farm hunter; it's looks like you're doing great and it's really nice that you keep good records. It helps a lot to make things go better, easier and cheaper each year. Things are the same when you're trying to grow trees but on a much longer term scale. You study, ask local experts etc. and then plant. As the years go by you see what works in your area and keep replanting with what works and some new things to keep things interesting. In the end the kids get a nice piece of productive property.

It's strange but the trials can be put down to a couple of rules:

1) the local experts are probvably right 90% of the time. You can gain 30 years of experience in a couple of years.

2) what works for the local experts may not work on your property because of soil, climate, etc.

3) expect that 90% of all new trials will fail. But; when you look on it in the bright side you're pioneering. An example is chestnuts. They need acidic, sandy soil to grow. My planting 100's of seedlings I've got 4 that are growing well (15 years) on near neutral clay loam and they've stood up to chestnut blight as well. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Dan O.