re: Thoughts on trees for deer?

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I have about 60 acres to hunt on family land in north louisiana. It's about a 20 acre field that I cannot plant in, about 10 acres of 10-12 year old pines, small half acre pond, and rest hardwoods. I was thinking about buying persimmons. Not gonna fool with oak since there is plenty, especially lots of white oak. Any other fruit trees or ideas to plant, or bushes? I want honey locust but heard ones you buy online don't produce the beans and they are all thornless online. Also, what's a good time of year to plant? I'm thinking of anywhere from 10-12 trees and plants are an option as well (maybe blueberries?). Also, easiest area to plant would be around pond and figured not much would grow in the hardwoods. TIA

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I'm a big supporter of wildlife management and habitat improvement. I often find myself thinking that I enjoy planting trees and working on native habitat for deer, turkeys, etc. than I do hunting them. I own a few hundred acres in Mississippi that I am constantly working on. The more habitat management you implement, the healthier your wildlife and better your hunting will be down the road.

I'm sort of a tree growing/planting hobbyist. I grew up in the woods, and from a young age learned all about our native trees and plants, but when we bought our farm a few years ago, I started learning more about growing trees for wildlife purposes. Since then, I've planted hundreds and hundreds of trees on my property and friends' properties.

Besides oaks (for long term purposes), the best plants you can plant for deer are pear trees. Deer eat pears like crazy, and the trees are fast-growing, hardy, disease and insect resistant, and produce at a young age (usually within 5 years of planting). I've got Moonglow, Pineapple, Keifer, Bartlett, Southern King, Southern Queen, Cousins, and some other varieties. There are hundreds of pear cultivars, and many do well in Louisiana. My pears produce fruit from August into November/December, so they're key for feeding deer. I also plant alot of plums. Deer love plums and they usually produce in June and July, when deer need key nutrients for antler growth and nutrition. I've got Methley, Chickasaw, AU varieties, and Black Ruby plums.

I've also got hundreds of persimmons, chestnuts, cypress, and oaks (white, swamp chestnut, southern red, shumard, post, and hybrids). I also have some honeylocust, mostly wild, but some are thornless varieties that produce HUGE pods (Calhoun and Hershey honeylocusts).

My advice to you is to look up specific nurseries that grow trees and plants for specifically for wildlife and hunting. Here's why: the fruit that you and I are used to eating from the store come from giant commercial orchards. The trees are constantly sprayed with pesticides and chemicals to keep disease and pests away. If something happens to them, they are doctored. They are regularly fertilized and watered. etc. etc. For a wildlife tree, you want a HARDY tree. You won't be there all the time watering it and spraying it and babying it. Species bred for hunting/wildlife are hardy trees. They are more resistant to disease and pest and drought/weather than commercial species. Basically they are tougher. If you get your trees from these sources, they will survive better, therefore produce more fruit and flourish.

Besides trees I grow myself, I use several different nurseries that grow "wild" trees. Mossy Oak Nativ Nurseries is a great one. They pretty much only have young sapling trees, but they are excellent quality and grow quickly. I use The Wildlife Group in Alabama alot. They are a nursery who specializes in plants for wildlife and hunting. I also use Wildlife Growers in Georgia. Depending on the size of trees you order, you can get them shipped to you. Mossy Oak will ship them to you within a couple of days, since they are small saplings. I've gotten both small trees, and large 3-4 year old bare-root trees freighted down.

Another bit of advice: you want variety on your property. My goal is to have native food available at all times of the year. In addition to my food plots, etc, I like having native fruit, nuts, acorns, berries, etc. Plums, honeysuckle, and blackberries in the spring and summer; pears and apples in the summer and fall; persimmons in the early fall; honeylocust pods, chestnuts and acorns in the fall and winter. Look at specific species and their drop dates, and think of how and when you want fruit on the ground. Fall is the obvious time, since its hard to beat a dropping persimmon or pear tree for a bow stand. But, also, think about what you can have available for deer in the late summer, when native green growth has hardened off, and in the late winter, when they are trying to replenish nutrients after the rut.

Now is the best time to be planting trees, January and February before the spring starts to warm up. That way the tree is settled by the time it warms up so it can put its energy into greening up. Just be warned, most trees won't seem to grow a ton in their first year in the ground. Their first year, trees spend most of their energy growing their root system. Then in year 2 they will grow like crazy.

I'm about to start my planting for the year once my deer season is over January 31.

ETA: I do have some apple trees, but there are very few apple trees that do well in the deep south. Apples need lots of cold days (below freezing) to produce fruit, which we get very few of in the deep south. Do your homework if you decide to get any apples. Pears you don't really need to worry about. Just make sure that ANY tree you want to plant will grow in our Hardiness Zone. North LA and southern MS are in Zone 8, south LA is in Zone 9.

ETA: Tree tubes or some sort of enclosure is a must. They enhance vertical growth of the tree and they protect it. No use doing all the work to prep a site and plant trees if you're gonna let a buck break it in half with his horns or you run over it with the bushhog when you're not paying attention, haha. Protect your investment.