Planting Trees

Alrighty guys, this is something I’ve never done before and need some insight on what type of trees and when to plant. I have a few spots in mind, like edges of foodplots and old logging decks. I’m in South Georgia, so most of my soil is going to be sandy loam. My question is, do I try and plant sawtooth oaks or go for more of a soft mass type such as persimmon? I’d really like to benefit all of the wildlife especially deer and turkeys. Any input would be much appreciated

Trees

Deerbuster - I say both.

Sawtooth oaks grow quickly and produce acorns in less than 5 years. Turkeys and deer love them. Also might want to consider some chestnuts - the dunstan is a quick grower. Soft mast - better off with pears (rather than apples). The kieffer is a good one - tons of varieties that are best suited for your soil and amount of chilling hours (and blight free). Persimmons are also an excellent deer magnet and usually plentiful in the seed bank. Only the female produces fruit, but lots of knowledgable strings on this site on how to graft persimmon trees to be sure they produce fruit.

The MOST important thing on any tree planting is to be sure they are in FULL sun. Without full sun - trees will grow but may not produce fruit. Best sun is full morning sun (to dry dew on leaves) so SE exposure is best. This is broad general advice - a search on this site will give you tons of more specific information. Good luck.

^^^^ Yup

Lots of discussions on here too

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=791569&highlight=

http://forum.gon.com/showthread.php?t=910610

http://www.wildlifegroup.com/

You want to plant trees that have maturity times at different months of the year. I have sawtooth that mature in sept. I have asian persimmons and keifer pears that hold until Nov-Jan. and apples that mature in July-Aug.

Deer buster, I have been doing a lot of reading on this lately as I want to do the same thing. We just had 33 acres clearcut and are gonna leave at least 10 acres unplanted with pines so I may or may not have more of an area to diversify. I am trying to provide food for as much of the year as possible.
so far I have planted some chestnuts, crabapples, figs, sawtooth, swamp chestnut, chinquapin oaks, and some early drop pears. Ideally I would like to plant several types of oaks (reds and whites) that will drop for a large part of the fall and maybe even hold/provide food into the late winter. I intend to plant plum thickets, mulberries, persimmons, and wild cherries towards the end of next year.

Do you own this property? What is your time frame? Also, don't scratch Beech trees off your list. They drop a ton of mast and it's spread out over a couple of months. They're Sloooow grower, but very beneficial

Just planted 10 Nutall oaks, 10 overcup oaks, and 10 more AU Buck IV chestnuts from Wildlife group. Used tree tubes.
on them all... I now have over 100 chestnuts - mostly Dunstans - in the ground... oldest are about 4 years old.

treemanjohn said:

Do you own this property? What is your time frame? Also, don't scratch Beech trees off your list. They drop a ton of mast and it's spread out over a couple of months. They're Sloooow grower, but very beneficial

Click to expand...

I do not own the property. It’s a family friends property that I’ve been hunting for a decade. We are now starting to manage the farm (timber and wildlife) and would like to have a wider variety of nut/fruit bearing trees.

There are plenty of oaks in the bottoms but not much variety. They typically dump their acorns in the same time frame so there is an abundance at once and the deer can not utilize them fast enough before they rot.

Dunstans

aaron batson said:

Just planted 10 Nutall oaks, 10 overcup oaks, and 10 more AU Buck IV chestnuts from Wildlife group. Used tree tubes.
on them all... I now have over 100 chestnuts - mostly Dunstans - in the ground... oldest are about 4 years old.

Click to expand...

How big are your dunstans? Producing yet? Just curious I planted probably 25 this past winter. I also have clean se to 150 sawtooths. Some produced a few acorns this past fall. They’re 4yr old. Hopefully this fall will be much better!! It’s my favorite thing to do. I just wish I had had the opportunity when I was much younger

Persimmons are really hard to beat, especially the grafted varities like Meader, Prok, or Yates. They grow fast, bear early, and deer and other wildlife love them. Ditto muscadines. Asian persimmons can be hard to grow and slow to produce, and aren't nearly as tough or hardy. Oaks are great, but take longer to produce. Sawtooths and swamp chestnut oaks are some of the earliest-producing oaks, and the deer love both of them. Sawtooths can become invasive, though. I planted some Dunstan chestnuts last year, I think they will be a good bet, also.

Here is one atleast 4 ... maybe 5 now... had about 8-10 burrs last fall

Don't do it.....it's addictive! Lol
Naw...it's a lot of fun. I enjoy keeping a watch how the trees are growing.
Canuck posted a link to my tree planting thread.
Take a look at it