Anyone into trees and plant a bunch, new property looking for ideas

[Muddyboots]

I live over in SW MI so not too far away at all. Maples will grow reasonably well BUT you do need to protect them from deer and rabbits with fencing or you just set up a buffet for them. Yep, experience with that. I would still plant some oaks, whites first and yes protect them as well. A lone sapling in a field is a great buck marker tree for rubs so you need to fence them or protect the trunk with plastic wrap etc. Pines grow fast and do provide cover but I would not go with white pine as much due to fragility to weather, drought and insects. I have a mixture of Colorado spruce and some white pines and I have a really nice dense thicket that the deer love. I would also consider planting some black raspberry that will spread and provide food and cover. Deer love them and great winter food. Not to mention nice berries for cereal, muffins or even ice cream.

Fruit trees require LOTS of work to maintain and prosper so I never planted any but still have 5 apples coming up from my miscellaneous apple cores I have thrown while mowing!

Since you live in NE IN, suggest you get to know Thomlinson Gun Shop in Churubusco just south of Kendalville and worth the drive! Reloading supplies and good people to deal with!

 

[xsn10s]

Persimmon

I don't think perssimons will survive that far north. There are a couple of varieties that survive in Zone 6 but I haven't had luck with them yet. If there are some please let me know. TIA

 

[rogerstv]

Check with your local USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency. You may find a program that will help you defer costs of purchasing and planting. I planted a couple thousand seedlings for my property. Trees were free and they paid me to plant them. Have to enter into a program though which to me is no big deal.

Program trees will be native to your location.

 

[P7M13]

Persimmon

Yum!
Planting trees is one of the greatest legacies you can leave a parcel of land.
My brother planted ~40 doug firs on his property, 30 years ago. He spaced them ~30' apart, like you find the mature ones in the forest. He's long gone from that property, but there's a beautiful forest there now.

From the earlier suggestion, sequoia may not grow in your area. They are beautiful, take up a lot of space, and can be home to a few 'coon families at one time, but mine has never fared well in ice storms.

I would recommend a varied approach.
You said you're impatient, so do fast growers and intermingle with the true forest giants.
All the suggestions below are from my own experience growing up in the Midwest (MI) and Oregon, from trees on property I owned or trees I planted.

Fast Growers

• Lombardy Poplar / Italian Cypress
  Fast growers, don't live long (~ 20 years). The italians grow to 30', the lombardy's to 60'. It might be too cold for Cypress.
• "Cottonwood" poplar : These are beautiful giants, release the snowy cotton seeds in May / June. The leaves make a soft, peaceful sound in the wind. I found a volunteer in '74 in my garden, we had just lost all the elms to Dutch elm, so thought, "let's see what you can do". By '85 it was >60' tall.
• Choke cherry. A great border "shrub", if cultivated can turn into a gorgeous tree.

Medium Growers

• Sweet Gum
  Not a terribly large tree (~40'), beautiful fall colors, seems to be resistant to most insects.
• Mulberry
  Also not too big. Grandkids will LOVE the berries, birds too. They're messy.
• Hawthorne Apple. These can be invasive has he!!, but are also a beautiful shrub or tree. when a shrub, a great privacy barrier because of the 1" thorns.
• Holly (you may be too cold in Indianna). Beautiful evergreen trees. Some grow as globes, some as a conical form. The females produce the berries, and talk about a tree that brings flocks of robins.
• Birch. Paper birches are the prettiest, but great trees. They need a good water table.

The Majestics - these are ones you will really appreciate after 40 years.

• Northern Red Oak - these are the ones that grow tall and straight for 20'. There are varieties that can develop into sprawling monsters too. If you prune and tend it while it's forming it's lead, you can set its path of growth.
• White Oak - in the Midwest, the white oaks are big leafed, here in Oregon they are small leafed. Both slow, gorgeous trees.
• Pin Oak - I'm on my 2nd one, right outside my window. It was a 6' tall, three lead sapling competing with a Rhodendron when I found it on my property ten years ago. Cut back the rhodie, cut the growth to the vertical lead. Now the trunk is ~10" diameter, and the tree is ~30' tall. It keeps my room cool in the summer.
• Black Walnut (do NOT plant it anywhere near a driveway)
• Black Pine
• White Pine
• Ponderosa Pine (I believe in IN they are "eastern yellow pine")
  
  The rest below are ones that were on my past properties. Beautiful trees
• Sugar Maple
• London Plane Tree (may be too cold)
• Hickory
• American Beech (or European - both gorgeous)
• If you can, find American Chestnut and plant them. Gorgeous trees.

