Inauspicious as the day may have seemed (rain, sleet and snow) CT Chapter Members Dr. David Bingham, Gayle Kida and Bill Adamsen braved the elements and inaugurated the season with a bit more than a symbolic planting.
David had prepared the site during better conditions with a light harrow, some brush clearing and the installation of some 45 post sockets. Dr. Bingham purchased the Benners Garden deer fencing system. This is a rather extraordinary approach using light-weight black polyethylene fencing and black steel posts that fit into a 2 foot long sleeve pounded into the ground. The posts are super easy to install, and in fact, with the exception of the sleeves, David and I installed almost 1100 feet of fencing in approximately 5 hours. The fencing itself is low visibility, so much so that we installed small white flags a regular intervals to ensure the deer wouldn't run into it at full tilt! The flags are quite visible in the full sized photo just below. We're told it's durable and time will tell whether it keeps the deer out, and lasts.
Dr. Bingham sterilizes the soil extracted from the seed holes to kill competing weedplant seeds. Surveyor flags mark intended tree locations. [click on image to see full sized photo]
Photo by Bill Adamsen
When Gayle arrived we worked out a system for integrating our control nuts in a random fashion. We then set about numbering all the Bluex sleeves for field placement. Our complete complement of nuts totaled 202 (hybrids, controls and Chinese) and the task of labeling and assembling the tubes proved much more time consuming than expected. We reminded ourselves that next time we should make a jib for assembling the tubes, and be sure to put them in order in a box.
The pre-planting layout. Lots of different kinds of nuts, tubes, maps. [click on image to see full sized photo]
Photo by Bill Adamsen
Layout was done with a 350 foot surveyors tape. I found myself getting quite good at counting 8, 16,24,32,40,48 … as I plopped in the surveying markers. We then teamed up to remove the soil using a foot assisted bulb planter. When one of us got tired of pulling plugs of soil, we switched off on pushing the wheelbarrow. Because David operates a low impact farm (in terms of pre-emergents and pesticides) he's been experimenting with using a torch to sterilize the soil. The top photo gives a good picture of him performing that task. We also gave each planting hole a good 10-15 seconds of heat. Soil mix was 50% original and then 25% milled peat and an equal amount of perlite. It looked and felt wonderful!
One of the key objectives was to test different microrhizal effects on the planting and growth. To see if soil from around a nearby American Chestnut mixed in with the potting soil helps growth through microrhizal effect any better than soil from an oak forest floor, the soil in Rows 1,3, 5 and 7 have Chestnut soil additive, while rows 2,4, and 6 have Oak soil additive (all positions). Soil from the holes, taken with a bulb planter, was torched to kill any residual seeds and rootlets, then mixed 50/50 with a combination of peat and vermiculite, before adding the Chestnut and Oak additives (latter not torched, to avoid killing facultative soil organisms). David would also like to test the effect of intercropping with different types of plants. There are several ideas to test. First, we'd like a better understanding of any variable response to typical forest understory plants. Chestnut was so dominant that it's loss has undoubtedly had a huge impact on plants as well as animals. Secondly would be identifying simple beneficial crops. Since David doesn't use pesticides, this orchard location is an excellent location to test these relationships.
Back to the planting. I placed out the 24″ Bluex tubes in order (they had been pre-numbered and labeled) and returned to insert them in the holes and stabilize them with a 32 inch bamboo wand. David followed behind with the prepared soil mix and seeds. We were both glad when the sun set and we could no longer read the tube labels, giving us a reasonable excuse to stop. Last step was securing the tops of each tube with a clothespin to help keep rodents or fowl away from the nuts.
Assembled and stacked Bluex tubes await installation. [click on image to see full sized photo]
Photo by Bill Adamsen
Much thanks go out to Anne Bingham who not only opened her home to a bunch of wet and muddy workers, but graciously fed and entertained us.
End of an industrious day! [click on image to see full sized photo]
Photo by Bill Adamsen
