Planting deer cover

[brady]

If you had a clean slate(open fields) to plant deer cover what would it be. Ready go.

[cbay]

Welcome to the Beast.
Depending on location native regrowth and manage over time by spraying or cutting what i didn't want in there.

[Hawthorne]

A variety. Norway spruce , white spruce, red pine , white pine, a variety of dogwoods, ninebark, speckled alder, crabapple, hybrid oaks. Let the birds plant some autumn olive for free

[Hawthorne]

Go to Michigan sportsman.com. Click on the whitetail section then click on the habitat forum. Go to the curated posts. Read all of Scott bishops posts. His handle is Bishs.He basically turned a 40 acre field into a whitetail paradise. He planted thousands of trees starting 20 years ago. He's big on specked alder, crabapples , and Norway spruce.

[JMAR85]

A variety. Norway spruce , white spruce, red pine , white pine, a variety of dogwoods, ninebark, speckled alder, crabapple, hybrid oaks. Let the birds plant some autumn olive for free

This is a good topic. Interested to see the replies. Hawthorne, I'm interested in why you chose some of those plants, specifically the dogwood ninebark and speckled alder? Would you mind following up with why you chose them?

[Hawthorne]

A variety. Norway spruce , white spruce, red pine , white pine, a variety of dogwoods, ninebark, speckled alder, crabapple, hybrid oaks. Let the birds plant some autumn olive for free

This is a good topic. Interested to see the replies. Hawthorne, I'm interested in why you chose some of those plants, specifically the dogwood ninebark and speckled alder? Would you mind following up with why you chose them?

Red osier dogwood is a preferred winter browse and spreads into a multi trunk shrub create excellent bedding. Better planted in low areas. Gray dogwood is better for higher ground. It creates extremely thick areas and grows a berry lots of wildlife eat. Ninebark is a native shrub that can take heavy deer browsing and has multiple low growing branches. Speckled alder is a small tree that holds its leaves into late November. It's a tree you can grow on difficult site because it produces its own nitrogen. It's different than tag alder when I saw it at Scott bishops place. It has lots of branches and creates thickets when planted close together.

[Hawthorne]

I planted some speckled alder on my place last spring. They can grow 5 ft a year and turn more into a shrub form when browsed by deer. I've also planted thousands of trees. Including Norway spruce, white spruce, red pine, hybrid oaks ,ninebark, pears, and crab apples. My property when I bought it was all old field habitat. It already had lots of dogwood, wild plum, autumn olive , and hawthorn shrubs.

[JMAR85]

That's really interesting

[Hawthorne]

http://ecosystems.psu.edu/research/cent ... way-spruce

This guy really likes Norway spruce

[Fuzzy]

Hawthorne, I have been thinking about planting some wild plums. Can you tell me your opinion on how much the deer use them. I read that they drop their fruit early. Do the deer abandon them once the fruit is gone? We have crab apples, the deer love them. Not only do provide food but the deer always like to set up scrapes around them

[Hawthorne]

Hawthorne, I have been thinking about planting some wild plums. Can you tell me your opinion on how much the deer use them. I read that they drop their fruit early. Do the deer abandon them once the fruit is gone? We have crab apples, the deer love them. Not only do provide food but the deer always like to set up scrapes around them

I have seen the same with wild plums. They do drop early. I think they are still good to have for diversity. I've seen deer bed where they are growing. I don't have pure stands of them. I have found them growing with other brush habitat. I know they taste pretty good. I've eaten them in late summer.

[brady]

Thanks hawthorne ill look into it

[JMAR85]

Hawthorne do any of the plants you mentioned do well in shade?

[Hawthorne]

Hawthorne do any of the plants you mentioned do well in shade?

Autumn olive does really well in shade. You won't be able to buy it and could be against the law in your state to transplant it. I don't understand it personally. I havnt seen it take over my land and it Some great bedding habitat.Another I heard grows well in shade is spicebush. Norway spruce is shade tolerant. But it will grow very slow.

[brady]

Hawthorne... it's been a while since I looked at this post but I love what you put on your posts from the book of genesis.... didn't like tattoos until I got that verse on my back