I'll be planting a few thousand trees on a few acres [ spruce or pine or a combination] next spring. I would like to keep the weeds down to help them get off to a good start.
The will be planted in fertile sandy loam soil in northwest Wisconsin. Full sun most of the day.
Field has been in corn for a few years, last year was planted to rye. The rye struggled with very dry weather and ended up half weeds. Didn't cut the rye, just sprayed it all with Roundup and it was all nice dead brown from August till it snowed.
I plan to plant with a tree planter in spring.
Is there a way to keep the weeds down the first year and the years after?
Thanks, Al.
Yes. You can spray herbicide to control the herbaceous weeds and grass. If you don't, the weeds will take over, and that will impact your seedling survival. You can band spray over the planting rows with a backpack sprayer. Not too bad a job with just a few acres. As to the proper formulation, ask your local DNR or State Forestry Extension Agent for the best herbicide recommendation. Or, maybe someone here can give you the recipe.
In a pinch, I can give you a recommendation, but it would be better to get a more local prescription.
Al
If you choose to go the spray route you have to be careful to make sure your conifer have hardened off before spraying.
Otherwise you could end up "nuking" some of the trees you are trying to protect.
Aside from spraying there are other options but it depends on the number of trees you've planted and how much manpower you're willing to expend....for small plantations you could try mulch, or something like a piece of roofing paper around each tree to prevent the weeds from invading.
No doubt herbicide is the easiest and quickest to do, just make sure you follow the label directions.
I would think you are way ahead of the game by spraying this fall with Roundup.
Ask the local boys if you could use a pre-emergent over the top to control weeds in the rip. Like WDH I feel a local recipe would be the most accurate for you.
We sprayed cut blocks with Vision (Roundup got a bad rep here but it is the same stuff) from helicopters once the young trees 'closed up' during the summer to conserve moisture. There was a five to six week window from late July until first frost. Once the frost hit, the conifers were vulnerable.
I would also find a single furrow plow and hook a roller on behind. Plow the field with 6 feet between each pass. Those are your planting strips. Plant the trees at the hinge of the sod, not down in the trench (wet) and not on the sod (dry out). That way you have 2-3 years with light grass/weeds around the trees on each side. By spraying those fields you will release the worst bunch of weeds you can imagine. Bed straw and vetch is about the worst. The roller tramps the sod to remove air pockets and keep it from flopping back into the trench.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/11009/SD_Plow_Planting.jpg)
It has worked very well up here and if you need herbicide it is best the spray after trees harden off. In my area it's late August to mid September for softwoods, but check for lamas growth before spraying. Lamas growth is a second flush late in the growing season. You don't want totally weed free around fresh planted seedlings on fields as the hot summer with dry out the plugs and scald the seedlings possibly and the cold wind of winter will possibly dehydrate the needles. Soak the seedlings well before planting and plant after a good soaking rain.
I got the following at a woodland owners conference last winter in Oshkosh WI. I hear Oust works well but is pricey and I think may be a permit required thing to buy.
Since you use a small amount, the recommendation was to mix a stock solution of 1 gal to later be diluted as you add to say a backpack sprayer.
Fill one gallon container with 1/2 water
Add 2 oz Oust XP
Shake container
Add 4 oz ammonia
Shake and watch color change
Add 1 pint of Liberate surfactant
Add remaining water to 1 gallon and shake some more
For release of trees: use 2.5 oz of Oust stock solution per 3 gallons water to a backpack - trees must be dormant like fall or early spring
The rates for stock solution are figured as follows
10 oz stock equals 2 oz per acre
5 oz stock equals 1 oz per acre
2.5 oz equals 0.5 oz per acre
I think the guy presenting this was a distrubutor so keep that in mind. His contact info was Rick Schulte
UAP Timberland
608-770-4041
Another alternative although maybe not quite as effective is to use Simazine. This is what I plan to do this spring after planting white spruce last year. I don't think it kills stuff like roundup but keeps new stuff from germinating
My local co-op did not have Oust and when I tried to see if I could order some the only guy there who worked in that area was very busy with the farmers and we played a lot of phone tag. I too did the roundup thing before planting and by the end of the summer the thistles and other stuff got pretty thick in some areas where I had killed all the grass. The fella where I got my trees said Simazine would work ok, you might give him a call on any questions.
Lodholz North Star Acres
Tomahawk, WI
715-453-2976
We use Oust Xtra for southern yellow pines (loblolly). Oust is a pre-emergence so you either want to get it on bare ground or before your grasses begin to establish for the year. The "Xtra" part is Escort and has post emergence effectiveness. This product goes out at VERY low rates.....about 4 ounces of product per acre in our application. I don't know if it is labelled for your area and species, but it is something worth looking into. If banded by backpack sprayer, it is a very economical and effective treatment.
