I'm happy as hell for ya. Thanks for the update Tom. Your words come screaming right up off the page. Gonna be a beautiful place to rest (sometime)!

Dax

Tom:

Glad to hear things are progressing. Sorry about the frost damage. At my timberland in the MD mountains, we had a terrible freeze last year that set most things back. This year another freeze was forecast, but the damage was minimal.

As for my spruce screen here in Winchester: The little trees I planted three years ago grew teriffically this spring. I planted larger stock than you did--most between 20 and 30 inches. About 20% of those larger ones, for some reason--soils mostly, I think--grew very, very little the first two years. A few grew only three inches the first year, and then maybe less than that last year. But, WOW! This year some of those trees grew almost two feet. This shows that patience is sometimes needed with little Norway spruce trees. Most of those I planted as the 20 to 30 inches "transplants" are now above the top of the protective cages, which are 47 inches high. The tallest--the one with the most of what I have called "free growth" is about 7.5 feet tall now.

But after good spring growth, we have had a drought. At about the end of May we had 1.5 inches in a good rain, and then after that, in the next 7 weeks we had only .5. And then we started having very hot days--so far 6 days at about 100 and two or three 102 or so. No rain. Now I have touted how drought resistant Norway spruce are. Well, yes--after they are well established and reasonably large. But I have had drought damage on my spruce planted three years ago. I was a bit surprised. Only two completely dead, but 15 or 20 damaged--foliage loss.

So, I got out 650 feet of hose and it took about 16 hours over two days, but I soaked every one of these 300 or so Norway spruce trees. Most showed no damage, but I am not taking any more chances. The drought could intensify, and all my work would be lost.

I have had bur oaks in the ground for three years turn half brown, about 20% of the shortleaf pine I planted last year also died. They are supposed to develop deep roots fast, butÂ. I have soaked those also. One of my hybrid larches that has been in the ground for 6 years almost died.

Well, with my hose and a good strong well, I have saved most things. But this is drought country for sure. We are in a rain shadow and will get extended periods of dry weather. Last summer--late--we went 37 days with no rain. Things that survived that well, died this time around. I think the drought coming earlier, and the 100 plus temps, is the difference. But a few things that showed stress last year actually look better now. So it is a mixed picture.

Anyway, the soils here are good, and relatively deep, and retain moisture well, so after my trees get more established, things will be fine. Some of my older oak trees--8 years or so--including shummards, look perfectly lush in spite of the drought and heat.

--spruce

Thnx Dax, Yes, there is much to be happy about up there. Forgot to mention also that the stands of native "northern white cedar", aka, Thuja occidentalis, were looking quite tough coming out of winter and right through the spring. Each individual spray of foliage had dead sections in it. I attribute this to chronic drought coupled with too much harsh, dry, typically N.E. wind in April/May. But these trees are lush now, showing amazing ability to recover. There was also, to my chagrin, a large area of these same trees that had been shot into with birdshot repeatedly by "somebody's" kid and his friends. They meant no harm but it just about made me sick every time I was there. I did cut off the busted, broken, dead stuff as high as I could reach about a month ago, and now, with the excellent growing conditions, these too are looking much better. The youth has been trained in this matter!

Spruce, that's really tough, the drought you're having. Yikes! We were dry last year, aside from June, but temps were mercifully cool. That 90's and 100's really makes a difference in cooking the life out of stuff. One can only admire your tenacity. I know all too well how much fun it is to try to keep large numbers of plants watered/alive. At work, we do tons of watering, primarily of ornamental plantings, though certainly not this year. But there's always somebody around telling me or my crew what a nice job we have, watering "those" plants. What they fail to realize is that we're scrambling, trucking as much water as possible per day. It's not relaxing at all. After "those" plants are watered, it's rush rush to try to get to more sites, on and on.

I can only hope for the best results possible for you at both your locations. I know how committed to this you have been.

+oM

Tom:

So you follow up your plantings and water--great. It amazes me how few people do that, and it makes me sick to see all the newly planted trees left to die in dry weather. I just can't understand why anyone would take the time to plant a nice tree, and then not water it.

But here in Winchester this year they have done some upgrading of some streets and walks, and embarked on a real tree planting program. And the people involved in this have placed those seeping water bags (do they have some official name?) next to the trees, and kept them filled. Wonderful to see that for a change.

