Fertilizing White Oaks

[treeseer]

It's good to see you finally coming around to my way of thinking. You agree with me more and more as time passes.
Maybe you just don't have the fight in you anymore...

Au contraire, there's less to fight with you about because YOU have come around to MY way of thinking.:hmm3grin2orange:

If you want to pm me your email, I'll send you a piece on reduction, just to get the blood boiling again. It may run pale, and turn the boards pink!

O, and re fertilization, sometimes I broadcast 10-10-10 without a soil test. If the surface is just leaves, it helps em break down faster and blow less. 'Hey PA, let us know how the test goes, ok?

 

[PA Plumber]

You bet. Just did the TSI thinning this past late spring. Plan to leave things be until this coming spring and get back at it.

With how busy things have been I forgot all about fertilizing until being reminded again by this thread.

I have two food plots and the TSI area that all need soil tests done for this coming growing season. Plan to get all the samples and turn them in at the same time.

 

[kevinj]

It's great to want to fertilize oaks,
but it's another thing to draw in deer.
I have many oaks, fertilizing them will not mean more acorn production.
Or make them sweeter.
I think what you need is to be more aware and more in tune to attracting deer to your area.
A Food Plot is the answer.
I am a member of the QDMA. Quality Deer Danagement Association.
Go to their website; qdma.com.
Everything is there to help you !!

 

[UrbanHunter]

Hi Kevin

I hunt urban tracts of land adjacent to commercial and residential developments.

Yes, I have been reading the food plot article on the QDMA website and they are VERY informative. The situation here is that I don't know if this property that I hunt will be here next month or not so I don't want to invest time and money in a plot only to have it cleared for development a month later.

I think that when I do a plot that it will be the ladino and white clovers and chicory and maybe wheat mixed in. These articles are the most indepth that I have ever read on plot and I plant to follow the suggestions to the letter, including the weed control.

 

[PA Plumber]

I had a acre food plot with White Clover last year. Fantastic amount of deer traffic. Plan to leave it in New Zealand white clover for 4 more years. The next 1 acre plot I am not sure what to do yet. I am thinking oats/soybeans or wheat/corn. Turkey and deer love all that stuff.

I sure am getting a lot of groundhogs though.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Hey PA

Did you have to do the weed kill deal?

 

[PA Plumber]

A lot of the first food plot was new growth trees and multiflora rose. I used a track loader to clean everything up to bare ground.

My plan was to buy a tractor with a brush hog and mow 3 times a year for weed control.

I ended up keeping the dozer to put in another food plot (attached picture). I have about 3/4 of an acre cleared. Once I get 1 acre done, I have a logging job for the track loader involving a lot of Hemlocks. The second picture is what the food plot looked like in the beginning.

I may not get my tractor and mower this coming year either. Man the weeds and locust trees sure spring up fast!!

 

[UrbanHunter]

Man, that's a Great looking area!

If you had a tractor with plows, that would keep the weeds at bay for a while as well as bushhogging. Sure appears to be thick around that plot. If I had an opening that big to plant in my urban property, it would be a goldmine sure 'nuff!:greenchainsaw:

 

[PA Plumber]

The first food plot I put in was not quite as thick and the one the pictures show. The deer mostly live in this area, but go to the neighbors to eat. Well, I would like them to eat locally. There is a creek that runs to the right of the food plot showing the track loader.

Since we have owned the property (almost 2 years) the deer numbers have increased. I have been limiting the buck harvest as much as possible (can't do anything about the neighbors). Also, there were only a couple of does around at first. Now we have a local herd of about 12 and more come in in the winter.

I want my family to have a place to hunt safely. All of our children are 4 and under so not doing much hunting yet though. They do love going up there to walk and play in the creek. Hopefully we will enjoy the place in the years to come. If not, there will be a lot of ground for sale in the future.

 

[Log Splitter]

Urbanhunter,

I KNEW by your handle and your question we were talking about feeding deer!

I'm no arborist, but have been known to fertilize the white oaks that are near my stands.

I had a soil test done for my food plots, and I simply treat the soil around my white oaks in the same way, i.e. lime and 13-13-13 per acre according to what was recommended by the test.

Again, I'm no arborist, but I will say that the fertilized trees produce many more acorns than the ones that do not get treated.

