Planting Trees and Brush species

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neloms
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Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby neloms » Fri Dec 21, 2018 6:31 pm

I have owned a nice little 5 acre parcel for the past 2 years, and it seems to hold a couple nice buck beds consistently since I give it very little pressure. it butts up to 20 acres I share with family. Since I bought it and the guy who owned it before is gone , our hunting has improved dramatically. When I bought it I hinge cut a bunch of poplars all along the southern end of it and it seems like bucks are bedding in that spot. Anyways I wanted to do a little more improvement this year. The east end of it has about a 1 acre open marsh that butts up to where the bucks go into bedding. I was thinking of planting a bunch of dogwood to create even more of a screen for the deer bedding just inside from the marsh,and planting a bunch of maple seedlings to the north since it opens into more of an open hardwoods.

I know that deer love to browse on seedlings and young shoots. Would I be wasting my time and money doing this? Also should I cage off or fence an area? Or wait for a certain time of year to plant?

Thanks in advance.


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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby treeroot » Sat Dec 22, 2018 5:26 am

I'm not sure of your area what will grow. If I'm going to plant any trees they will be pear trees. I have one at the end of my driveway I have to chase deer off. The pears drop from the end of September to a week ago. Unlike my apple trees that sometimes don't fruit, this thing every year has pears.
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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby MN_DeerHunter » Sat Dec 22, 2018 7:04 am

Deer will hammer the new dogwood growth. You have to cage them or plant an overwhelming amount of shrubs in my opinion. The ones I did I planted in the Spring as soon as the ground was soft enough to dig, I caged the new plants for 2-3 seasons and now they can handle the browse. When I planted them they were bare root 2-3' long. I also planted 2-3 bare root plants in the same hole and they really took off in a hurry.
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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby MN_DeerHunter » Sat Dec 22, 2018 7:45 am

Another thing I just thought of. If you are planting the dogwood in or near a marsh you may be dealing with some sort of marsh grass or reed canarygrass. You may need to spray the areas that you intend to plant so that the tall grasses don't shade out the new shrubs. You could use clethodim which is a grass selective herbicide, but be mindful of laws regarding spraying herbicides near wetlands.
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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby neloms » Mon Dec 24, 2018 4:55 am

MN Hunter, thanks. yes it is a little open marsh. There is some reed canary grass in part of it, and some other marsh type grasses and a little brush throughout. I was looking to plant 100-300 dogwood seedlings, I am guessing maybe snow fence off a section then for a couple seasons? The area with the canary grass is a small spot in the middle of the marsh where the prior landowner tried a food plot about 10 years ago, but it was too wet and died off. the canary grass took that spot over.
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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby Double Draw » Fri May 10, 2019 4:03 pm

Depending on your ground I would suggest putting in some hazelnuts, persimmon trees, pawpaws, and any kind of brambles like blackberries or raspberries. I wouldn't put them too close to the bedding area. Otherwise your dear don't have to make much movement during the daylight hours to feed.
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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby MN_DeerHunter » Fri May 10, 2019 11:59 pm

neloms wrote:MN Hunter, thanks. yes it is a little open marsh. There is some reed canary grass in part of it, and some other marsh type grasses and a little brush throughout. I was looking to plant 100-300 dogwood seedlings, I am guessing maybe snow fence off a section then for a couple seasons? The area with the canary grass is a small spot in the middle of the marsh where the prior landowner tried a food plot about 10 years ago, but it was too wet and died off. the canary grass took that spot over.


Whatever you plant you’ll want to cage for sure. My preferred cage for dogwood seedlings is made of 4’ welded wire cut at about 18” diameter. For stakes I buy 10’ 3/8” thick rebar rods and cut in half and then paint the top 5-6” orange. You can get the stuff pretty cheap at Menards.

Dogwood will fill up the cage pretty quick but that’s ok because it’s offering a lot of protection from deer while still offering a good amount of room to grow upwards which is the goal. I usually plant two bare root plants in the same hole to get it to fill in quicker.

Things that should grow well in that area are red dogwood, speckled alder, and any type of willow. This year I planted 100 dogwood, 50 alders, and 200 ish sandbar willow (cuttings). Surprisingly the sandbar willow cuttings have had almost 100% success rate budding out. Super easy to plant a ton of them with cuttings and free if you find the right landowner to get them from. You could plant a handful of black willows as well if you want some larger trees.
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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby MN_DeerHunter » Sat May 11, 2019 12:09 am

neloms wrote:MN Hunter, thanks. yes it is a little open marsh. There is some reed canary grass in part of it, and some other marsh type grasses and a little brush throughout. I was looking to plant 100-300 dogwood seedlings, I am guessing maybe snow fence off a section then for a couple seasons? The area with the canary grass is a small spot in the middle of the marsh where the prior landowner tried a food plot about 10 years ago, but it was too wet and died off. the canary grass took that spot over.


I don’t think it’s a waste of time at all, for me when I’m planting it never feels like work - I take it you might be the same way.

Whatever you plant you’ll want to cage for sure. My preferred cage for dogwood seedlings is made of 4’ welded wire cut at about 18” diameter. For stakes I buy 10’ 3/8” thick rebar rods and cut in half and then paint the top 5-6” orange. You don’t even need zip ties, just weave the rebar through the cage. For that many seedlings you may want to use 4’ chicken wire instead to save a little money. You can get the stuff pretty cheap at Menards.

Dogwood will fill up the cage pretty quick but that’s ok because it’s offering a lot of protection from deer while still giving a good amount of room to grow upwards which is the goal.

Things that should grow well in that area are red dogwood, speckled alder, and any type of willow. This year I planted 100 dogwood, 50 alders, and 200 ish sandbar willow (cuttings). Surprisingly the sandbar willow cuttings have had almost 100% success rate budding out. Super easy to plant a ton of them with cuttings and free if you find the right landowner to get them from. You could plant a handful of black willows as well if you want some larger trees.
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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby MN_DeerHunter » Sat May 11, 2019 12:10 am

Double post
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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby wolverinebuckman » Sat May 11, 2019 12:39 am

I was always taught to plant after mother's day here in se Michigan, to avoid frost risk.

The deer in the marsh I hunt are slamming the willows!

Check out Jeff Sturgis, I like to watch his Whitetail Habitat Solutions on YouTube...loads of great info!
Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.
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Re: Planting Trees and Brush species

Unread postby Double Draw » Sun May 19, 2019 2:49 pm

neloms wrote:I have owned a nice little 5 acre parcel for the past 2 years, and it seems to hold a couple nice buck beds consistently since I give it very little pressure. it butts up to 20 acres I share with family. Since I bought it and the guy who owned it before is gone , our hunting has improved dramatically. When I bought it I hinge cut a bunch of poplars all along the southern end of it and it seems like bucks are bedding in that spot. Anyways I wanted to do a little more improvement this year. The east end of it has about a 1 acre open marsh that butts up to where the bucks go into bedding. I was thinking of planting a bunch of dogwood to create even more of a screen for the deer bedding just inside from the marsh,and planting a bunch of maple seedlings to the north since it opens into more of an open hardwoods.

I know that deer love to browse on seedlings and young shoots. Would I be wasting my time and money doing this? Also should I cage off or fence an area? Or wait for a certain time of year to plant?

Thanks in advance.


If you have a friend who owns land that has dogwoods on it ask permission to take some cuttings. Cut dogwoods up into about 8" sections with 2-4 bud nodes per section. Dogwoods root readily in wet areas so you can stick the cuttings right into the soil with one or more nodes above ground. You can plant 100's of dogwoods this way without hammering a friend's dogwood bushes...just a few branches will go pretty far.


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