Wudman
PS. Oust is sensitive to the PH in your water. If your water supply is not approaching neutral, you may need a buffer.
Thank you for all the good replies, more are welcome. I'll print this all out and show it to the a couple local county foresters and a consulting forester for their input.
To answer one question, I plan to plant these with a planter that goes on the three point hitch of my tractor. It a planter the gov't. forestry people loan out.
Sorry to say I have not seen it so I don't know exactly what it is.
Thanks again, much appreciated, tell me more if you wish.
Al.
I found it hard to borrow the state planter as it seemed to be busy when I needed it so...I built my own planter. Reserve your planter well ahead of time...and plan on some rain days.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10125/P2150008.JPG)
Originally it had a pull behind wagon with press wheels that the planter (Kathy) rode. She stuck the trees in the slit and press wheels followed up to close the slit. Worked great on straight rows. I was contour planting on steep ground and the wagon would run over the trees on tight turns so I removed it. The wagon was also to close to the ground for hardwoods. Came back and closed the slit with the tractor front wheels.
I had a better survival rate with the planter than any other method...put something like 12,000 in the ground. The planter found its way to another member in California to reforest that state. :) :)
We have used a tree planter machine with great success here also. For those that were not able to use one, but could get a single furrow plow, had good success as well. I remember one field with hay up to my neck and we used a plow (that was a challenge in that tall stuff), but we had better than 90% survival on the site. It was close to 80 acres on rich, but rocky soil on abandoned pasture land. Great spruce growing ground, would have been great for oak to or maple, or ash and yellow birch. But deer and moose would ruin that thought. ;)
Using a tree planter would be the best. I advise getting the trees in the ground ASAP even if you run out of areas you have prepped (herbicide, plow, whatever) I under estimated how big an area I needed for the several thousand trees getting planted (ok, I underestimated the amount of rocks preventing all those nice rows of trees I wanted along with maybe some bad guesstimates on distance....) and the guy doing most of the hand planting advised to heel the trees in and wait a week or so until the new spots we had Roundup on started to die off. Bad advice. Had 75-80% mortality before the end of the summer on those planted later. I think planting them right away even in the heavy sod probably would have been a better choice and I just would have needed to go back in and spot treat around them.
Yes on old fields get them in early. I like to have mine in before the end of May and I will plant by the 3rd week in April some years. Keep in mind I'm north of most everyone on this forum and we have a short 5 month warm season. I don't plant many trees now, but I've planted a good many in the past. I even plant with some frost pockets still around. I transplanted several spruce on a grassy site this past spring and every hole had frost. Not one tree died and they were from 2 to 3 feet tall trees.
Back 7 years ago I took a small number of wild spruce I shoveled out of one site along the ditch of the road. I took those back into my woodlot and planted them at random on carefully selected sites and not one of those have died yet. A number of years ago the government decided to not subsidize transplanted trees. Their seemed to be a lot of mortality I guess, but probably due to timing and technique and maybe site. I've always had good luck with transplants and I favor them on sites that would cause grief to young tender nursery seedlings. It's real hard work and I wouldn't suggest it for sites requiring more than 200 trees.
I don't know how effective some of my advice will be since most of the work I do is a bit further south of you and I don't work with spruce just the SYP and some hard woods.
READ AND FOLLOW ALL LABLES The rates and what they will cover will be on the lables of the chemical you use.
#1. Be carefull with adding ammonia to a mix going over young seedlings as it will change the PH of your water and depending on the PH of your water now it might do more harm than good.
#2. Escort is very strong and in a release type application I would not go over 1 oz per acre and would lean more towards 1/2 oz per acre. The only time I used 4 oz per acre is in kudzu control.
#3. I use Oust mostly for broad leaf control if you have much grass it won't do much.
#4. If you have had good results with Round-up than you can still use it. All you have to do is use a cone over the seedling and with the back pack you can spray right around the cone. The active ingrediant in Round-up is glyphosate and it is a contact chemical meaning once it makes contact it will not move through the soil to the seedlings. You will also have to check with your local extinsion agent to see if Round-up is labled for forestry in your area. If it is not there are lots of other name brands that use the same type of active ingrediant just look at the % of active ingrediant as they will change from brand to brand and even with in the same brand as some are called 4 pound and others are called 5 pound depending on the amount of active ingrediant and there might be a add surfactant in with the chemical all ready and this will also effect the level of control.
Hope this helps.
Jake