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Taking care of pines

PickettSFHunter

PickettSFHunter

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2004
Messages
22,235
Location
Jamestown, TN
I need to plant a lot of pines around my house to screen the incoming Californians and Yankees out. Some will be in pasture, others on old building pads. Due to this being around the house I want them to be well maintained until they get some size. In the past, I've just bushhogged pine rows but this will be too many to take care of like that. Is there a spray I can spray directly over pines to control the weeds? Something I can get easily. Thank you
 
Imazapic can be used for loblolly.
If planting other species...grass selective herbicide can be used on grasses. Forb selective can sometimes be used.
But easy way is to be careful with the herbicide and don't get it on the tree. Then glyphosate can be used if careful to not get on leaves, that is really effective and easier once pines get about 3 years old.
 
I think Fusilade 2 is safe for pines. I used a plastic drain pipe about 4' long to set over each one then sprayed roundup. After the got about 18"-2' tall I never covered them and had no issues.
 
nwsg76 said:
Imazapic can be used for loblolly.
If planting other species...grass selective herbicide can be used on grasses. Forb selective can sometimes be used.
But easy way is to be careful with the herbicide and don't get it on the tree. Then glyphosate can be used if careful to not get on leaves, that is really effective and easier once pines get about 3 years old.
Click to expand...
Pic or pyr? Maybe both?
 
If I had that kind of acerage I'd check with some of the timber companies. They might be able to work with you after you explain what you'd like. Maybe they could plant 3 or 4 different cycles of trees, just for the pulp wood.

It's worth checking on IMO. They may even pay for using the land.
 
If you are wanting a visual screen I would stagger fast growing loblolly with a slower growing pine like white or **gasp** Virginia pine and lay off the weed control once you get them established.
 
MickThompson said:
If you are wanting a visual screen I would stagger fast growing loblolly with a slower growing pine like white or **gasp** Virginia pine and lay off the weed control once you get them established.
Click to expand...
Excellent advice. Biggest problem with using loblolly as a screen is how fast they will grow beyond the screen stage.

This loblolly is one we planted as a bare-root seedling just three years ago.
 

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MickThompson said:
If you are wanting a visual screen I would stagger fast growing loblolly with a slower growing pine like white or **gasp** Virginia pine and lay off the weed control once you get them established.
Click to expand...
The screen im planning is really more of "blocks" of pines. Very wide screen 😂 These Yankees and Californians that tend to move here are not what you want as neighbors typically. I don't want to see any of that crap at all and I don't want them seeing in. I haven't taken any measurements yet but probably as much as 15-20 rows of pines in places. I guess my concern with not spraying is that these pastures will overtake Pines quick. A lot of giant ragweed, Johnson grass, milkweed, etc that gets tall. My hope is to just drive down rows with a sprayer to maintain until the pines get up high enough. I've taken care of this property for deer for years now but that is essentially gone with the development going on. Just got this house done on the farm a year ago and was very isolated but here they come. I already have some smaller screens of loblolly pitch hybrids that have done well but they were easier to manage being in just 2 rows. I've done a lot white pine transplanting as well and really like those!
 
PickettSFHunter said:
The screen im planning is really more of "blocks" of pines. Very wide screen 😂 These Yankees and Californians that tend to move here are not what you want as neighbors typically. I don't want to see any of that crap at all and I don't want them seeing in. I haven't taken any measurements yet but probably as much as 15-20 rows of pines in places. I guess my concern with not spraying is that these pastures will overtake Pines quick. A lot of giant ragweed, Johnson grass, milkweed, etc that gets tall. My hope is to just drive down rows with a sprayer to maintain until the pines get up high enough. I've taken care of this property for deer for years now but that is essentially gone with the development going on. Just got this house done on the farm a year ago and was very isolated but here they come. I already have some smaller screens of loblolly pitch hybrids that have done well but they were easier to manage being in just 2 rows. I've done a lot white pine transplanting as well and really like those!
Click to expand...
Sounds like you need honey locust and bodock instead of pine blocks
 
Loblollies don't need a lot of help if planting from cleared land. If planting from a clearcut, the recommendation is to kill everything off and then plan the following year. The return on investment depends on low maintenance. Shortleafs are my preference but they take 5-10 years longer to establish...several years to get above the grass, and are more susceptible to competition from unwanted volunteers.

 
The last loblollies we planted, we followed right behind the loggers. No spraying, but then we didn't plant them as an investment. Just for habitat, and we wanted then to get knarly-thick. We also planted on a wide spacing to help produce all the thick regen growth. We planted early March of 2020 and most of the pines are 8-10' and up above the competition.
 
If I were the OP I would considering doing a mix of short leaf pine and white oaks. White oak seedlings well spaced with tree tubes and mats. Then short leaf pine bare root seedlings at short intervals between the white oaks. 5-10 short leaf per white oak. The short leaf are delicate as seedlings so many won't survive. By the time the pines take off the white oaks will be established. There will be years of added thicket over a loblolly planting. In the long run it will produce a more beautiful and valuable, both to wildlife and financially, over loblolly.

I started planting loblollies as a kid 35 years ago to earn money for boy scout trips. Over the years my opinion of them as become less and less. They are not a pretty tree. A catastrophic ice storm creates a worthless mess that would be expensive to clean up or take many years to rott on it's own (ice storm of '94). They did not end up being nearly as valuable as they were anticipated to be 30-50 years ago, in part due over planting but also NAFTA.

If loblollies are spaced correctly and the seed bed is properly cleared of prior growth competition, then they are low maintenance. If there are Viriginia pine or other loblollies to drop competing seeds, you can end up with a situation that requires either pre-commercial thinning, or end up with a worthless mass of trees that never grow to size and provide no other benefit to wildlife or the forest.
 

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