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Bud Capping White Pine

Started by Sauna freak, September 25, 2021, 08:24:24 AM

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Sauna freak

I have a wonderful crop of 1-3 year white pine seedlings going on my property thanks to some bumper seed crops and some of my site alterations finally bearing fruit.  I also have a deer problem.  I've had some success using the brush from glossy buckthorn I'm cutting at will to shelter the seedlings from browsing, but it is not applicable to all situations and definitely not foolproof when the deer get very persistent.

I plan to do some bud capping this year.  I'll not be buying dedicated (expensive) material from a forestry supplier...I'll leave that for the $1000 hammer folks.  Wondering what common material available from the grocer (or wife's pantry) such as wax paper or parchment might be suitable?  What are the aproximate dimensions of the piece to cut and fold over the terminal bud?  I've seen it done in the field, but that was a long time ago.  

Hoping someone has the professional answer, otherwise trial and error it shall be.
Sauna... like spa treatment, but for men

barbender

I've seen Firest Service plantings capped with just newspaper 🤷‍♂️
Too many irons in the fire

beenthere

Did not try to cap my white pine seedlings, but had good success stapling small pop-corn paper bags over the terminal leader of a thousand red oaks. They lasted longer through the winter than I expected, and wish I'd put them on two years earlier before a lot of damage was done (have to remove them when the buds pop in the Spring).



 
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Gary_C

Just go in to your local MN DNR Forestry office and ask your private landowner forester what they use. They may have some available that you can have. At least they can probably show what they use.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

Clark

Go to the dollar store. Find the small booklets of spiral-bound paper, the type you'd see a reporter in a black and white movie using. Buy a stapler that has the handle behind the stapling part, if that makes sense. Finally, go to town on the white pine.

If you have a bumper crop of white pine that came from seed you may not need to bud cap. But if you're going to do it, take two large steps between every tree that gets a cap. It will save you a lot of time and the results will be more than satisfactory.

Clark
SAF Certified Forester

barbender

Bud capping may well have had "concurrent evolution" in different areas, in northern MN the originator of the method was the late Jack Rajala. He was part of the Rajala timber family that was (and still is) active in Itasca County and surrounding areas. The last time I saw Jack we were at a small producer marketing information meeting the U of M had put on, he pulled a stapler and paper out of his inside vest pocket and reminded everyone to bud cap their white pine. That was a guy that loved white pine!
Too many irons in the fire

newoodguy78

This might be a very foolish question.
What does bud capping do for the health of the tree? Just trying to learn 

barbender

It simply keeps browsers (deer mostly) from eating the leader. It is more for the form of the tree for future lumber value, than the health of the tree. If the terminal leader is eaten, then another leader takes over. This gives the tree a characteristic hook, it will grow straight up for a couple feet, then an almost j shaped hook that eventually straightens back out. There are plenty of other things that attack the leader as well, white pine seem very susceptible to having their's killed because a lot of them have that form.
Too many irons in the fire

Sauna freak

Quote from: newoodguy78 on September 25, 2021, 08:17:46 PM
This might be a very foolish question.
What does bud capping do for the health of the tree? Just trying to learn
(Hopefully) keeps the deer from eating the terminal leader.  In my forest, I have a goodly quantity of white pine Bonzai thanks to fast beef and their voracious winter appetite for white pine.  Trying to get mine to the 5' safe zone, ironically to provide better winter cover for whitetail deer and other wildlife.  Also so someone can inherit a glorious stand of mixed pine and other timber long after I'm dead and buried, but that's how forestry works.
Thanks for all the tips.  I thought there was more to the paper selection than that.  Did some additional reading, and even my State Extension service recommends regular office paper.
Sauna... like spa treatment, but for men

barbender

I've found myself reading the newspaper clippings on the Forest Service budcaps. I don't know if that is a benefit, maybe if you were bored in your woods you could find a piece of the sports section from last year to read🤷‍♂️😂
Too many irons in the fire

peakbagger

Out of curiosity would bud capping keep the insects that kill the leaders from turning white pine into a bush?

Tarm

Order at any printing shop. Use medium weight paper. I have two sizes cut, 3.25X5 and 4X6. Use the small caps on small seedlings and the bigger ones on the older trees. You can get a big box full for $20.

SwampDonkey

Up here, it is not the deer, it is the weevils and you would need one tall ladder to keep up with them bugs. They hit the buds in the spring when growth begins so capping isn't going to work anyway. :D Then there is the rust, have to 'lift the crown' by cutting lower live limbs so the disease does not have ample moister and green needles to germinate on. It grows from needles into the stem. Up here white pine is a lost cause. Wait until the moose find them, they will tear up a pine like it is the enemy. :D

It's amazing that some US states have not had a weevil problem, they are warmer than here. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

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