2005:
Filling in between the skipped rows on top 40 and re-planting some of the bottom field.
This was a year to fill in some of the gaps.
Here is the tree order for 2005 planting season:
- 250 White Pine
- 250 White Spruce
- 250 Black Spruce
- 250 White Oak
Some of Roland's letters from that spring ...
Roland lives a lot closer to the farm than I do and he has a woodlot nearby that he works whenever he gets a chance. He is my eyes and ears for the progression of our plantings -- and of the seasons.
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Stuart
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That seems about the right amount of trees in your order.�
�I have way to many walnut here in the pit to plant and I have been digging up white pine at Bud's.� I put a few in the furrows at the farm and then some at my woods.� I can dig about fifty pine there in a half hour.� I also have been digging some hard maple at the lake.�
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I took a shovel of white oak planted together in a furrow and must of had about a hundred.� They were about six inches high.� I planted four at a time there in our furrow, as they were small to be setting out.�
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I listen to Art Bell if I wake late at night, so I hear lot's of strange stuff.� Looks like the market is crashing this week though, just like they said.
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Kathy has her yearly check up at Rochester tomorrow and then I plan to go up Saturday for more planting.�
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See you
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RB
Stuart,
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I usually stop at the farm when I go up and plant a few trees.� Yesterday I took up walnuts and went along a row we planted last spring and poked some in with my heel in the skips.� The ground is wet and they went right down.� I have planted a few white pine and hard maple from the lake.�
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I still haven't given up on walnut.� Most seem to have died, but here and there there is a real nice tree.� It seems as though something was wrong, like residue from hebicide or lack of nutrient.� At any rate, with all of those nice conifers around, they should now get good protection.
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The next time I go up I'll walk to those poplar and take some cuttings.� Maybe I[ll fill in some gaps with them.�Maybe they can get started in the verdance in my woods.�
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When I get seedlings at the lake, I take my pole along and throw out a worm.� Our dock is still there.� No bites yet.�
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See you
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RB
I couldn't make it up north the day the DNR delivered the trees this year so Roland volunteered to pick them up.
Stuart
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That order of trees isn't that large.� I can just go over and get them and heel them in north of the barn.� I'm sure they will last a week just fine.� I'm going tomorrow with another pail of walnut to fill gaps of last year again.� We had another fair rain so the ground should be soft yet.� I am keeping maybe three pails of walnut for some planting in that bottom land.�
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See you
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Stuart,
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I'll try to come up tomorrow if you are�coming to the farm.� I can bring some walnut and white pine for that low place--hard maple.� I was walking around on top and there are still some places we could plow furrows.� I was thinking it may be easier to handle if we went over the back field to replant first and then went to the front.� It seems to me the rows are different for replant.� Just an idea.�
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Be seeing you
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RB
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Stuart
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Went up today to work.� I went to the farm and walked back to those poplar for some cuttings.� High twenties and a vicious north wind.� It was brutal.� I know now why those walnut struggle.� I cut several branches and then planted some shoots in a furrow near the road by that drive.� I took the rest to my woods and planted them.� The leaves were getting near to full size and maybe too far along for a good catch.�
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There still are several rows empty, but there is a good part of that planting with good populations.�
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I spent the rest of the day in my woods planting and cutting brush.� Got a small load of wood on my truck.� Had a great day.�
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See you in a few weeks.
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RB
This tree order contained some very large 3 year-old hardwood trees. Trees this big are much harder to plant and they have less chance of success -- we find.
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Hi,
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I picked up the trees today.�� The oak took up an entire box and were big enough for firewood.� I just put them in the barn and will go in and water them every few days.� The rest--pine--I buried by the barn.� Some looked quite good and some fair at best.� There is an awful lot of planting there. It seems there always is.�
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Sure is cold.� I fire that poor wood stove day and night.� I have tomatoes in the cold frame.� I put a blanket over it again tonight.�
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See you
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RB
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The bottom land is so rich and fertile that we've had a hard time getting trees to grow down there.
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Stuart,
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I went up Monday and marked three more rows below and planted them with walnut.� Win was there and came over and helped me.� I buried the nuts about four inches.� Now I'm going to wait for the grass to start growing with some vigor and walk down� those three rows spraying Roundup.�� That gets most of that bottom planted.� Richard stopped mowing at a good place, as we found many trees growing beyond his mowing.�
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Cool and windy.� I can't seem to quit burning wood.�
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RB
We're always worried about rain after transplanting trees. One year we planted in the snow but other years it's been so hot and dry that we're amazed that anything could survive. It usually does.
