nrcs? Last year my sprayer broke after the tenth tree and within 2 weeks I could barely find any of the trees thanks for the replies! There are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done that I want to

NRCS sells trees to landowners. I have gotten thousands of trees from them. When planting them make sure the roots never dry out. Depending on where I plant them and what the weather is like I will give them a shot of water. It is definatly a lot of work but if you want a treeline in ten years you are going to have to take care of them. Any spruce tree is going to probably take longer than that, so like what was said above you could plant a poplar since they grow mush faster. Keep in mind they don’t last forever.

I would invest in small flags to mark every tree or every other tree….it pays dividends in finding them during summer growth and especially in the spring when surrounding vegetation lays flat and usually covers up your small seedling. I use what I call a poor mans backpack sprayer, I just buy the 10$ pump sprayer from walmart and then put it in a backpack….you can buy two and then you always have a reserve if you need it.

Good info guys I think the key to my success will be to only plant what I can plant well year by year instead of trying to do it all at once thanks again, just have to force myself to remember that good things take time

Todders, MY cabin is very close to yours. What I have been doing is just going out into the woods next to my cabin very early in the spring and digging some of the conifers that are growing wild. I use my gas earth auger and dig holes and plant them bare root. these trees will grow 1-2′ per year when brought out into the open.

AWSOME idea Bob forest relocation!! I can atest that there are plenty of trees that would work great for that out there!!

FYI – Keep the grass/weed growth kept down for the first 3 or more years to allow increased side-light. They’ll grow much faster

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FYI – Keep the grass/weed growth kept down for the first 3 or more years to allow increased side-light. They’ll grow much faster

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Randy –

Simply by mowing, or another method? If there are multiple thousands of trees, I can see where individual “bucket spraying” would be time consuming. I know Poast is available, but from what I have seen it is EXPENSIVE from what I recall. Any other chemicals that work to kill grass and/or weeds, but not the trees?

(Also, just to be clear, Poast will NOT kill the trees with direct spraying… Correct?)

Thanks!

For the large scale stuff, we do a fall spraying OR a early spring spray with oust or XP7. Its exspensive (about $80.00 for I think 6oz of granuals) But it goes a long ways. Dilutes at about 1/2 oz per 20 gallons and applied at 20 gals/acre. Yes, Oust does not harm the tree

For the small scale stuff, we just run the riding mower along side each row to keep the grass down and the brush hog to keep the rows clear.

Try using AUS trees. I got 3 a few years ago and they are huge. I know a lot of people use them to establish shelter belts. These are very fast growing trees and should last at least 10 years until all of your others are established. PM me if you have questions on these. I have started growing a few for my folks to help one of there shelter belts.