Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

What shrubs are deer candy?

bwese

bwese

Active Member
I'm renewing my continuous crp. One of the practices I'm doing allows me to plant shrubs. I will be planting 4 rows of 2 kind of shrubs. I have loads of elderberry on the place already but I know it is bombproof. I think wild plum would be a good one but not sure how much it get's browsed. (this is in southeast Nebraska)

Thanks for pondering and especially for any suggestions.

BWese
 
All those mentioned above including buttonbush.

What I do for some of the better growing shrubs of each species is an exclusion cage so they can produce seeds for birds to carry out to other areas of the farm.
 
Years ago I planted several hundred shrubs of about 6-8 varieties that all produced berries for the wildlife. The grey or gray dogwoods that were located along a gravel road survived. They were eaten down every winter for several years, but survived and are doing well today.
Nothing else made it, but maybe I was just unlucky.
I am going to plant some shrubs this year and most, if not all, will be grey dogwoods. I also like the idea of planting a few small areas of plums.
 
Pops said:
Years ago I planted several hundred shrubs of about 6-8 varieties that all produced berries for the wildlife. The grey or gray dogwoods that were located along a gravel road survived. They were eaten down every winter for several years, but survived and are doing well today.
Nothing else made it, but maybe I was just unlucky.
I am going to plant some shrubs this year and most, if not all, will be grey dogwoods. I also like the idea of planting a few small areas of plums.
Click to expand...
I ordered some grey dogwood for the shrub row in a new CRP windbreak planting in Iowa.
 
Thank you everyone! I have loads of naturally occurring grey dogwood and the deer browse it but I want to add more variety, also the nrcs biologist isn't a fan of it as he says it can be invasive. I have a couple spots on this farm that would lend to that theory.

About three years ago, my dad and I planted hundreds of hazelnut, red osier dogwood, elderberry, choke cherry, and plum on another farm about 5 miles away. The farm has quality clay soil. It has a low deer density and so far none of them are wowing me except for the elderberry and plum somewhat. It has been basically drought conditions since planting them so that probably has a lot to do with it.

I got one shot at this planting and I want to get it right. Some shrubs that I'm looking at are ninebark, arrowwood, serviceberry, sand cherry, and buttonbush.

Again, thank you and if anyone has any more suggestions please share.
 
Seems like deer preference can vary a bit by region as any native shrub I plant with the exception of button bush is browsed heavily. I also like to plant some that have a canopy form to promote ideal nesting cover. Ninebark and arrow wood are good choices, serviceberry also good but a little more tree-like. Hazelnut, Plums, Silky/Roughleaf(underrated)/Red Oshier dogwoods (if moist) all good choices. Witchhazel and fragrant sumac are nice as well. If you can source eastern wahoo or strawberry bush those are "deer candy" (more like cocaine) but will need caged to have any chance. On my farm every shrub gets caged or protected from browse with shrub/tree debris, learned this the hard way. If I were limited to two that are usually obtainable and can survive browse, it would be american plum and roughleaf dogwood. Third place ninebark.
 
Obsessed said:
Honeysuckle and multiflora rose. :D
Click to expand...
Don't forget Autumn Olive and Buckthorn!

Really like highbush cranberry and buttonbush. Both will tolerate a bit of shade, too. Buttonbush doesn't mind wet feet.

Can never go wrong with Plum, and because of the seed size, it seems to spread more readily into 'thickets', which is great for all wildlife.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom