Well, it turns out getting them to come up in South Texas is the easy part... Of 16 or so we planted, only 2 didn't come up. First batch was planted immediately (in November 08). They came up in about 2 months. The others were kept in the refrigerator. Once the first ones came up, we planted the others (in January or Feb 09). These only took about 1 month to come up.
They all started off great, shooting up to 5-8" with big beautiful green leaves, but then with the horrible scorching heat and drought down there (considerably worse than even the Austin area where I live) there were some casualties... A number of them turned brown and seemed to die despite more and more frequent watering. Despite thick mulch, the soil would dry up very quickly. The ones in deeper, better soil did ok (no new growth, burned leaves, but they hung in there and maintained some green). However all the ones in one pasture with the shallowest soil (6"-12" clay with solid caliche underneath where not much likes to grow) turned brown.
Finally, it occurred to me that trees usually sprout under the shade of other trees, and so I put fabric 'shades' over the 'cages' to block the sunlight during the most intense part of the day, still allowing sun in the morning and evening. This kept the trees and soil from being fried. All but one of the ones that seemed to die sprouted back up again and did better this time. This took probably a month to happen, so I'm glad we didn't give up on them! We had continued watering them as before just in case. The shades also helped the others, and some started to put on new leaves.
Now that it's FINALLY cooled off and has been pretty rainy, almost all of them are putting on new leaves and looking ok or even good. We also recently started using Alphabiosystems Thrive, which seems to be working wonders (I'd highly recommend it).
So this is an important lesson I learned with new small trees- give them some shade during the worst part of the summer when it's this intensely bad!
I'm hoping that since they survived possibly the worst summer drought and heat in recorded history, they'll do great under more mild conditions. I know they've been building strong root systems and it will be great to see them take off in the spring.
This year I collected a bunch of Chinquapin Oak acorns and Mexican Plum seeds so they will be next. With these we're going to grow them in pots for a while first... Maybe it will give them a better chance if these drought conditions continue.
Update to the cage system- found that inner wire mesh cage should be at least 3 feet in diameter (originals were way too small). They are also very handy for attaching a 'shade' as I mentioned before. These cages became even more important this summer since the deer became hungry enough to eat trees... I know it's common in the hill country but I don't know of them ever getting that desperate at my parents' place in the past...
| Attachments: |
File comment: One of the cage systems (on a Texas Ash). Notice inner mesh wire cage and watering bucket. The rebar in this case was put on the outside of the mesh, but putting the cage OVER the rebar is better because the cage is supported that way.
cage.jpg [ 73.4 KiB | Viewed 349646 times ]
|
File comment: Young burr oak, newly sprouted. This was 2nd tree to come up- planted in Nov '08, picture taken in February shortly after tree sprouted.
burr.jpg [ 76.45 KiB | Viewed 349642 times ]
|
|
