In SE OK, we planted 50 each of roughleaf, sand plum, and fragrant sumac and the soil wasn't froze. There is an OK mesonet webpage that gives usefull info such as soil temps at various depth and soil moisture which is a huge benefit when planting anything. Checked last Friday and soil temps were in the upper 30's with no freeze forecast till Tuesday night. OK forestry/NRCS recommends planting bareroots before March 1 in that area. This year one could prolly up that to March 15. Latter part of this week has been cold with some minor surface freeze/thaw. Bermuda will 'wake-up' about mid-March normally....so we warm early down there. Tree planting is new to us so hoping we did things correctly.
Soil moisture was ideal in upland soil where fragrant and plum were planted. And that is saying something after a 50+" rainfall year. We planted in 'thicket fashion' within hinged tops on the north edge of that wooded plot in my QDMA sanctuary thread. The pointed dibble from Forestry Supply worked well up there in the rock and shallow clay. A neat caveat about a dibble is that you gain knowledge about your soil variation...things to keep in mind when planning burns. Top soil up there is gravely and about 4" with subsoil of yellow clay, which indicates good drainage but 'droghthy' in nature and prolly not the best soil for high forb growth.
Planted dogwood along the bank of a creek bordering a postoak flat 100 yd downslope of the others.Flowering dogwood and a small hackberry were there naturally...the latter is amost exclusive to fertile soils with good water holding potential in that part of the state. Lots of elm and hickory there too for hinging. Soil water table was shallow, but I think dogwood likes that. Topsoil is about 8+" before hitting yellow clay and is a prime burn/forb area. That small flat will end up like a savanna.
The seedlings arrived in good shape, bundled tightly, roots inbibed in peat, and all placed in a thick super heavy feedsack like paper bag. I put some creek water in the bucket to keep roots moist. Took about 2 hr to plant each specie. I was disappointed in seedling size and variation in size. Really needed small ones for the dibble. Fragrant was the largest with all 50 barely fitting my wide mouth bucket. Some of the roughleafs were large and the rootmass on those was very large and fibrous...kinda like the persimmon you grew last year. Plums were about the perfect size. They have a 'Comment' section on the orderform and I should have specified 'dibble' and 'small seedlings'. Guess there is a learning curve with anything!
After reviewing the Noble foundation report on browse CP content, the varieties I picked are bottom feeders for July and Aug CP content running about 8% in dry years. The Noble wildlife biologist, who toured the place Monday, is crazy over osage orange (bowdark to us) just like me. Rightly so as CP is 12% or better in late summer and a preferred 'deer candy' during leafdrop in falls with poor hard mast. Fills two critical niches there and creates a 'huntable pattern'. :way: Ok forrestry offers bowdark bareroots and I'll focus on those heavy next year either with plum or dogwood, dpending on how those perform.
NWTF is late geting th tubes out, so I'll need to do that soon too.
I'll post a pic of the seedlings and such on QDMA...your opinions would be much appreciated on what I discussed here and post there.
