Elkhair

I planted 75 BRS this last Friday and Saturday on my folks place in the TX Panhandle. Planted 25 plums, 25 mulberry and 25 sawtooths. The avg. rainfall for the area is 22 in. but I planted in a draw which has several seeps and the ground stays moist year round from what I can tell. I used microrhyzal dip and bio-packs to help them get started.

My question is when should I expect these to bud out if they have survived? Also, what should I do in the future to help those which survive? (I did not have time to build any protection for them against deer, etc. The deer have plenty of green stuff to eat right now, though.)

I' m not sure what the soil temperature is although I know the farmers have started planting corn in the same area. Daytime air temps. avg. in the mid to high 70s and night time temps are in the low 50s.

Dan O.

I can only relate to my experience. My trees come from cold storage in dormancy. I plant them into moist soil when the weather is about 50 F. average. They start to show new growth in a couple of weeks as the weather warms.

You need to keep the grass down by multching, cutting or spraying. Use Simazine or Roundup, but don' t get the Roundup on the trees or they' ll die. Some people use a stove pipe to put over the tree and then spray around.

Soap spray or deer repelant may help keep the deer away if they show signs of nibbling. The only other thing that I' d worry about is mouse and vole damage to the trunks of the plum and mulberries. You can paint them with a latex paint-Thiram mixture or install plastic tree guards.

Did you plant mulberries because the deer eat them in your area? Most people don' t know how well they work to draw deer in the spring and summer.

Dan O.