Wednesday Wildlife, 12/18/13

While not technically wildlife, these tracks display the various animals around the pond. The neighbor's son has been trapping the raccoons and I placed a bounty on any groundhog or muskrat he captures. I may be in the hole before end of the year.

6 days to Winter? It's already here

15 degrees on December 15th

I have this to look forward to in four months (taken last April 20th)

Even though the temperature was in the low teens, it didn't seem that cold with barely a wind. This time of year is for repairs and planning for spring planting. This week, I put up trail cameras that was purchased at a good Black Friday price from Scheels. I'll post if anything decent is captured since all I have now is my goofy face triggering the shutter.

 

Winter is coming

The looking west on southern section of the walnuts:

Taken 12/1/13

Wednesday Wildlife, 12/4/13

I've taken more pictures now that I got a "new" camera in order to chronicle my adventures in amateur forestry. This is the background picture for the blog of our single red oak at the top of the hill but take a look at the speck on the left:

I opened the picture to edit it and found this:

That's either a six foot bee crawling near the paw paws or a regular honey bee at about the same distance from me (about 12 feet) from the red oak. Since the neighbors have a hive, I'm leaning towards the latter.

Nothing's guaranteed

This cage was around a white pine that the previous owner planted:

If you can look closely, you can make out the woven wire cage that a deer got on top of and mashed it to the ground. They then proceeded to tear all of the branches between one foot off the ground to about six feet up.

This was the second white pine that deer attacked. On the first pine, the deer broke the post off at the ground. I'm hoping that deerzilla met up with one of many hunting parties in the area.

Working weekend

Fall planting has completed and temps reaching 50 on Saturday and 40 on Sunday. Perfect weather for some work:

I'm not a professional and if David watched how I cut, I'm sure he would take this away from me. But I still have all my fingers, limbs, etc. so I'm lucky. One of my rules is always have an escape route and I learned that taking a step while trimming, a branch can kick up to trip you. Turn the saw off.

This 14" saw is big enough to cut most of what I need to clean up but small enough for me to realize that I better not try to cut more than it can chew. If I had a bigger saw, I might try cutting larger trees and then drop one on top of me. The wife gets an insurance check and I go through eternity realizing that yes, it was a stupid idea to cut that 3 foot silver maple in the SE corner.

I thinned out the cottonwoods and several leaning elms, all in the 6-8 inch range. For some reason, there is an overabundance of boxelders in the fence rows. Most have nice leaning branches. The ones that haven't fallen off yet, that is. Half a dozen of those in the 8-10 inch range came down, along with several of the leaning branches.

This one was down but was hung up on a couple of smaller boxelders and grapevines, my other annoying invasive species that I need to eradicate. I'm now buying Tordon by the gallon. After cutting the "hangers," I have this pile:

I used a bow saw and axe on some of the hung up branches. I didn't want a running chainsaw in my hands if the tree started to roll towards me. No issues though and I made it home. I still have a lot of clean up to do, but it's safer now that it's not leaning.

With the area opened up, I'm thinking that a few red oaks should go in there as well as a picnic table in the shade. I estimate a month of 8 hour days to get the fence rows cleaned up or maybe a half day for someone who knows what they are doing.

Wednesday Wildlife, 11/13/13

The larvae of what is commonly known as a hummingbird moth. 

The Hyles lineata aka White Lined Sphinx Moth, is common in Iowa and throughout North America and feeds on the nectar of flowers and plants as it competes against the hummingbirds for the same food supply.

This caterpillar was one of two we discovered on the 10th of October this fall and was probably feeding off the elm and apple trees from the property. This late in the year, it should go into hibernation and enter maturity next spring. The pupae stage is spent in shallow underground chambers.

There's more information at the bug guide from Iowa Sate University.

2013 Fall Planting Update

In mid-October we planted all the seedlings that David aka Sam delivered up to us. A couple of swamp white oak, a couple of catalpa and what ended up with 5 Kentucky coffeetree (a few volunteers were in the pots). The chestnut is planted in what is our new grove. I planted 5 more chestnut nuts so I think that qualifies as a grove.

The catalpa are framing the cedars as "bookends" on the west and the coffeetrees were added to the row with our showcase tree and to a couple of other rows with smaller coffeetrees. The swamp white oak were planted in the last row next to the willows.

Of course. all were caged with woven wire and chicken wire or hardware cloth to prevent the large and small vermin from doing damage.

Catalpa:

Swamp white oak:

Tree number one of the chestnut grove:

I planted 51 swamp white oak acorns up the bottom three rows using an old brass planting stick. I have 100+ planted in planters in the back yard of the homestead.

50 black oak acorns are planted in the northern three rows at the farm. Another 190 black oak acorns are in a bag of peat moss in the bottom of a fridge in the basement.