Do NOT Plant

• Silver Maple
• Norway Maple
  Both the above trees are "widow makers", known for dropping huge limbs. Norways also have a surface root system that makes digging or growing anything else difficult.

 

[gbett308]

Try the Arbor Day Foundation, there are free trees offered usually as saplings and small fees for others.

Trees at arborday.org

The Arbor Day Foundation trees site offers complete resources for planting, pruning, identifying, care of, and information about trees. Plant the right tree in the right place.

www.arborday.org

 

[55stone]

I live over in SW MI so not too far away at all. Maples will grow reasonably well BUT you do need to protect them from deer and rabbits with fencing or you just set up a buffet for them. Yep, experience with that. I would still plant some oaks, whites first and yes protect them as well. A lone sapling in a field is a great buck marker tree for rubs so you need to fence them or protect the trunk with plastic wrap etc. Pines grow fast and do provide cover but I would not go with white pine as much due to fragility to weather, drought and insects. I have a mixture of Colorado spruce and some white pines and I have a really nice dense thicket that the deer love. I would also consider planting some black raspberry that will spread and provide food and cover. Deer love them and great winter food. Not to mention nice berries for cereal, muffins or even ice cream.

Fruit trees require LOTS of work to maintain and prosper so I never planted any but still have 5 apples coming up from my miscellaneous apple cores I have thrown while mowing!

Since you live in NE IN, suggest you get to know Thomlinson Gun Shop in Churubusco just south of Kendalville and worth the drive! Reloading supplies and good people to deal with!

I have recently found out about Tomlinson.. well this winter anyways!! Thank you for all the info

 

[55stone]

Yum!
Planting trees is one of the greatest legacies you can leave a parcel of land.
My brother planted ~40 doug firs on his property, 30 years ago. He spaced them ~30' apart, like you find the mature ones in the forest. He's long gone from that property, but there's a beautiful forest there now.

From the earlier suggestion, sequoia may not grow in your area. They are beautiful, take up a lot of space, and can be home to a few 'coon families at one time, but mine has never fared well in ice storms.

I would recommend a varied approach.
You said you're impatient, so do fast growers and intermingle with the true forest giants.
All the suggestions below are from my own experience growing up in the Midwest (MI) and Oregon, from trees on property I owned or trees I planted.

Fast Growers

• Lombardy Poplar / Italian Cypress
  Fast growers, don't live long (~ 20 years). The italians grow to 30', the lombardy's to 60'. It might be too cold for Cypress.
• "Cottonwood" poplar : These are beautiful giants, release the snowy cotton seeds in May / June. The leaves make a soft, peaceful sound in the wind. I found a volunteer in '74 in my garden, we had just lost all the elms to Dutch elm, so thought, "let's see what you can do". By '85 it was >60' tall.
• Choke cherry. A great border "shrub", if cultivated can turn into a gorgeous tree.

Medium Growers

• Sweet Gum
  Not a terribly large tree (~40'), beautiful fall colors, seems to be resistant to most insects.
• Mulberry
  Also not too big. Grandkids will LOVE the berries, birds too. They're messy.
• Hawthorne Apple. These can be invasive has he!!, but are also a beautiful shrub or tree. when a shrub, a great privacy barrier because of the 1" thorns.
• Holly (you may be too cold in Indianna). Beautiful evergreen trees. Some grow as globes, some as a conical form. The females produce the berries, and talk about a tree that brings flocks of robins.
• Birch. Paper birches are the prettiest, but great trees. They need a good water table.

The Majestics - these are ones you will really appreciate after 40 years.

• Northern Red Oak - these are the ones that grow tall and straight for 20'. There are varieties that can develop into sprawling monsters too. If you prune and tend it while it's forming it's lead, you can set its path of growth.
• White Oak - in the Midwest, the white oaks are big leafed, here in Oregon they are small leafed. Both slow, gorgeous trees.
• Pin Oak - I'm on my 2nd one, right outside my window. It was a 6' tall, three lead sapling competing with a Rhodendron when I found it on my property ten years ago. Cut back the rhodie, cut the growth to the vertical lead. Now the trunk is ~10" diameter, and the tree is ~30' tall. It keeps my room cool in the summer.
• Black Walnut (do NOT plant it anywhere near a driveway)
• Black Pine
• White Pine
• Ponderosa Pine (I believe in IN they are "eastern yellow pine")
  
  The rest below are ones that were on my past properties. Beautiful trees
• Sugar Maple
• London Plane Tree (may be too cold)
• Hickory
• American Beech (or European - both gorgeous)
• If you can, find American Chestnut and plant them. Gorgeous trees.

