Arbuckle Mountain Area Chapter
Sand Plum Planting
Scroll Way Down - Lots of
Info
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Arbuckle Mountain Area Chapter |
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 Updated Items
below... 6-27-07 |
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Herbicides and weed eaters take their toll on the stands as the spray drift whacks them as well as the weed eater strings, no matter how hard you try. We stumbled across Blue X tubes which help with protection, visibility, moisture retention and lighting benefits. Details of a sample planting are below. We also created a test patch to test the benefits of the Blue X tubes. |
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| Plum Thicket Videos | Blue X w/ Herbicides | Existing Plantings Can Benefit (1.9mb video) |
| Weed Control | Native Plants Can Choke Out New Plantings (3.6mb video) | |
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Demo Patch Update | May 2007 Update 1 (video) |
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New Plums Need Maintenance | Plums Not Sprayed or Managed (video) |
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Plum Plot Planting Layouts |
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| Treat Patch with herbicides then disk (below) | Lay out the corners (below) | |
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| Finished plot (below) | Weeds coming in fast with rain (below) | |
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| Weeds sprayed coming soon.... (below) | Growing patch with milo and millet planted in disked area (below) | |
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| Blue X parts - sleeve and flat sheet (below) | Roll up sheet and insert into sleeve (below) | |
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| Plum Thicket Planting - Concerns and Techniques | |
| Drought | Several thickets were planted at d Bar b Rock Creek, one batch in 2004 and the next in 2005. 2006 was skipped due to disappointing prior results and the drought underway at the time. Roughly 60% of the thickets previously planted were at least top killed by the drought, spring rains in may bring some back. A new solution of shelter tubes that is affordable and relatively easy to use is described below. |
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Progress Note: April 2007, An average wet winter and some warm weather early with typical spring rains have sprouted many of the apparently dead sand plums that were planted in 2004 and 2005 before the drought. This shows the resilience and eons of evolution of the native prairie plant types and their ability to rebound and thrive in tough conditions. |
| Weed Killing | Weeds can literally suck the life out of new plantings. While sand plums will compete well with native prairie once established, bare root stock must be given a chance. The summer and fall before planting use herbicides to kill the area and once dead remove the thatch either with a rake or with a tractor disk or box blade. In late winter spray any of the weed starts and keep as much bare ground as you can. Shelter tubes can assist in protecting small plants from herbicides for several years after planting. |
| Weed Control | Sand plums respond negatively to both glysophate (Roundup) and triclopyr (Remedy, PastureGuard). You can use glysophate on the green grasses and weeds at the base of the plums in the dormant season as long as the plums have no leaves on them. Triclopyr can leach in to the plant through the bark and should be avoided even when the plums are dormant. No matter how hard you try, if the weeds and grasses grow taller than the bare root shrubs, it's very hard not to spray the plums, thus killing a few. Consider shelter tubes described below which protect the trunks and leaves from the herbicides. |
| Weed Matting | Weeds can be controlled by using landscape matting, but with a significant expense and effort. Corrugated paper or cardboard could be used as a temporary fix possibly for one season, but rain, wind and sun will potentially render the effort useless. |
| Shelter Tubes | In the past, shelter tubes such as can be found at Forestry Suppliers were possible to use. In addition to the expense, 500 of the tubes were bulky, basically PVC like pipes and rigid. Blue X Plant Tubes are new to our area in 2007 and consist of a blue sheet of plastic and an outer plastic tube, like a newspaper bag. Both are shipped flat and transport to the field flat, but better assembled inside see tips below. The sheet of blue plastic is rolled and inserted into the outer tube which keeps it from uncurling. They'll last a few years in the field and outer tubes can be ordered after the tubes are cut off, thus being able to reuse the inner blue plastic. The blue light created by the tubes enhances plant growth (see their website) and is patented. The tubes allow herbicide control for a year or two while the plants establish, assist in moisture retention and wind damage, and theoretically allow for increased growth potential. We are trying 15" sizes for plums and will report the results. |
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Assembly Tips: After assembling 1250 tubes, some patterns evolved on efficiency. It does go faster with 2-4 people, but the tip is described for one person who can assemble about 40-50 an hour. Set up on a large table or workbench. Seated works, but your reach will be limited. Lay out a stack of the flat acetate. Position a pile of the sleeves to the left of the stack if you are right handed. Roll the acetate up into about an 1 1/2 inch roll, tap it against your stomach to even out the roll. With your left hand, grab the sleeve and puff out the opening with your left fingers and slide in the acetate roll like you might push in a pencil. The roll will expand when you release it. Grab the entire assembly and stand it up on the back of the bench or table, tapping it a couple of times to expand the acetate fully and to level it into the tube. Finish 25 or 50 total. With all the tubes standing, use the hole punch to carefully punch each tube at the top where the acetate doubles over, as this helps with the strength of two layers to help resist wind tearing out the acetate from the wire tie later. Be careful not to move the tubes too much so that the holes punched do not misalign. Once all the holes are punched, grab a wad of wire ties and fold them all over in half at one time which makes a gentle bend and does them efficiently all at once. Toss them on the table and they'll fall apart to more easily grab them. Take one wire tie at a time and insert them from the outside with the right hand, grab the tie with the left hand and pull up to the middle bend, and in one motion, twist the tube with your right hand a time or two the "twist" the wire tie sufficiently not to fall back out. While being efficient, toss the tube to a pile to the left with a flip of your left hand. They'll go everywhere, but don't do much damage at all. When you have a pile of 25 or 50 twisted, grab a trash bag and wrestle them in, horizontal to the ground for easy compression as the bag fills. You can get 25 in a smaller kitchen bag and about 50 in a typical garbage can bag. They then carry easily to the field. |
| Plants | The plants can be ordered from the the Oklahoma Forestry Services Division... They are easily planted with dibbles, heavy wedge bars that slit the soil. See the link below. |
| Fertilizer | Always get a soils test before fertilizing. We order fertilizer tablets that can be dropped in the back slit formed after the bare root plant has been tamped in. They can be ordered below. |
| Supplies | Bare Root Plants | Order Form (pdf download) |
| Bare Root Planting Tips | OSU F-6414 (pdf 198kb) | |
| Plant Shelter Tubes |
Blue X Plant
Shelters are new to
our area in 2007 and this year we will be trying them to attempt increase
the success ratio. Photo of the pieces loose Photo of the pieces assembled |
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| Bare Root Planting Dibbles |
Jim-Gem Bare Root Planting Dibble - Forestry Suppliers Speedy Dibble - Bare Root Planting Dibble - Forestry Suppliers |
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| Plant Shelter Stakes | Bamboo Stakes scroll down - Forestry Suppliers | |
| Fertilizer Tabs | Fertilizer Tabs - Forestry Suppliers | |