I have a couple of tubs buried in the garden that I sowed aronia seeds and planters that have paw paw seedlings and hard maple seeds that fell this fall from my neighbor's tree.

After a few more chestnuts get in the ground, I think I've just about finished with the fall planting.

Wednesday Wildlife, 10/30/13

Picture taken on September 22nd.

For more information go here.

And here.

Wednesday Wildlife, 10/16/13

From July, 2012:

This immature Eastern Meadowlark kept its eye on me while I cut weeds. The higher pitch song distinguishes it from the Western Meadowlark and plenty more of this guy's friends entertained me during my work this year.

Acorn and chestnut inventory, 10/08/13

Last week I received about 500 red oak acorns from Acorno.com. They're supposed to have come from Iowa, but I'll have to take them at their word. I still ended up with about 500 after floating them and at a price less than what they currently list. The reason for ordering was that my local trees had none. Not a single acorn from any of the red oak trees that I know of that are easily accessible.

About 300 swamp white oak acorns from a local college campus. Floating was about 80-90 percent successful. The four trees had a good crop this year and I've been battling the squirrels to get at them. A couple of the locals aren't too happy with me taking their food supply.

The black oak inventory nearly doubled to 39 acorns on Monday after I stopped to pick up #2 son on campus and I went to my source. This one tree sits very close to a linden and I picked up a few dozen of those seeds to try my hand with. Only about 5% of the acorns have been viable after floating. I've been checking this tree for the past month to try to increase my numbers and only getting a couple of good acorns on each visit.

I get some strange looks as I pick up acorns and seeds from around campus. I'm thinking of wearing a tuxedo while picking but someone is sure to call security and I'd rather not be chased about by net-carrying guys in white coats.

David aka True Blue Sam and his mom, Bea, stopped by and dropped off at least 2 gallons of Chinese chestnuts. With a very good flavor, some of them will not make it to the tree farm. But I have a planned spot where the chestnut grove will be and I'll be getting some in the ground this fall. With his generosity, I have several to experiment with to see what works best for my ground.

Here's the inventory:

 From left to right - swamp white oak, Chinese chestnuts, red oak and black oak.

We have a good supply for this year's fall planting and for spring. An old fridge in the basement now holds our inventory and the "crisper" drawer is a little full.

The Reason for cages

In a word --- deer.

I mowed about a half acre of goldenrod and sawgrass to plant our aronia plants and we found several small elms and a couple of good sized cottonwood saplings. And more walnut trees. I decided to not mow them over with the intention of transplanting the elm and cottonwood elsewhere. With about 3000+ walnuts on the place, I wasn't worried about those. I ran out of time to transplant or cage them and decided that I would put them on the list for the following week's work.

With clearing off the weeds and grass, now the trees are visible and vulnerable to deer. They were hidden before mowing and now it was like I put a spotlight on them and a giant arrow to point the deer right at them. Below is a cottonwood sapling at about 8 feet tall:

And this is what was left of the walnut:

With the rut starting earlier this year compared to the past two years, the rubbings started in late September and are about a month ahead of last year. Repellents do nothing to discourage these giant rats, and with three trails that cross the property, hunters have not been able to keep the population down.

The trees should recover, but they are set back years. All because I waited a week.

I found that it isn't always necessary to wire the cages to posts but just having the woven wire cage surrounding the tree is sometimes aggravating enough to confuse the deer. Because of the numbers of walnuts we have there is no realistic opportunity to cage them all. But others, like the coffeetrees get caged up.

The best supplier of fence, wire and posts has been farm auctions with my latest acquisition of about 800ft of 30" woven wire and another 500ft of barbed wire. I loaded up two pickups and an 6x8 trailer with rolls of used and new wire for $70, disappointing an older farmer in the process. Earlier this summer I was able to get 90+ steel posts for $40 with a few wooden posts thrown in.

It's best to protect the trees and berries as much as I can

Our Kentucky coffeetree update, 10/1/13

Gymnocladus dioicus, the Kentucky Coffeetree is native to Iowa with a grain similar to red oak after it's milled. It was a tree that my dad sought out for its lumber for his projects and I made a simple bookcase out of coffeetree for my wife for our second Christmas together.

Although a member of the legume family (Fabaceae), Kentucky coffeetree is not a nitrogen “fixer”. It is a medium to large, round-barked, native deciduous tree reaching heights of 18 to 30-m with a spread of 12 to 15-m. In open areas, the tree produces an open, rounded crown, but in native woods it grows to 23-m with few branches.

Kentucky coffeetree can be found growing in association with sweetgum, tupelo, oaks, and hickories, also black walnut, basswood, elm, and pawpaw in temperate forests.

We added our coffetrees starting last year when True Blue Sam and his Mrs. gathered, cleaned and sent us a good supply of seed in late winter of 2012.

We tried a couple of methods of propagation with varying degrees of success.

