Shrubs?

Patience is a virtue. I always preach waiting until a management plans is complete before jumping into something and will do it again here.

Tell the resource professional what you are trying to accomplish and how you hope to accomplish it. If he or she thinks it is at all feasible with the soils you have it will be incorporated into your plan and maybe there will be some NRCS cost share dollars to help out. If the planner does not think the idea is feasible an alternative will surely be suggested. FM

 

If you discuss what you wanted with the plan formulator, if they have any experience in the area at all, they should have been able to recommend some species for you that would thrive on your specific soil type(s). FM

 

im sure i will get some backlash for it but i will say it anyway. autumn olive.

 

Agree they grow well in lighter soils .I planted 1500 of them about 25 years ago they are not the nightmare many say they are .

 

They're a worse nightmare than that..

 

No not at all... no different than any other wildlife shrub .Easily controlled with gly .Very beneficial to many animals .Fantastic bedding areas if spaced right .Easy to grow from seed .

 

Not so easy to control when you are trying to keep it out of your 160 acres of pasture..

 

Easy to grow from seed? Please pm me how and then I'll delete this so no one loses their mind.

 

please tell how to grow from seed. i will convert my whole back yard to a nursery. i love the stuff. if anyone has 1-3 foot shoots of it and want it gone just let me know.

 

Yep, here is some backlash and my reason for it.

Have you ever had a neighboring landowner introduce an invasive species into his little opening and then had it literally take over any place on your property where sunlight could reach the ground to the point it required you to put in hours and hours of extra work just to keep your trails, food plot and shooting lanes open? I have. Or have you ever had that invasive species populate your pine plantation after a thinning to a point where, in places, it cannot be walked through? I have. The guy planted it after it became restricted too. Apparently he felt the rule didn't apply to him.

I would not give a rats rear end if AO stayed where it was planted but it can spread like wildfire and crown out native species under a wide range of conditions. Hence the designation "invasive species" by the State of Michigan. There is a reason "it is unlawful to possess, introduce, import, sell or offer that species for sale...except under certain circumstances" in Michigan and many other states.

 

^ Exactly. I have spent a bunch of hours trying to get rid of autumn olive and Phragmites over the past several years. Now it is a yearly chore to try to keep them under control, but it seems they continue to spread. Too much time spent controlling invasives when I could be working on other habitat.

 

I would consider going to a property in the spring before they leaf out and dig up a few dozen small AO to bare root into the area you wish turn into a brushy area quickly.
Pretty easy to identify and decent survival % if you are not planting them into pure sand.
They will survive in sandy soil but you might need to water them weekly during a summer dry spell.

L & O

 

Oak are a much bigger problem for me .Squirrels plant them all over my vacant pieces of property and they are much harder to control than AO .Sugar maple at my UP cabin on most years spread all over any spot that is vacant although they kill easy with gly or mowing .Vacant land will never be free from other species wanting to take a foot hold .It's nature at work .