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Screening trees

bwana0303

bwana0303

New Member
My question for the experts is: what is a fast growing screening tree? I want to plant a tree line to obscure my property line. Thanks.
 
Hybrid poplar or hybrid willow. With a row of cedars. In 7 to 8 years cut down poplar or willow and the cedars will handle the job.
 
yeah, those are fast options above, also when planting a screen, can plant hp or hw at close spacings of 3' apart. That helps with a few things, like filling in fast on the sides, increasing vertical height growth, a good density of stems and trunks, and if a tree dies, still only 6' that is easily covered by the remaining trees.
 
Red cedars handle deer pressure and buck rubs better than most evergreens, though in general, they are not the fastest screening evergreens in time. There are faster evergreens like norway spruce, eastern white pine, pitlolly pine, even white cedar is relatively about the same growth as red cedar. In western iowa, I also have liked southwestern white pine, has handled my winters as good as scotch and austrian pine, and hopefully not with the disease problems.
 
ERC overall best screen option. Hybrid willow is the fastest. Together you get a quick starter and a nearly lifelong finisher. A couple rows of each. ~5' spacing. Also my favorite shrub option(s): nanny berry, Lilac, HBCranberry. Good luck
 
In my area deer love every tree to eat on, including Jack Pine,,which grow pretty fast too. DNR said they would be alright, deer leave them alone,,NOT,,,ate every one out of a hundred, except for 10 that I fenced with heavy posts and fencing! Only Pine type left alone are red cedar. Added benefit,, when they get big enough I take bottom branches off and bucks love em to rub on!
 
Yep - evergreen in Iowa (except maybe NE Iowa) - cedar is only way to go. Don't waste your time unless you have a lot of extra time to fence & piss away with other evergreens. Above is great though, HP & HW great. If I made a screen, I'd do the fast ones and then add lots of cedars, shrubs & maybe add some swamp oak or something.
 
More than one way to skin a cat BUT...put the permanent cedars on the inside or outside of the HW/HP? I'd say outside as long as that gives them proper sunlight? That it?
 
loneranger said:
In my area deer love every tree to eat on, including Jack Pine,,which grow pretty fast too. DNR said they would be alright, deer leave them alone,,NOT,,,ate every one out of a hundred, except for 10 that I fenced with heavy posts and fencing! Only Pine type left alone are red cedar. Added benefit,, when they get big enough I take bottom branches off and bucks love em to rub on!
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It is tough to grow pine in MN--even in sections with low deer numbers.

That being said, the deer seem to leave our spruce alone and definitely cedar. Black Hills Spruce grows well up here, but sounds like it will be destroyed in Southern Iowa?
 
6-8' might be a little difficult to find. Kelly Tree Farm sells potted 2-3'. You may want to try to find some nearby to transplant (road ditches, fence rows). The largest I've transplanted was around 5 foot (by hand) but it is a lot of work and I needed to support the main trunk once I got it in the ground. It hasn't grown in the last year since it was transplanted as I'm sure it was in recovery mode. I've resorted to getting the 2-3's that are growing in my in-laws' CRP, which seem to do well once replanted and watered at planting.
 
buckill said:
Where do you guys buy red cedars in SE Iowa? Do they sell them 6-8'?
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6-8'.... no clue other than the need for a spade.

If you can live with 18-24" trees, Knock on doors. For most non "deer" people they are considered an invasive weed. I've moved hundreds this spring all off neighbors pasture ground into my farm as future screens. Surprisingly, it actually goes pretty fast.
 
With the private lands biologist at my farm a while back. She said you can take trees put of the ditches (we were talking about cedars specifically). If anyone is looking for the easy to transplant, that's a good option.
 
Just curious...for those that are transplanting cedars in the 12" range on up to say 3'...what are you doing to backfill the void left behind?

Maybe that is implied, but I guess I could see where someone might take "free" trees out of the ditch and leave behind a pothole...that some clumsy dude like me would then find later with my ankle! :D
 
I am interested in doing this as well but have a question regarding the roots; Do you chop the main root about a foot below ground level or how long do you recommend leaving the root for transplant? Thanks!
 
showstopper said:
I am interested in doing this as well but have a question regarding the roots; Do you chop the main root about a foot below ground level or how long do you recommend leaving the root for transplant? Thanks!
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More root the better and this is not at all scientific, but I can tell you that 100% of my trees survived last year and all I did was go the depth of a spade shovel and went on 4 sides of the tree. The root ball results in a square the size of a spade shovel in all three geometric dimensions. I did the same this year. All the cedars were 12-36". A full load, with rootballs that size, in the back of a side-by-side is about 25 trees. A load, dug and replanted, was taking about an hour. Pretty quick work.

Obviously, this would not work for larger trees.

...just tellin' ya what worked for me. There are people on here that know far more than me about trees that may give you a better more scientific answer.
 
Daver - on the smaller trees, 18" and under, I shook the dirt back into the hole and planted them bareroot. The larger trees (3-5ft) I was taking a rootball about the size of a basketball and just leaving a hole in the ground for mother nature to fill in eventually. I was hesitant to see if those larger trees would make it but everyone of them did!
 
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