Do NOT Plant

• Silver Maple
• Norway Maple
  Both the above trees are "widow makers", known for dropping huge limbs. Norways also have a surface root system that makes digging or growing anything else difficult.

Great information!! Thank you!!

 

[55stone]

Congrats on having some land. I'm in ST. John. Where you at?

Poplars get big, lots of height. they tend to lose limbs in heavy storms.

Willows want a lot of water, so plant them around a pond or lake.

Idk if I ever answered you.. the property is in stueben county.. Helmer is the closet little town I'm sure you have never heard of it.. between Angola and Lagrange..

 

[KurtB]

Check out mossy oak nurseries. Some of the oaks may surprise you on how fast they can grow with good conditions. I'll be planting a bunch on a new place I got next spring. Slow not a big deal to me though as I have seen what oaks can bring in when they start producing.

 

[BountyHunter]

Good afternoon guys, my wife and I bought 14 acres in NE Indiana this past winter and are having a house built, break ground next month (pertaining lumber doesn't keep going up). Anyways the property is 80% Hay field and the rest is CRP type stuff with a few small trees and so on.. I'm a big tree guy.. and wish the property was a solid woods lol.. Anyways. we are starting to plant some trees just to fill the property up with some. We have planted couple different kinds of Oaks(slow growers) and Maples. Some green giants up around the pole barn. I also recently bought some Shade Hybrid poplars since they are suppose to grow really fast and i like that idea. Has anyone planted any Shade Hybrid poplars? Also have been debating getting some Hybrid willow. They are kind of more of a screen than actually tree put there are reports out there that in good conditions they have grown 10'-20' feet in a year after established.. Anyways just looking for some ideas of some faster growing type trees to plant in certain areas. The one side of the property where the shooting range is, have a 400 yard range. I would like to plant trees of some sort the full length of the shooting range.. Anyways just looking for ideas and or suggestions or whatever.. Thanks guys

For deer hunting, buy sawtooth oaks. Drop every year small tasty acorns that deer and turkey love. grow fast and that counts.

 

[gusd]

I've been in the tree removal\trimming business for over 20 years.
A couple things.
Number one thing I hear from customers is that the little tiny tree they planted grew way faster and bigger than expected!
So in my opinion I dislike the "fast growing" trees
Typically the life span is short and they get way to big and are usually very messy.
I think the best way to grow good native trees fast is make sure you are planting the right tree in the right spot.
By that I mean making sure the tree likes the soil type you have. The correct amount of sun, and almost every type of plant thrives off of getting the correct nutrients out of the soil so the proper fertilizer can make a world of difference.
I think that quality heathy trees are a much better choice then fast growing junk trees.
Time flies and I think you will be much happier in the not so long, long run.

 

[adk hunter]

DO NOT PLANT THOSE FAST GROWING TREES. (and I never caps lock yell)

I've planted thousands of trees and best results have been native species and 2" or smaller DBH. Diameter breast height.

They root out, and take off and survive crazy weather events that always come along the first 5 years after planting. Make sure anything you plant is rated for your zone or -1...

A few crabapples near your home really fill out and have broad canopies which give the illusion of filling up the space and being bigger than actual.

 

[JimFromTN]

I don't think perssimons will survive that far north. There are a couple of varieties that survive in Zone 6 but I haven't had luck with them yet. If there are some please let me know. TIA

Yates American Persimmon are rated hardiness zone 4-10. You can find them on Starkbros. Starkbros are good and will let you know if the trees you are looking at are in your zone. They also have a 1 year guarantee. Their trees have done better than all the other tress I have purchased. They are nursery prices so if you are wanting to get co-op prices, you need to look somewhere else. I know there are co-op type places that practically give away saplings but I am looking for more mature trees.

I have planted nothing but fruit trees up to this point. I am not big on planting things that don't produce food or bring food to me. I have planted apples, pears, cherries, peaches, and plums. The apples and pears have done the best. The plums keep getting black knot fungus so I am getting rid of them and I am going to replace them with asian persimmons this fall. My cherries keep dying. I have one that looks like it will make it. My neighbor has some close by to cross pollinate with. I share the fruit with the deer and the other creatures. The only problem is they eat it all before its even close to being ripe and I barely get any but if it fattens them up and keeps them in the area then I can't really complain too much.

 

[capona]

Many of the suggestions here won't do well in winter. That's why you don't see them growing here.
Zones are only helpful to get you in the ballpark with temps. Indiana has terrible clay and that's another consideration to be aware of.


I'd suggest you go to your nearest golf course and ask the groundskeeper what they have growing on the course and are locally native.
That will ensure you pick a species that will thrive through the winter of Indiana, and work well in your local soil conditions.