Stuart
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I haven't been up there for a few days, as I have had a brutal cold.� I sat up the first night gargling with schnapps, which seemed to stop it.� Then it took a few days to get on my feet again.� Bon has had it also.�
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I have a part of a pail of walnut I will fill more empty furrow with--maybe some hard maple from the lake.� When it gets warm I'll spray Roundup on those rows I planted below.� It has just been cold.� I keep a brisk fire in the furnace.� Hope June is better.� I keep burning at next winter's wood.�
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We had about an inch of rain, though, which the new trees needed.�
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So all is well here
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RB
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Stuart,
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We had a nice warm sunshine day yesterday, so I mixed a gallon of Roundup and sprayed those three short rows�of walnut Win and I planted there at the bottom.� The grass there was near a foot tall and growing with vigor.� I'm not a big fan of Roundup and it seems unlikely it will kill that grass.� We will see.��
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I went for a walk to the�west fence there on top from the road drive in.� There are some skips, but a lot of trees are there if one looks.� Towards the back a lot of elm are seeding in and growing well.� These are red elm and are more resistant to disease.� There are also hard maple everywhere, though they are slow�to get going.��Our new planting is looking great, and getting good moisture.� It's raining now and will rain all day and all night.� I�did some planting and brushing in my woods then.�
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See you
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RB��
Stuart
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I was up yesterday.� I found about 200 red oak acorns here in the yard under wire that I forgot about completely.� They were about three inches high and three inch root.� I put them in rows above in a furrow about an inch apart.� They didn't travel well and I doubt many will survive.� I noticed some of those very small red pine had that orange fungus on the needles and were'nt going to survive.� The larger reds had it also, but had energy to keep going.�
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The rows below I gave two Roundup sprays and most of the grass was dead.� The walnut is no where near up yet and should be safe.
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The trees are showing up well finally and look great.
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See you
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RB
furrows for re-planting top field.
-- looking north and looking south --
April and May
I thought long and hard before doing this. We all walked through this field for a couple years now looking for trees that survived the planting, and survived the deep sod, and incredibly tall weeds and impossibly thick grass. I decided to do the best I could to avoid the few surviving trees but in the end I just plowed the furrows and hoped this planting fared better than the last.
Since we only had 1000 trees ordered we decided to plant by hand. And since we weren't very happy with the planter we hoped this strategy would give the trees a better chance.
We also thought these tree species may be more tolerant to soil condidions. This is deep, rich, soil and not always very well drained.
furrows for re-planting bottom field.
Update 2019:
Originally I only could find pictures for 2005 taken after planting (maybe by next visit to the farm that year).
Some more pictues just turned up wnen Nick found an old roll of 35mm film and had it deveoped.
So I will add these pictures to this page along with some of the originals.
North end of farm planting.
What this part of the farm looks like in 2015.
View along this edge of the farm 10 years later.
Click on photo to enlarge.
More pictures from 2005....
Roland and Stuart
A couple more pictures from that lost roll....
Fall planting of potted oak from personal nursury in Madison
October 8, 2005:
Red and White oak seedlings. 196 seedlings, individually planted in D40 tubes. These were mostly Red Oak. The seed was overwintered this past winter (2004-2005) in a bucket, burried in my garden. I planted each acorn (already slightly sprouting) in May 2005 in to seperate D40 pots. These grew very well over the summer and were over a foot tall and vigourous by fall.
I thought fall planting may work since these are potted and will minimize root damage during the transplanting. We worked hard not to disturb the root ball while knocking off the pot and putting in the ground.
Pepared. NE. end of strips for planting. Win and I found rows - she flaged surviving oaks. I placed white flags to mark pine rows as reference. I mowed between these marked rows in prep for plowing.
Plowed 2-rows east of eastern row of first planting. This was a Spruce row - we planted spruce on outside rows that year because forester didn�t want us to plant spruce inside planting because they are too slow growing to �nurse� hardwood. I skipped �spruce row� and plowed 4th - liting over survivors. I skipped next pine row and plowed 4th furrow.
Began planting Oak (White and Red) from D40 pots and a couple apples (some from the tree at the Countryside Inn that had been planted for Allen)