Don't get me wrong genetics play a big key but it's only one. Thinning as early as 11 or 12 is more due to the site index in my opinion and having good growing seasons (no heavy droughts or floods).
Don't get me wrong genetics play a big key but it's only one. Thinning as early as 11 or 12 is more due to the site index in my opinion and having good growing seasons (no heavy droughts or floods).
We do plant alot of Arborgen seedlings. The MCP Elite Containers are very impressive. Many variables go into deciding which seedling will produce the best rate of return for a landowner. If the goal is to clear-cut in 14 years on sandy poor dirt for an all weather spike play the regime I would suggest would be different than on a flat woods site site 80.
Spend your $ on the high site index sites and you will be rewarded. I planted some MCP Elites where the client spent the kitchen sink (chemical, bedding, HWC) on site prep....trees were 6' age 1 and 10' age 2.
Last edited by Timberman22; 11-30-2018 at 07:18 AM.
For the first time on our company owned lands we will be planting the MCP elites this year. We need quick growth to create a screen from the road and look forward to the early thinning. The woods will eventually be quail woods so we don’t necessarily need final harvest value but bigger trees for the recreational and aesthetic value. The reason I asked what shape the fields are in is that we are having to spend more than we would like killing the Bermuda in these old hay fields. The rep with ArborGen told me that given the area and site index, if I can control the grass we will have the screen we desire by year 2.
For the ducks
To bring this back up. If planning to plant in pines this planting season, which is now until the end of March, I would scalp the fields first. If planting longleaf I would not plant behind soybeans. Loblolly will be fine behind beans. After scalping, comes planting the trees. I would do an herbaceous weed control application in April. Total cost would be pushing $200/acre. Depending on where the land is would drive my decision on what loblolly seedling to plant. Not much of a sawtimber market in the middle of the state so I would plant 3rd gen trees and call it good.
Government programs are fine but are not funded very well and can take 2-3 years for funding if at all. Which is 2-3 years longer for income if that is a consideration. If there is a lady in the ownership of the land have her complete all of the paperwork as that seems to work well for being funded. I have planted thousands of acres of fields to pines trees and while I love a pine tree I also love a field. If the three fields are now surrounded by woods I would have a hard time planting to pines but I wish you the best in this. There are several very knowledgeable foresters on this site that would help. There are also a lot of folks who talk of things they have never done.
Dang it, I was just working up the nerve to get on a plane, fly across country and show-up on your door step ready for a desert SW hunt...
Ephesians 2 : 8-9
Charles Barkley: Nobody doesn't like meat.
Last edited by quackaddict; 12-03-2018 at 10:04 PM.
Man and other animals were first vegetarians; then Noah and his sons were given permission to eat meat: “every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you” Genesis 9:3
"A man may not care for golf and still be human, but the man who does not like to see, hunt, photograph or otherwise outwit birds or animals is hardly normal. He is supercivilized, and I for one do not know how to deal with him." Aldo Leopold
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