Well, I watch the weather like a hawk, and watch all the forecasts, and now I see in the 8 to 14 day outlook a good chance for rain. Fingers crossed. But I spent all day today watering, and I have everything watered that I have any idea may need water. The trees I planted this year are good for at least five days now, and the older stuff I soaked should be good for up to two weeks or more, depending on how hot it gets--and, of course, whether we get rain.

Well, keep me posted on your planting, and other progress with your new land. I love getting the updates.

--Spruce

That's right Tom. You take care of kids right now. I live where I expect during my lifetime for wandering kids to walk on in and start stealing signs, kicking stuff. I've got a voice that attracts attention + I'm coool as all hell.

Take care Tom,

Dax

Uh yeah, Dax, it took a few tries, but I think I've got him on the same page with me now. And that is worth a lot right there considering I hope for this land to be in the family after I leave.

Thanks spruce.....will do.

+oM

I've recorded 19" rain since June 1st, which is actually low considering areas just south and east of here (Waukesha-Milwaukee counties) are in the 25" range. Luckily, we avoided the heavy freezes this spring. Most of my NS put on 15-30" of growth and that has been very satisfying, considering the most I'd seen in the previous 3 years was 12". 5 or 6 of them are now around 6ft tall. I think more than anything else, removing the 3 large black walnuts in the area a couple years ago has helped my trees finally get established. (The first NS were planted in 2005, but all of them were dead by 2007)

So far only one of them is showing any kind of free growth (about 4") but a few others look like they are about to bust out again.

Thanks for the info Gnome. We 'sconnies sure have been blessed-or cursed as the case may be-with ample moisture this summer. My oldest son lives in the Shorewood area of Milwaukee. His area was hit hard by flooding a few days ago. Quite a few homes severely damaged by the water collapsing foundations, etc. Moist it is.

Some of my NS are beginning the "free growth" stage as well. I'm still not entirely clear on this concept. Will a full set of new terminal and side buds develop when this growth is done? Quite a few of my larch, which had been variously deer-chewed, frozen, or otherwise rendered "topless" have also come around very nicely. I've got two pine species I'm working with up there also.....red and ponderosa. The latter was just kind of a whim-I did it one year but will probably stick to the red pine from here on. It's just so much more vigorous although a few of the ponderosas are coming along quite nicely. Neither of these two species had put on new growth when that hard mid-May freeze occurred, so they went undamaged by that event.

Should mention too that white pine-along with white cedar and white birch....looks like a pattern(!)-are regenerating here and there on the land. I have moved just a few of these into the open field, but mostly. they can just stay put. The white cedar..yes Thuja o....re-seed themselves so abundantly that I am able to move quite a number of them as well. Last year I moved some of those that were 5 and 6 feet tall. They never even hicupped. Just resumed their growth. That's fun.

+oM

It's always interesting to read about the different climates and growing conditions people have for Summer. Over a recent trip into the Midwest and Montana area I discovered that it is both MUCH warmer and MUCH MUCH wetter then the Pacific Northwest right now. We got drenched repeatedly in Montana while now at home it has been almost four weeks without a 'trace' at the airport'. No rain in sight as well - as is our typical dry 2-3 months here.

For me, especially with so many new conifers in the ground - LOTS of watering. I water relentlessly during my off-time from work and my water bill this month should be some kind of record. I generally am watering every plant every 3-4 days and some of them every couple days, especially those in pots.

It's not especially warm here now, low to upper 70s generally but the days are long that the 'heat effect' for the plants is probably larger then our mild temps suggest.

We're still getting 12+ hours of direct sunlight and 16 hour days, so with the ample watering my plants are going ballistic.

I can't believe it's 90s every day in KC, what a scorcher that is.

-Will

Tom, the rain last week was truly unbelievable. One of the local TV stations on the north side of Milwaukee recorded 7" of rain falling in one hour at their studio. Can't even begin to imagine what that would be like...Hope your son escaped serious damage!

As for free growth, one of my NS had about 6" of free growth last year, which emerged from a terminal bud that had just finished forming. The free growth didn't form terminal and side buds on it until september. However, that terminal bud produced 24" of growth this spring that is now covered in no less than 50 buds for next year! This includes an oddly placed symetric whorl of 8 buds just above of where it emerged from last years free-growth terminal bud.

What I found odd as well was this free-growth terminal bud from last year was rather non remarkable in size. I made note early this spring which trees had the largest terminal buds to see if that would correlate to the magnitude of growth. It turned out the largest buds produced somewhat above average growth(16-20"), but the trees that had the most (24-30") growth had average looking terminal buds. Of course this is all very non scientific.

