The Brushpile

The pond isn't big, and was an upland fen, that was a mud pit of little use. When the house was built soil was borrowed from the fen to fill in around the house. Because the pond was a naturally occurring wet area, it filled quickly and was expected to remain full. However, since 2010 it has been so dry that the pond has become a gauge to measure the drought. Surely 2017 resume normal weather with average rainfall.
 
Hey Brush, little update on the AC's you sent me. Out of the 17 nuts, I have 12 that are showing signs of life.
e94aa19b1c7172fe00be75083e1a879e.jpg


Thanks again

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 
dogdoc said:
Hey Brush, little update on the AC's you sent me. Out of the 17 nuts, I have 12 that are showing signs of life.
e94aa19b1c7172fe00be75083e1a879e.jpg


Thanks again

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
That's great!!! Thanks for sharing the pics. The nuts were undersized and I had to stretch some hose to get those nuts, so I'm happy to see some success.
 
Hey Brush. Your strawberry bush was placed in it's forever home today. The roots filled up the 5 gallon RM bag really well. Planted with a weed mat, screen around the base, and caged. Decided to plant it close to my little pond. One day I will have a house just up the hill a bit from the pond. Added a little slow release fertilizer and water sorb crystals. Maybe one day it will sucker and I can return the favor for someone else. I had to prune off 2 very low shoots. Think I could do some cuttings with those? Thanks again for all your generosity to not only me but other members.
SRcPLQS.jpg

Todd
 
Hmmm, that does NOT look like Strawberry Bush? When it gets leaves I will be able to ID. Strawberry Bush has a green stem. I wonder what that is? Thanks for the pic and we'll figure this mystery out!
 
Brushpile said:
Hmmm, that does NOT look like Strawberry Bush? When it gets leaves I will be able to ID. Strawberry Bush has a green stem. I wonder what that is? Thanks for the pic and we'll figure this mystery out!
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Here is a pic of it last summer when it had leaves. Wasn't it a strawberry bush that you sent me?
 
I'm sorry--I meant cherry! Must have been having a senior moment. Well anyway thanks for the suckering cherry. I'm excited to see what it does. Can it take full sun? Is it a specific variety of cherry tree? Just trying to get a little info on it. If you remember when you were digging it up for me you ended up breaking off the main root. I took your advise and put it in a grow bag and stuck it in a white trash bag and made a green house effect. Kept it in there for a good month after it came out of dormancy. Then I put it outside in the shade and slowly acclimated it to the sun. Hopefully it likes it's permanent home.
 
dogdoc said:
I'm sorry--I meant cherry! Must have been having a senior moment. Well anyway thanks for the suckering cherry. I'm excited to see what it does. Can it take full sun?
Click to expand...
It likes full Sun and will form a thicket like Wild Plum only faster if it has adequate moisture. This is a fast growing tree, and the cherries are good right off the tree. My tree was given to me by a friend, so I don't know what type of cherry it is, but deer browse it and it forms a thicket faster than wild plum.
 
Today I began weeding the Brushpile of volunteer trees like Honey Locust, Chinese Elm and the like. Amazing how junk will overtake planted trees and it's much easier to kill them while they're young than need to use a chain saw later. So I used a loppers to cut small stems and machete for hack and squirt.
 
I can ID the junk without leaves. This is Boxelder.


Deadly Black Walnut.

Chinese Elm.

Chinese Elm hacked a squirted with Tordon RTU.

Silver Maple.
 
This is invasive and deadly Black Walnut growing next to my machete. Behind the Black Walnut is an apple tree that will die from juglone toxin if this Walnut is allowed to grow.
 
Brushpile said:
It likes full Sun and will form a thicket like Wild Plum only faster if it has adequate moisture. This is a fast growing tree, and the cherries are good right off the tree. My tree was given to me by a friend, so I don't know what type of cherry it is, but deer browse it and it forms a thicket faster than wild plum.
Click to expand...
cool! Since I don't live out there I'm sure the birds will beat me to the fruit before I ever get any.
 
This is a Morse Nursery Crabapple Bush. The Morse Nursery Advertisement showed a depiction of nice sized 1-2 inch apples growing on a bush. As you can see tiny apples are too hard and bitter for anything to eat and the bush is not even browsed!
 
Brushpile said:
Up the page I asked why one AC was big and another AC small in a side by side comparison, and also why one Bur Oak was large and another small in a side by side comparison? Both sets of trees were not tubed or fertilized. They were watered enough to ensure survival, yet one bur oak was much larger than the other and one AC is much larger than the other.

Actually this was an experiment I started about three years ago.
This is the big AC.

This is the small AC.

These are the two AC, with the smaller in the foreground.


The extreme difference in growth is that the larger trees have 5'x5' Lumite weed mats, and that's the only difference. Lumite weed mats are the only way to go in dry climates, and even in moist climates, because Lumite keeps away competing vegetation, allowing for Sun, moisture and nutrients to be available throughout the entire growing season, plus Lumite serves as a moisture barrier to retain moisture evaporating up through the soil.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if you ever had a problem with rodents getting under the weed mats and chewing off the trunk from roots?
 
Chad Hauenstein said:
I was wondering if you ever had a problem with rodents getting under the weed mats and chewing off the trunk from roots?
Click to expand...
That's a possibility, but not a major problem in my area. Without Lumite weed mats not much would survive the planting year due to drought, and even in areas where there is adequate soil weed mats give trees space to grow with no need for spraying, mowing or weed
whacking, which always results in collateral damage.
 
Brushpile said:
That's a possibility, but not a major problem in my area. Without Lumite weed mats not much would survive the planting year due to drought, and even in areas where there is adequate soil weed mats give trees space to grow with no need for spraying, mowing or weed
whacking, which always results in collateral damage.
Click to expand...
If rodents are a probelm would you recommed mulch instead or just spraying around them? I had 4 out of 5 chestnuts chewed off just below the soil last year with weed mats. Thanks
 
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