Feeding young specimen trees?

[scgargoyle]

As part of playing around on our property, I have planted a few trees for diversity and because there are certain trees I like that I don't have on the property. So far, I've planted a beech, redbud, red maple (cultivar) and a Norway Spruce. All of them are surviving, but not growing much. Our soil is very poor red clay. Will it help much to feed the trees? I'd like to optimize growth, and give them the best shot at being good-looking trees. I'm old, and don't have time to just wait! :D

[Texas Ranger]

I would hazard a guess a yearly deep watering with water/fertilizer mix would not hurt.

[AfraidChocker]

In Maine the big big paper mills fussed around with fertilizing some of their forest land with urea with good results, but that was when the price of it was very favorable. I seriously doubt any one is getting good results with it now due to the high costs of urea.

I have noticed that there is no way I can keep up with the growth along our fields however; on the down hill sides especially. The question still remains, is all the fertilizer (cow manure and urea) going into the crop ground running down into the forest and getting really good growth, or has over time, the good soil migrated there over a few centuries of farming and that is what is causing phenomenal growth?

[Lnewman]

How big are the trees now?

[AfraidChocker]

One of the interesting things about forests and fertilizer is nitrogen fixation. A forester could explain this better than me, but having done a lot of forests-into-field conversions I have noticed this phenomenon. That is, after forest is cleared into field, without a LOT of fertilizer it is almost impossible to get good yield (tonnage to the acre). That is because of all the woody debris still in the soil. What is happening is, the breakdown of that woody debris robs the soil of nitrogen that cannot be given to the plant (mostly corn in my case). In order to beat that, I must apply a lot of fertilizer to overcome that lack of nitrogen to get any measurable crop.

At least for the first 7 years.

After about 7 years, the woody debris has mostly been consumed and that nitrogen is now fixed in the soil and ready to be absorbed. So after seven years or so, it takes very little fertilizer to get the same yield per acre, and that too lasts about seven years before the soil becomes depleted and higher amounts of fertilizer must be added to get the same results.

It is a unique cycle that you can really work with as a farmer. Knowing that in the first few years of a forest cleared into field, I will need lots of fertilizer, I can sow it into grass and just pasture the marginalized crop with little fertilizer inputs, then in the 7th year; knowing the nitrogen levels will be staggering, I could grow crops requiring high nitrogen like potatoes or corn. For the unaware farmer however, expecting great crops after forest conversion, many are dismayed at the dismal yield.

Now this is just fertilizer. Naturally it takes a lot of lime to get a former forest turned field from acidic soil to neutral soil for optimum growth.

[AfraidChocker]

I just thought about this too.

I have a friend who is working with the Maine Forest Service to introduce blight resistant Chestnut Trees back into the state, and he too uses urea to fertilize his trees.

BTW: When I said I could not keep up with the trees on the edges of my fields, it was in reference to saplings and pole trees that grow up and throw their limbs out into the fields which can bust out tractor windows or encroach on crops. I was in no way implying that these trees grow to marketability that quick.

They do grow quicker then their in-the-woods siblings, but it can be attributed to many things: better soil, sunshine, or fertilized roots from cow manure or urea.

[thecfarm]

On the limbs growing into a field,because they can!!!    ;D I keep up on about a 1000 feet and than another field up in the woods. One year I got back the limbs and gave them to the goats. They like the maple the best. After a few days of doing this they would get all excited to see me coming with the brush.

[Dobie]

I know of people who plant legumes such as clover or alfalfa to help fix nitrogen in the ground around trees.  We do this in our apple orchards and saw a very good results with our young trees.


If you have a rototiller and till in the clover once or twice a year, you should get an extra 200 lbs of nitrogen/acre per till.  The clover will come back up and you just repeat.