It's that time of year again to do some pruning of the lateral branches on the Black Cherry, Black Walnut and Figured Poplar trees. Being that our farm is located in Climate Zone 5, sometimes referred to as Hardness Zone, winter pruning can be done after January 1st. With over a hundred trees to trim, this job takes several days.
Before getting into the particulars of how to do winter pruning, I thought it would be cool to
take a look back to when the plantations were first established 11 years ago.
It took several weeks to drop the trees on the two acres of ground where we wanted to plant the veneer quality timber.
By the time we were done, piles of brush cluttered the landscape. Enough firewood for several years lay scattered around the area we had cleared.
Over the next couple of years, the landscape started to green up. The sunlight was no longer blocked from reaching the ground that had been shaded by the canopy of the forest.
The young trees were thriving. The tubes were doing their job, protecting the saplings from the deer and accelerated their growth.
This is a picture of the one Black Walnut tree that we planted next to the house. At this point, the tree is about four years old.
This is the tree now. This past year, we needed a telescoping lift to get to the top of the tree in order to prune the central leader. While we were pruning this tree we measured it and it came in at 37 feet tall.
This year's lateral pruning of this tree will include removing two branches, the 3rd and 4th branches up, as seen in this picture. When pruning you want to take off branches that are on opposite sides of the tree. Pruning the tree in this fashion keeps the tree balanced and growing straight.
After 11 years of nurturing, we now have a well-established plantation. In another 20 to 25 years, it will be time to yell TIMBER and send these veneer grade bolts off to market. 😁
This is a picture of the lower plantation with the winter pruning completed.
Many of the trees have now been trimmed up at least 12 feet, and the first bolt of lumber has been clearly established.
This trail leads to the top plantation, which I pruned the second day.
The weather was perfect during the two days spent removing the lateral branches, with the temperature hovering just above freezing and very little bone-chilling wind.
As I trimmed the trees, I cut pieces of the branches to the lengths needed for making walking sticks and saved them.
You can see the branches that I removed piled at the base of the trees.
Here is a picture of the tree with two branches removed. When pruning, you want to leave about a 1/2 to an inch of stub. The area where the branch was removed will heal much quicker if you don't cut the branch flush with the trunk.
Here's a picture of two branches that were removed last year. You can see that the tree is starting to grow around the wound.
With branches lying at the base of over 100 trees, cleaning up the debris would take some time.
Having planted 20 Figured Poplar trees five years ago, I'm amazed at how fast they have grown. They tower over many of the Black Walnut trees that were planted years before them.
The timing could not have been better for a visit by my daughter and future son-in-law.
Help had arrived and carting off the branches would now only take a fraction of the time.
Of course, we couldn't leave the dogs behind.
With all of the help that I had, I decided to play photographer and let them do their thing.
Young blood, it's hard to remember those youthful days.
Now, this is how you're supposed to behave if you want to impress your future father-in-law.
What a crew, I think I may have to buy them a #beer when we get back to the house!
Lots of potential walking sticks.
I told you they were inseparable! On the walk back to the house this particular moment filled my heart with joy.
With all of the nonsense going on, Robin has missed her children dearly. I hope this very special weekend of hanging out with our daughter and her future husband has somewhat filled that void in her soul.
The last tree to trim was the big one next to the house. After I removed the two branches and climbed down the ladder, my little girl wanted to learn how to use the chainsaw.
After giving her a few pointers and stressing how to operate the saw safely, I just stood back and admired her new #homesteading skills.
Look at her go!
It only took her a few minutes to complete this task, and just as she finished she was looking for more wood to cut.
I told her that if she enjoyed running the chainsaw so much, she should make a point of visiting in April when I drop next year's firewood!
Check that job off of the list.