Creating an Oak forest

So today I finally finished this section of the field, right pain in the hole as it's full.of giant boulders that were buried by a digger bout 20 years ago so just under the surface.

I am trying to keep the rows neat as you view them from the main road so I dig a mini drain to dry up one tree site.

So today I finally finished this section of the field, right pain in the hole as it's full.of giant boulders that were buried by a digger bout 20 years ago so just under the surface.

I am trying to keep the rows neat as you view them from the main road so I dig a mini drain to dry up one tree site.

Bought some 100 Scots Pine, 25 European Larch, 50 Alders.

Would like to get 200ish holly as I would like to establish some hedges on land that has very little shelter but holly seems to be hard to get this year.

My hope is to eventually join all the areas I am planting so that a squirrel could literally get to any tree without touching the ground.

Jay Mullaky wrote:Thank you for the nice comments

I have taken another video of the nursery section. The larger trees are approx 12 years old. I will be planting out, hopefully, 400 this winter.

I can’t seem to view the video

Keep up the good work Jay, I'm still following your progress!

I am still alive, still planting

Have finished off another field with mostly Sessile Oak, accident  put some hazel in the wettest spots thinking they were Alder..... not sure how that's gonna work out.

Very good year for apple blossoms.

Last year planted some dog wood, thought it was Alder, seem to be all growing well and nice flowers

Planting season
First 14 oaks in the ground, deer are becoming a problem in the area, no natural predator/ no tradition of hunting/ mild winters = numbers multiply

If you build it they will come. You're planting a deer food plot, if they exist in your region, they will find your buffet.  Aside from the "neat" appearance, is there a reason you've chosen to plant in straight rows? I admit to not going back to read 3 years of posts, so I apologize if you explained this before.

My site is woodland, a mixed hardwood population dominated by oaks, and the water table is high enough to come above the surface at times. Red and white oak both seem to manage quite well, despite the wet nature of the space.

To the extent that I want to reduce the soil saturation levels, my plan is to plant wet loving trees like willow to increase transpiration and pull some of the surplus water out.  People down wind will benefit from increased rainfall ;)

Peter Ellis wrote:  Aside from the "neat" appearance, is there a reason you've chosen to plant in straight rows? I admit to not going back to read 3 years of posts, so I apologize if you explained this before.

The trees are being planted on a sheep farm and I want to be able to move machinery through the fields if I need to. Some fields are also along the main road so I'm
 thinking maybe other farmers who pass might see the rows of trees and think " they aren't really in the way of anything" and might copy me. This form of planting benefits sheep farms and is pretty easy to do.

Jay Mullaky wrote:Last year planted some dog wood, thought it was Alder, seem to be all growing well and nice flowers

those don’t look like dogwood flowers to me. they look exactly like serviceberry/juneberry flowers. did you notice any fruit following them?

greg mosser wrote:

Jay Mullaky wrote:Last year planted some dog wood, thought it was Alder, seem to be all growing well and nice flowers

those don’t look like dogwood flowers to me. they look exactly like serviceberry/juneberry flowers. did you notice any fruit following them?

No fruit on them, pretty sure it's some kind of dogwood, I have made the same mistake with Hazel and Alder as they are pretty similar in winter once the leaves are all off.

Alder is an amazing tree, every farm on the planet will have some wet areas that they avoid, wire it off and plant in Alder

dogwoods themselves frequently make fruit. a flower should lead to something, right?

something to help your researches: most dogwood/cornaceae have 4 bracts on their flowers (the things that look like petals) the ones shown have 5 petals in the style of rosaceae.

After checking it's not dogwood, has different flowers ro the other dogwood

Perfumed cherry
Black cherry
Choke cherry

So from an app these are some possible options, bird cherry was also.on the list but I have a lot of bird cherry and I doubt it's that.

cool. i reckon the fruit will be the clincher when you see it.

Travis Johnson wrote:What amazes me is that a lot of people think that a tree grows from the bottom up, but a tree actually grows from the top...not the bottom. Where I live you can see that because people nailed fences to trees a long time ago. If the tree grew from the bottom up, that fence would be stretched 40 feet in the air, but it is not. It is in the same place at ground level because the tree grew from the top. It is kind of counterintuative until your really think about it.

Unfortnataley that scarring will eventually kill a tree. I run into this in logging. After about 20 years, the trees I bumped while logging years earlier, will eventually kill the tree. I typically get around my woodlot every 20 years or so, so eventually I cull the tree before it rots and is worthless.

Here is an example of what I mean by a "bumper tree". You can see the base of the tree that is circled with red. Just that little bit of scarring will eventually kill that hemlock.

In that case, it is no big deal because that tree is pretty big, and will be removed before it dies from disease, but it does not take much to start the killing process of a tree.

That photo of the wound that will eventually kill the tree concerns me because an exposed root of one of the huge red cedars at my entrance has recently been damaged in a similar way. Anyone know if there is anything I could do to protect / heal the damage? Or is it too late since I noticed this a few weeks ago?

I thought the current thinking was to not seal injuries to trees, but maybe I am wrong about that.

Have been trying  to upload new pics but can't so thread  finished.

Another go.at uploading some pics

A few more pics