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Wind bread reestablishment

Started by Randy88, March 03, 2012, 09:09:44 AM

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Randy88

I'm getting more confused by asking questions than I knew before I started, I bought the home farm a few years back, the windbreak is beyond its useful life by decades, the old windbreak was black hills spruce, and were planted too close together and then the branches died off, pretty typical back then,  I live along a state highway and have to contend with the salt spray, my property line sits exactly 50 feet from the center line of the highway, my house is also pretty close to the road and I've got limited room to put tree's, some of the grove is gone, some is still there, I don't want to eliminate everything before getting something back, we plan on putting a row behind the existing row and if it survives and gets some growth on it, we'll take the old ones out and grind the stumps out and replant new tree's to replace the old ones then.   I've talked to the state and we have always mowed the ditch in front of my buildings and kept it looking nice, we've tiled the ditch out so we can mow it and the state has given permission to put a row a shrubs on state property to protect the trees from salt spray, something that the nurseries insist I need to have for any of my trees to make it.   We are looking at arborvitae varieties, the dark green's, techney, pyramidal, and some are telling me to plant american variety.   

First off what is the right way to go, how big, I've been told both ways, to plant bigger tree's, to plant small tree's, to not use bare root plantings, to use bare root planting, to use a buffer filter strip of plants to block the salt spray, others say its not going to prevent or protect anything, I've been told use high bush cranberry to do this with, or a dogwood variety, like red dog wood or grey dogwood, or a lilac variety.

I've been told that I need to use wood chips, or mulch, but have no walnut anything in them or it'll kill the tree's off, to not use compost mulch at all, others say its fine.   If so what type of stuff do I use to put around the tree's to help out but not hurt them, one nursery told me they use a certain supplier to provide all their chips, they guarantee it walnut free, I talked to the supplier, I actually knew them and they told me they've never guaranteed anything ever, and yes they have walnut in all their chips.   What can a person use and why?

Is there a difference in all the arborvitae species, one told me to use an "american" variety others say there is no such things its just a cheap version thats nothing more than a ditch grown variety.    I'm trying to put up a privacy hedge and windbreak, that won't take a lifetime to achieve, I was thinking larger tree's, up to six feet and others say the survivability isn't good for large trees and the rerooting takes too long, smaller trees will do better and grow faster than larger planted one's, some tell me I need to get root pruned trees, they grow faster than bare root varieties, some say the tree's need several root pruning to do good others say, its a sales pitch is all.    I'm lost in trying to decipher the sales pitch from the truth, I've talked to several not foresters per say, but give advice on windbreaks and none of them have the same opinion either, now I am confused, who's right?

About 300 linear feet are up against the road, the rest is around the sides of the buildings and we're not putting up the salt spray species on any side but the road, we've been trying to figure out how close to plant them too, I want them to grow together, not only in the row but between the rows, I don't want to have to mow between them, I want a somewhat maintenance free hedge that I can trim around the sidesl.    Any input is welcome, we are talking about 900 feet of total length right now, maybe more in all, if I can get this to work and keep it alive, what is the survivability of different sizes, time of year to plant the, the species that work the best and survive the longest. 

The nurseries want anywhere from 4k up to and above 10k and others say plant bare root varieties and get it done for under 2k and its not so hard to do most of it yourself.   Is the salt spray from the highway as bad as everyone is telling me, one told me that 10 years after his windbreak was established the dot went to the liquid stuff and killed all the trees on his property from the salt, is this exaggeration or truth?  We've grown trees for many generations, and have had no problems anywhere else but around the building site and house, those don't seem to take off and grow like they should for some reason, we've tiled out the yard now and ditch to help eliminate excess water problems and plan to fertilize whatever is needed, but first I need some advice.    As they say, tell me how simple this should be or tough and why?

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