Growing Your Own

[MTY]

I realize that for the most part this fourm is about burning wood, but that wood has to come from somewhere. Have any of you started your own tree farm? I am working on this, it is slow going, and frustrating. I am constantly tempted to throw up my hands and give up. This is different than having a woodlot, as I will not live long enough to see the trees reach harvestable size. The process is about as far from instant gratification as possible

I hired a forester, signed up with the USDA and NRCS and am now witnessing a major disagreement over herbicide. The disagreement is over broadcast spraying to kill off woody brush that starts to grow back after mastication. The forester favors this approach, the USDA and NRCS want spot spraying for broadleaf weeds. I do not want either, but realize 70 to 100 years of woody brush is going to be difficult to tame.

So here is the gear questionfor those of you who may have experience in this area . If where I can run a single bottom plow I cut straight rows and plant in those rows, does it seem feasible to brush hog between the rows on a regular basis until the seedlings are well established thereby eliminating the need to pour a gizillion gallons of herbicide on the ground.

 

[Microduck17]

I like the idea of the plowing and brush hogging. It would be some work to fill in the furrow between trees. You could mulch around the trees to help with moisture retention. And mulch would help somewhat to keep the weeds down in the spaces the brush hog can't get.

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[JimBear]

A tractor/skid loader with a post hole digger is your best option for planting your trees. Mowing a few times a year will eliminate a lot of weeds & will help stunt/eliminate the brushy/shrubby stuff. The paths & field borders in the CRP that I mow a couple times a year have very few weeds. You need to mow before the weeds go to seed this will help control them. As far as the USDA goes I doubt it will be the last time you disagree with them.

 

[peakbagger]

Just realize there are numerous approaches to forestry and many different opinions. Someone who is focused on high production is going to make different recommendations than someone interested in sustainable forestry.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

With so much unused supply of fire wood everywhere you look ,trees left to rot ,lot clearing ,storm falls ect ect growing your own trees for firewood seems the least plausible,most costly and most time consuming solution there is.

 

[MTY]

We are talking approximately 10K trees grown for lumber. The only thing that would be burned would be culls, and I will be long dead prior to those being large enough for firewood.

They are about 6" tall when planted, grow about a foot a year. A 20' tree is about 5-6" in diameter.

This area is not like the east where hardwoods grow like weeds. I am planting ponderosa pine and doug fir. In close proximity to the house I have been planting hardwoods. Oak, maple, walnut, hornbeam, dogwood etc. These are 6 to 8' at planting and I have been using my mini ex when needed. These can be mowed around, but the evergreens are going in at the rate of 300 per acre and spaced 12' apart prior to culling.

Some of the ground is far too steep for plowing or mowing, but I thought if this could be done on the flatter portions of the property it would reduce the overall amount of chemicals sprayed.

 

[Bad LP]

As a manager of property that includes some parcels of state approved forestry plans I can tell you there is no way you will be getting any sort of instant gratification. One parcel of over 100 acres started in the program back in the 70's. It had some nice value logs. 2 other parcels were put into the program in the 90's and the wood value on them is still low.

 

[duramaxman05]

My father in law used to plant trees for the conservation. The conservation department would cover I think half and the land owner covered the other half. There is a thing called TSI (timber stand improvement) that the conservation either helps pay for of pays it all, I'm not sure on that, but a timber cutter such as my father in law or someone who does that kind of work can go in clear and cut the brush and small tree that dont mount to anything so the more mature trees can get more nutrients to grow. Plus all the brush and trees that have been cut will put nutrients back in the ground. Now they dont just go in and start cutting stuff. They will look at your woods and see what species is in there and they will only cut a percentage of each species.

 

[peakbagger]

When I bought my woodlot I had a management plan developed by forester familiar with the woods and markets. He made several different short and long term recommendations for management. There are several different stand types so each stand type gets its own recomendations. There is at least one stand that probably is best clear cut as it has blight prone beech regenerating from roots. It would require extensive management to bring it back and due to accessibility the management would take far longer then its worth to me so I will concentrate my work elsewhere.

 

[Zack R]

Be careful with herbicide. A screw up in herbicide application in my area resulted in 2000 large ponderosa pines needing to be cut down.

https://nuggetnews.com/Content/Curr...-20-logging-operation-gets-underway/5/5/28177
https://www.bendbulletin.com/locals...ing-weed-killer-linked-to-sisters-tree-deaths