Hope to get the following in the ground, staked and tubed, for the lucky guy that will live here in the future. Red buds are for the mrs, and River birch and swamp whites are for some wetter areas 10 river birch #3 5 sycamore #2 10 red bud #5 6 pin oak #2 10 swamp white oak #2 5 silver maple #1
Good for you. I see landowners mowing acres of grass and wonder why they wouldn’t plant trees, at least to save gas $. I understand people like great expanses of striped green, but everyone loves a shade tree in July.
I hope you have better luck than me. About three years ago, I did what you did. I planted indigenous tree saplings I bought from the local government conservation district. They have an annual sale in January, which is great but what I do not condone is them selling non-indigenous species as well. Anyway, hardly any of my trees survived. In my yard, a couple have made it. In my woodlot, I don't think any of them survived except some chestnut saplings that I bought from Walmart that were about 8ft tall when planted. I probably had 90% mortality. I was careful to plant as directed and I even carried water to them by hand when they were newly planted. Lately, I have been thinking of trying again... different species. And... largely not buying saplings but digging up ones growing in the wild. From my land or nearby land where I have permission. I have also been thinking of transplanting or buying some favorite species and some I have none of but are native. Some I would like to plant are Bois d'arc (hedge, osage orange), black locust, white oak, red oak, other oaks, mulberry, sassafras (I like sassafras), native pecan, ash, shagbark hickory. One I will likely never plant again is dogwood. I tried two years and even bought some tall saplings and even those died. Plus, I lost dozens in the wild on my land. I knew they'd be tough going in to it but it wore me out as all died over time. Best of luck, I'll probably try again!
Dogwoods are hard. If they don’t like the location there is nothing you can do. Too much water and they get root rot, not enough and they die. Root rot looks like wilt, so you water more. Not sure of your local, but you can practically plant a Willow Oak upside down and it will survive. Good luck and keep planting. White Oaks don’t need much attention either, but they all need help during a drought.
Funny what you said about Willow Oak! I have some of those in my yard, I like that tree. When I was growing up, I was taught that they are Pin Oak, lol. I carried that all my life until just a few years ago when I figured out that is WRONG. We have "flats" here... areas in the woods that are table top flat and usually in the bottom of a bowl, surrounding terrain being higher... and the flats collect rain water during the winter and flood. Pin oaks, I mean Willow Oaks, are the dominant species. I wonder why Water Oak isn't! Actually, in my upland town (not flats), the Water Oak is the dominant species. They are now all 80-120 years old and staring to die off. All over 30" DBH.
Does anybody have any tips on transplanting saplings or 3-6' tall trees? My property is primarily covered in white pine (I should get a saw mill and start sawing it up), with a little portion of it hardwoods. In this hardwoods area there are a bunch of sapling oaks starting to grow, and even some oaks that are 5-6' tall. One thought is I would try to transplant the oaks to other parts of my property, and even into my yard/lawn. In the pines, I'd like to start thinning the pines and getting the oaks to take over. There are some natural red oaks that are starting to t grow and are already 5-6' tall within the white pines that I need to thin around and get them some better sunlight. So any tips would be great.
You have two ideas there, one being transplanting saplings and the other being thinning the pines. I think the latter is called 'releasing' the oaks. So that they can prosper. You harvest trees around them, out a certain distance so that they don't have as much competition for light and nutrients. You could read up on releasing trees and how far you need to create around your desired tree. As for transplanting, I have wondered the same about the bazillion white oak and red oak seedlings/saplings I have. I wondered if couldn't just dig them and retain as much dirt as possible and transplant. Or, shake all the dirt off and all you have is a naked sapling with naked root system like you get when you buy seedlings. Or, do as we used to do to transplant saplings in a job I had in Colorado way back when. We would dig around an aspen tree up on the mountain such that we would create a big 3 ft ball of dirt around the roots so that we could get burlap around it. We would stretch it tight and push nails into the burlap to form a pin to make it snug. This we were told is called "balling." I have often wanted to go there and see if the trees are still alive, lol, because that was 45 years ago!
