Tree Planting

Who is planning to plant trees this Spring? For those who are, what are you planting? It’s hard to imagine but a lot of the nurseries around here are not only taking orders (but filling up for the Spring Season). If you haven’t ordered but want to plant a large quantity of small trees, check with your local soil conservation district as some still have availability and sell them to landowners at cost.

We plant trees every year, but the deer are hard on ones we can’t protect at the hunting land. This year we are dialing back the number of trees and will be purchasing larger trees and fencing/protecting what we can.

Homestead List:
-x5 6-10′ potted maples
-x15 3-4′ potted norway spruce
-x2 8′ potted willows

Hunting Land List:
-x250 white pines
-x100 red oak

I’m sure I’ll be planting something. My guilty pleasure/toxic trait as they say is adding trees to our property. And the way I view it (or maybe I’m just justifying the money to my wife) is that to even enjoy some trees on the landscape on our property in our life, we’ve got to keep planting now.

Agreed on the tree protection. I’ve said before on here, I’ve probably got well over $300 invested in fencing between our gardens and young trees and I’m sure I’ll be adding to that this year. That can get expensive but it’s a no-brainer to me. Paying money for trees and not protecting them is completely wasting that money because our local deer will destroy them.

Last year we spent about $300 combined between a potted white oak and a potted birch cluster. Don’t know the size but they must’ve been at least 6 feet tall already. Might add another birch cluster this year. These were purchased from Sargents in Red Wing, which from what everyone says seems to be the gold standard as far as plants go around here.

Three years ago we planted two apple trees that have been fenced and are doing quite well. We bought them in May or June from Runnings in Red Wing so by then they were marked down a little and were about $75 apiece. As long as they continue to survive we’ll easily make our money back on them in apples.

And I’ll probably continue my habit of randomly picking up some 2-3 foot potted pines from Menards, Runnings, or Walmart depending on the price. Typically I’ll grab a few when they’re $25-$30 and put them in the ground in the hopes they’ll make it.

I’ve never gotten a large volume of saplings. I’d be interested but not sure I’d have the time to tend to them (mainly watering the first few years) and protecting them.

Planting bare root White Oak and October Glory Maple for hardwoods here and at our place in Missouri. I also ordered 12-18″ Norway Spruce seedlings for the homestead. We have a variety of fir, pine, and spruce but no Norway and I have heard good things. Maybe some Norland Apple too.

You are correct on getting your order in, my deadline was last week.

Dan wrote:

I’m sure I’ll be planting something. My guilty pleasure/toxic trait as they say is adding trees to our property. And the way I view it (or maybe I’m just justifying the money to my wife) is that to even enjoy some trees on the landscape on our property in our life, we’ve got to keep planting now.

Agreed on the tree protection. I’ve said before on here, I’ve probably got well over $300 invested in fencing between our gardens and young trees and I’m sure I’ll be adding to that this year. That can get expensive but it’s a no-brainer to me. Paying money for trees and not protecting them is completely wasting that money because our local deer will destroy them.

Last year we spent about $300 combined between a potted white oak and a potted birch cluster. Don’t know the size but they must’ve been at least 6 feet tall already. Might add another birch cluster this year. These were purchased from Sargents in Red Wing, which from what everyone says seems to be the gold standard as far as plants go around here.

Three years ago we planted two apple trees that have been fenced and are doing quite well. We bought them in May or June from Runnings in Red Wing so by then they were marked down a little and were about $75 apiece. As long as they continue to survive we’ll easily make our money back on them in apples.

And I’ll probably continue my habit of randomly picking up some 2-3 foot potted pines from Menards, Runnings, or Walmart depending on the price. Typically I’ll grab a few when they’re $25-$30 and put them in the ground in the hopes they’ll make it.

I’ve never gotten a large volume of saplings. I’d be interested but not sure I’d have the time to tend to them (mainly watering the first few years) and protecting them.

I’m trying some of the cages off those large water totes this year for trees. I’m hoping they’re light enough to move for some mowing/weed tending but enough of a deterrent to keep deer off some of the more spendy trees we plant. I’ll report back with how well they work. Fencing has done well, but I get sick of tending to weeds and either stepping over fencing or untying it to get at the tree base.

I should give up. I plant trees every year but now that my dads retired he likes cutting trees down. Just bought a bigger saw the other day. Oh yah.

JEREMY wrote:

I should give up. I plant trees every year but now that my dads retired he likes cutting trees down. Just bought a bigger saw the other day. Oh yah.

Iowaboy1 has a hilarious story about that

I’m interested in hearing what all of your watering practices are. I think in the past I’ve probably been guilty of both over-watering and not watering enough. I’ve seen before from the DNR or something that trees that are 1-3 years old need 15-25 gallons of water per week, more if it’s been really dry. I swear I spend half my summer with a hose in 5-gallon buckets, waiting for a dozen of them to fill up, and then driving around in my SxS watering them. I might see if I can find an affordable large tank of some sort to save some time this year.

Just wondering if you all water them often or just let God take care of it, and how you go about doing it.