Good luck with your deer management program, and if you shoot a big 'un next fall post a picture back here.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Thanks Log Splitter.....

for the verification. I took a nice 13 pt. in an urban county near Atlanta, Ga. this past season with a crossbow and as soon as I figure out how to post the pics, I will. Do you think the administrators will allow the pics?:rockn:

 

[PA Plumber]

for the verification. I took a nice 13 pt. in an urban county near Atlanta, Ga. this past season with a crossbow and as soon as I figure out how to post the pics, I will. Do you think the administrators will allow the pics?:rockn:

Make sure you resize them to about 33% give or take. Keeping them smaller allows dial up to load faster. I'll send you a pm.

 

[PA Plumber]

Nice pictures, he is sure a dandy. I'll have to ding you for that one.

 

[UrbanHunter]

How "Bout Now Above Your Last Post?

Great Hunt. I found this pear tree behind an abandoned house just loaded and dropping. However, being the good hardwoods hunter I am I eased past the house into them and watched a scrape till about dark. I sneaked back up to the tree and sure enough there were 4 feeding under it. I hung a stand in a pecan tree about 15 ft. from the back door of the house and 10 yards from the pear tree. Hung the stand at 2pm, got in at 4pm eating peanuts and shot him at 630pm. I watched him for about 10 minutes and he almost choked while trying to swallow a pear whole.

 

[ATH]

.....
I had a soil test done for my food plots, and I simply treat the soil around my white oaks in the same way, i.e. lime and 13-13-13 per acre according to what was recommended by the test.
.....

Clover and white oak have different nutrient requirements. The biggest concern is the lime. what is your soil pH? If it tested 6.0 or higher, I'd strongly reconsider the lime. Even as low as pH 5.0-5.5 it is probably unnecessary for optimal tree health. If you are bringing the soil close to pH 7or higher definately quit liming around the white oaks.

I have not seen any studies about acorn "flavor" (read lower tanic acids) and soil pH. I suspect that there is little or no relationship...trees do not take the acid out of the soil, they make it on their own with nutrients they take out of the soil. Higher pH soils can make some of those nutrients harder to get out of the soil.

 

[Log Splitter]

Clover and white oak have different nutrient requirements. The biggest concern is the lime. what is your soil pH? If it tested 6.0 or higher, I'd strongly reconsider the lime. Even as low as pH 5.0-5.5 it is probably unnecessary for optimal tree health. If you are bringing the soil close to pH 7or higher definately quit liming around the white oaks.

I can't recall the pH of the soil that was tested, ATH, but since my land is in northwest Louisiana I know the pH is pretty low. All my paperwork is over there at my camp (I live near Dallas now), so I can't say right now how much lime per acre was recommended for the food plots. I do recall spreading 15 tons of lime on the 7 acre pond prior to filling it, so the soil is pretty acid.

I spread the lime and fertilizer in some places in the woods, and one of the goals is to increase acorn production. The other goal, since acorns only feed the deer for a short time in the fall, is to increase the quality and quantity of the natural browse that is available to the deer. Browse, unlike acorns, feeds the deer year around. In any case I doubt I'm putting down enough lime to raise the pH anywhere near 7 as despite the heavy treatment on the pond the pH of the water in the pond is still low (need to add another treatment of lime).

Since UrbanHunter is in Georgia, which is pine tree country too, I mentioned the lime since his soil is most likely very acidic as well. But then, I'm no arborist , so he might want to be sure and tell the guys that do his soil test that he's trying to increase white oak acorn production.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Soil Test

Hey guys,

I am gonna take soil samples from around several of the trees and send them to UGA for analysis. Once I get the results, I will know what to do.:rockn:

 

[ATH]

.............one of the goals is to increase acorn production. The other goal, since acorns only feed the deer for a short time in the fall, is to increase the quality and quantity of the natural browse..............

I just wanted to make sure that you realized that higher pH can acutally have a negative impact on white oak. As long as you are aware of that, it sounds like you are doing quite well. If you need to bring the pH closer to 7 for the other browse, it might be a good idea grow that away from the dripline of your white oak trees.

Unless you are really trying to bring the pH up, it sounds like you probably will not have any concern.

 

[UrbanHunter]

Thanks ATH.....

I need all the info I can muster.......I am not new to food plots, just new to doing them right......:rockn:

 

[cryo stops wear]

nuts

The whole deal here is to create sweeter acorns to concentrate the deer that I hunt. It is well known that deer will walk through a grove of unfertilized white oaks to feed exclusively at the ones that are.

Thanks for the professional opinions and more suggestions are welcomed!:rockn:

phc bio pak plus is great for white oaks .
also cambistat is good for the tree and will yield twice the nuts. read directions closely...