Get as much of the root system as possible. Can be difficult with oak because it starts out with a big tap root. Water is the key to a trees survival. There has to be enough to drench the root ball whether it’s containerized or b&b.
Thanks for the tips. I realized my post, my thoughts got ahead of each other. I updated it, to include more information as well. I think you grasped mostly what I was trying to say, so that is good! I will have to do some research on releasing the oaks. That is interesting, and I think frankly, is natural to the forest, as pines die or get blown over by storms, the oaks can take over, transforming the forest into hardwoods. I forgot to mention in my original post, is that I heard from someone local a few years ago, is that when he transplanted trees, he would dig a little on top, and then use a water hose to wash away dirt around the root ball, conserving as many roots as possible.
White oaks are tough to transplant as they have a long tap root that, if cut, or, seemingly, just disturbed, can almost guarantee mortality. The advantage to a long tap root is getting to moist(er) soil. I've been trying to grow white oak seedlings from acorns in pots and that tap root doesn't like being in a container either. Which kinda means they need to be transplanted when just 6 inches tall, which, unfortunately, the deer find and enjoy. :-( Last Spring, I was pulling Winter weeds out of my garden and I noticed a couple I was yanking and tossing had what looked like half a walnut. Sure enough, squirrels must have planted them. So I have 6 almost one year old highly valuable black walnut trees in pots (all the deep pots I had or there would be more). Not sure where I'll be planting them as near gardens is not recommended. Tree transplants are tough, especially those from a big box store as they often have lost more than half their root system and are usually extremely desiccated and near death. Often they need to be treated like bare-root plants. Despite being in a hole in the ground, they need to be treated and watered as if they are still in pots, often for over a year, with many being neglected and subsequently drying up over Winter. When I transplant something I tend to make a little ring/hill around the plant to contain the water so it doesn't run off before it has a chance to sink in and often also make a little trench with the point of the shovel/trowel just inside that ring to hold even more water. A mini-pond of sorts, because if the water drains away before it has a chance to sink in the target is missed, sometimes completely. I find watering weeds rather a waste of time and resources.
There are also nurseries that sell bundles of bare root native trees. You have to get them planted before the roots dry out, so you have to consider that before buying 1,000.
Well folks, I see that this thread has grown, which I will read with interest later, but I’m pooped. They are all in, with rain expected at 10pm tonight Here are a few pics
So here is some more detail from my little project. Yes the tubes let’s light through and keep deer off them. I got a great deal on 200 oak stakes, and then zip tie the tube to the stake. I have planted bare root swamp white oak, especially in wet areas I have. About 80% lived. A friend of mine has a small nursery where he does about 3000 trees a year, sort of a side gig. His strategy, which I liked and have adopted is he gets native seedlings. Unlike many nurseries, and especially big box stores, where they might come for warmer climates and then don’t do well here in pa. He pots them and grows them one to three years. So they came to me in 1, 2, or 3 gallon pots. He has found this method gets a much higher survival rate. So I’ll let you know how they do! I have planted about 100 trees, 50 bare root, and 50 this way.
And one other thing on tubes, they sort of have perforated seam so after they get big enough that a buck rub wouldn’t kill them, you can just run a pocket knife down the seam to remove them, or sometimes the tree will grow and pop that seam itself.
nice job man i kinda have had the same thoughts for like the past 4 to 5 yrs i seem to have had descent luck when planting trees the first 2 i did were a red maple and golden plum from wally world i watched the local weather ppl they said it was goin to be fine that weekend and for awhile after .... i planted them then bam 2 days later 9 inches of snow in mid april but luckilyvthey turned out ok then the 2 yrs later got 2 hardy pecan trees i believe theyre called got em from tractor supply prob shouldnt have got em cause tjey kinda lookex like someone broke 2 twigs then threw em in dirt and what really killed em was accidentally bein run over by neighbors ridin mower then planted a pin oak turned out ok then in spring of thie yr planted 3 pure amer chestnuts and subsewuently they doin awesom and orderd another 3 for me to plant id also like to plant osage orange when i get the chance 2
