MarinePride

I finally managed to find someone to cut my trees for $2 per ton, mostly pulpwood and a very small amount of sawlogs. Anyway, the guy should be done doing it around April 15 or so and I'm wondering if that is too late for a replanting? I definitely think that replanting is the way to go and I want to put 1000 loblolly/pitch pine hybrids in the ground before it gets too hot and dry for replanting.

I'm looking to plant probably about 300 trees per acre so that the pines have room to grow. The only thing that bothers me is that pines do not benefit the deer and turkeys like hardwoods do. But I have to do something because clearcutting looks like hell[] and they seem to be the easiest to get established and not eaten by deer. My location is slopy, 15 to 60 degree, rolling hills, and the soil is of poor quality, mostly shale. Weikert-Berks is the name the forester called it.

I'm wondering how long it would take me to plant 1000 trees myself? I've seen videos of guys walking around with planting bags and a hand tool and they were just sticking the seedlings into the ground at a fast pace. Any guidance would be appreciated.

I'd also love to know what you think of $2 per ton pulpwood? The paper mill is 27 miles away and I'm just trying to figure out how I'm getting screwed by the logger. I have 39 acres that I'm getting cut.

Criggster

I hav eplanted some trees later than that. But, it all depends upon the weather.The shale you have will be hotter and drier than any other soil. Based on what you are telling us you have poor quality soil to start with and a steep slope. So, you may be wasting your time, money,and energy planting them!You would be better off leaving what you have growing.

As for planting, you will have a tough time in the shale and the slope is steep. So, it will take you a long time to plant 300 trees. I planted some along a goodlevel creek bottom and it took me close tosix hoursto plant half that many trees.

Dan O.

We'll plant at the end of April and into May. It all depends on the moisture of the soil and the temperature. If local nurseries are still supplying bare root trees or plugsit's a good sign that you aren't too late. Ask them, they are the experts in your area.

My wife and I have planted 500-1000 trees a day over the last 6 years we're slow) into old farm field. It all depends on the tree size and type. Plugs just pop in. The larger barerooted trees and the hardwoods (especially Black Walnut) take considerably longer. You have toopen a hole large enough to spread out the roots before you step the dirt back in.

Timbercruiser is the person to ask about your softwood deal.

Dan O.

Schobs

what kind of trees are you having taken out? if its anything like the birch stands we had taken out over the last 4-5 years on our property, you'll have a hard time keeping the natural trees from popping up around your pine trees believe me the new natural growth will shoot up way faster than any pine tree you might plant. your area might be different than mine, but within a year we had popples that were easily 4-5 ft tall, and a couple years later those same trees are the size of a baseball bat. keeping them down is a trick too, we've spent many afternoons cutting shooting lanes through them, and its no treat. you should talk to your forester again, he/she might be able to give you a good plan of action, or save you a bunch of time. I'll agree clear cutting looks terrible, but it is pretty awesome for animal habitat. you may want to consider leaving the new growth alone and letting nature take its course to reseed the area that got cut, who knows, in some years, your grandkids might have the same timber harvested, and do something with the property.

timbercruiser

I would plant more than 300 trees per acre, more like 726, but will defer to the advise that your local state forester can give. I recently had about 103,000 lobs planted by hand. The Mexicans probably averaged about 4,500 trees each per day.

MarinePride

The trees that are being cut right now are mostly Virginia pine and some red oaks. The area was clearcut 50 years ago, by estimates of the forester who took a core sample from one of the trees last summer. Because of the overcrowded regrowth and poor soil the regrowth looked stunted to me for 50 year old trees, but what do I know? I don't know much about trees at all, but now I want to learn all I can.

My land neighbor had his land clearcut about 4 years ago and didn't replant and I'm not impressed with how his area looks now. That's why I want to replant. Also, I'm shocked to walk in areas that had trees and to walk the same area now is just unsettling to me right now. I miss the trees, even though cutting them was the right thing to do for wildlife management.

If I can get some loblolly/pitch pine hybrids, about 1000, I'll be happy to get them into the ground before it gets too hot and dry.

beaverdamva

Here is the Virginia Department of Forestry seedling store. I have a couple thousand generation 2 top 10 loblollies on order. They were supposed to get here last week, but the ground was frozen and they couldn't dig them. They said next week. Buy your trees now you can name your delivery date within their delivery window. IF they still have them that is. I ordered mine in January.

https://secure01.virginiainteractive...65182308246601

I am planting some of my farm fields that probably should never have been cleared in the first place. The recommended density for that is 5-700 trees per acre. You need way more than 1000 trees for 39 acres.

Was the forester you spoke to private or your local DOF forester? Did they draw up a forestry plan for you? The VDOF has cost share programs and they will often replant in cases like yours where you want to improve your timber stand at cost.

If you want to do the work yourself http://www.benmeadows.com/ has the tools you need at good prices. If your land is rocky you might want a planting bar instead of a hodad.

HuntingEd

If your worried about the lob lolly's not doin much for the deer put in something else...

If your looking for a large forrest stand put in white oaks or red oaks... Chestnut oaks if you want something that will yield fast..

If you wanna put in something different try hazelnut bushes...

(all available from VA Forrestry Site)

Im gettin ready to plant 200 White Oaks and Red Oaks in VA tomorrow actually... Its going to be a test plot cause im clear cutting 30 acres sometime before oct, the logger hasnt given me a final date yet...

Anyway next year im gonna re plant so im doing a test to see how well the oaks will survive. But i'm planning on putting in some Chestnut oaks, Persimmons, Hazelnut, Lob Lolly, along w/ White Oaks...

Probablly will concentrate the lob lollys pretty heavily in strategic bedding areas... Thats bout all the pines are good for.

fechmupbud

I hunt adjacent to a clearcut30 - 40acre parcel which (according to backdated aerials) was cut approximately 10 years ago. It may not look nice, but WHOA - does it hold deer. If you have a secure bedding area, an intermediate travel corridor (for setup), and a solid food source - you're gonna smoking through some tags.

As far as the planting, I've never planted loblollies on a forestry type scale, but I had a bioswayle planting job last June that was 4800 2" plugs (grassesand such)in a sandy soil - (hard as a rock though). If I remember my bid, it was 15' across, and something like 2000' long. Anyhoo, I just checked the filing cabinet I had about50 hours into it - mob/demob and all. If you've got quad, or a truck or something you can get back there, you can handle it, but youmight want todoublecheck that density as per beavedam's recommendation.

I showed up at the job with augers, and big drill bits, and spades, and all this crap... to see what was going to work best. You know what I ended up using? A freakin' 10" piece of #4 bar that I tack welded a handle on using another piece of #4 bar - (we have sandy soils though)

As beaverdam said, Benmeadows.com willhave everything you may need to get em in the ground. Let us know how it goes

fechmupbud

I don'tmean tohi-jack your thread MarinePride, but back in school (I think it was Bowman's class ED), we talked about a bunch of forestry methods, one of witch was something like the seed-tree method, where you leave a minor amount of mature trees every few acresso that they make babies... I'm not a forester, is this effective in our applications/is it still in practice. I would also think you could leave big trees in funnels/edges to hunt the new growth if youkeep some open areas or lanes, etc.