1. We planted several by seed and "caged" them with hardware cloth and soup cans after splitting the bottom of the cans. Of the thirty or so, only a couple sprouted by summer. I found ant hills at several locations and decided to dig a couple up. I discovered sprouts but little root development. I'm assuming the ants used these as a good food supply.
2. Using a technique called scarification, I then planted the seeds in pots in March, 2012. I used a small triangular file to breech the hard shell of the seed. Any seed planted deeper than the seed itself had a tendency to rot in the shell and I had a germination rate of 90%. I used both fiber pots and a burlap lined pot and transplanted after the root breeched the 6" pots. Both worked well.

I transplanted many by mid-May 2012, but the harsh drought limited growth and despite our best efforts to water we lost about 70%. No fall transplants survived the winter. The very little snow cover and below average temperatures did not help us as many of our deciduous transplants did not make it.

However, one coffeetree that has thrived is planted in the southeast corner of our northern plot of trees.

 June 23, 2012

This tree grew very well during 2012 and I had to put a bigger woven wire cage around it last fall. A very wet 2013 spring with a two-day span of 14+ inches of rain in April set us up for the summer.

The same tree May 19, 2013

It showed up this spring as a dead twig but by middle of May there was a new sprout growing along side.

June 30, 2013

By late June, the central leader reached about 6-8 inches with the compound leaves giving us the impression of another six inches or so.

August 31, 2013

Another dry summer with only an inch of rain during June, July and August. This meant we had to haul water again but the cooler conditions may have contributed to this explosive growth. This tree towers over the other coffeetrees that are about 6-8 inches. Sam and his mom stopped by and snapped the picture above.

September 22, 2013

A hot and still dry September added another 6+ inches. It's now topping off at about 30 inches as it reaches the top of this woven wire cage. To prevent girdling by rodents (which killed a few of the other coffeetree and maple seedlings), I made a small hardware cloth cage to surround our tree trunk.

Nature is making this our showcase tree and I have no idea why. Luck, environment, soil type all contributed to its success. The only exception that can be noted is that a groundhog tilled the soil all around it apparently without damaging the root structure. Aeration may have been the difference.

These coffeetrees represent the memories I have of working with my dad in his workshop and our growing friendship that have started David over at True Blue Sam, his mother Bea and others in recent years. Hopefully this coffeetree will grow and give our future generations a 80+ foot tree and a good supply of milled lumber.

Fall Planting Days

Two days of planting our inaugural Aronia berries.

After getting rained out* on Saturday, we went back at it Sunday to finish up. Using an antique post hole digger, I was able to dig 43 12-15 inch holes in about 90 minutes (33 holes on Saturday). It was recommended to us to plant at 2 feet apart but I was planting at about 30 inches. This was because the mark on my digger was at 25" and I used the handle to sight the row in and then rolled the digger up and started my first cut.

Getting soaked on Saturday and enjoying a cloud-free day on Sunday, the Mrs and youngest son joined me and we were able to get our two flats of aronia plants in the ground and a woven wire fence put up on both sides to hinder the deer. It's reported that deer won't eat the plants but they pull them out of the ground.

Some ground felt to keep the weeds down and some wet straw for cover.

*"Rained out" - that's the first time I've used that phrase in over two years.

One of 76:

Our finished row:

I then added 3 more pawpaw trees for a total of 9 after planting 6 the week before. 

Pawpaw trees need shade for the first year or two of their lives or they will burn up. I could have purchased tree tubes but I opted to use burlap since I have to build cages to keep deer under check. I also surrounded the seedling with hardware cloth to keep rabbits and mice away. To top the cage off, I used some old barbed wire to aggravate deer if they stick their noses in. We will probably need to raise the shade up next summer.

 Pawpaw in a burlap and wire cage:

We added a light 10-10-10 commercial fertilizer in each of the holes, both berries and pawpaws.

We picked up the plants from a local grower during a demo field day last week. I've been researching the aronia berry for awhile now but I got my first taste during the field day. A sweetener is recommended. No sugar needed for the pawpaws, though. With a taste that is a mix of banana and mango, it was also our first experience with the fruit and the Mrs. insisted we get a few trees.

Learn more about Aronia berries with the common name of Black Chokeberry.

More information about the Pawpaw.

Kickoff 9/29/2013

This is the first post to chronicle our efforts to build our small tree farm and berry enterprise.

We bought this small acreage a little over two years ago with a few thousand 5-6 year old walnut trees. We've since added hard and red maples, pin and black oaks and a few tenacious Kentucky coffee trees that were graciously provided to us by True Blue Sam.

We've got several directions in the works but our intent is to leave this acreage in better shape than when we received it. We've made a few mistakes so far, but a few successes have come our way to make up the difference.

I hope this site can be used as an educational tool for both me and my readers. Please be patient as this is a work in progress (both tree farm and blog).