I will post an update later of the growth of my Norway spruce in the long two row screen I planted three years ago--they are in their third year of growth now. I want to wait until growth is completed, and I want to collect the best pictures.

Anyway, following up on what gnomeabram reports--yes, the biggest buds don't always lead to the most growth. But really small buds are a problem and almost always indicate poor growth.

The trees that had the free growth last year this year seemed to grow about average--and none of those had free growth for a second year. I expected less growth on these trees because they had less time for terminal buds to develop. The one that grew the most last year and did not finish until early September, with no visible terminal bud until two or three weeks after that, showed good growth.

I had about 4 Norway spruce show significant free growth this year. As of now, all but one has stopped. I am taking pictures of that one every three weeks. I took pictures today, and the tip--maybe the top 8 inches or so has flopped over sideways. It will straighten up later, I am sure. But what is interesting is we have had a drought this year, and when I did my soaking of my NS recently, I did not give this one any water--it is just out of reach of my hoses. So, a lot of water is not what has stimulated the free growth of this tree this year. But, if I had been watering, maybe more of them would still be growing.

--spruce

Thanks guys. So it sounds like "free growth" is in effect, two complete growth surges within one growing season, complete with bud formation, albeit, much later in the season, of course. Are there other conifers that can do this? I haven't paid enough attention to know this yet!

A couple of other tidbits from the tree farm......dawn redwood is looking not too impressive for this zone at this point. Now, I only had three of them going. The one which was doing the best is now stone-dead. It never really came around in the spring. The other two are alive and have grown a bit, but I'm not expecting much out of these.

Green Giant arbs, on the other hand, seem just fine up there. Three were planted originally and all three are surviving without any signs of trouble, and making some growth. Those three are out in the open field area of my project. Just for kicks, I bought three more three-footers on sale a couple months ago. These I placed in a much more sheltered area right alongside a thick grove of their native cousins, Thuja o. I am interested in what these will become. They seem very happy in their new home and have put on close to a foot of growth already. I do wonder if I will be creating some new hybrid monster between the GGs and the native "cedars". I would be interested in anyone's thoughts as to whether I might be doing some kind of ecological damage should the two tree types successfully hybridize with each other. That is, the creation of a viable hybrid which might "pollute" the genetics of the Thuja o's, which pollution may only express itself when truly cold weather arrives some winter. Maybe I'm way over-thinking this stuff, but on the one hand, I would actually like to see the hybridization occur. Hybrids often have some extra juice it seems. But not if cold-hardiness or some other critical attribute were negatively effected. My land, as I'm sure I've mentioned several times, is very highly populated by Thuja o, it being one of the reasons I bought where I did. And of course, it is a concern I have for beyond my property boundaries. The whole area is rich in this species. I'd hate to screw it up! Anyone know enough about the GGs to state whether or not they even flower at the same time?

+oM

Tom:

The "free growth" I am observing in my Norway spruce does not involve two growth surges. What I think I am observing is an initial unfolding of the contents of the winter bud. At first, the growth is like any other of my Norway spruce trees. Then, and here I am not absolutely sure exactly how it happens--whether a second bud forms, or starts to form, or not before the "free growth" starts. But the free growth is not a second "spurt" as such. It is unlike the unfolding or extension of the elements of the winter bud that began the year's growth. Instead, it seems that needles are continually emerging and elongating one-by-one from the tip. I say one-by-one, but there are a good number bunched together in a depressed tip, and they gradually lengthen and "emerge" out of that tip and end up as regular needles on the stem as it elongates. This "free growth" is slow--maybe an inch or two per week. It is much slower than the initial elongation of the shoot that develops out of the winter bud.

If you have observed closely how your larch trees grow, I can say that the "free growth" I have observed on my NS looks exactly like the growth of larch, but the tip out of which the needles emerge is heavier and more dense. It also looks to me like how cedar trees grow.

Other conifers are different. I have shortleaf pines and they form a series of buds and shoots. After the initial winter bud extends into a "candle," almost immediately, sometimes a new bud starts to form, and often before it seems fully formed, it extends into a new shoot. The new shoots come often even before the needles on the previous shoot have grown to their full length. The growth of Virginia pine and loblolly pine seem similar.

As pinetree 30 carefully pointed out, the extra growth on white pine, which is relatively infrequent, is something else entirely. Here it is elements at the base of the newly formed winter bud that extend, but the remainder of the winter bud remains closed and intact. What I have observed fits his description perfectly. Occasionally, I have seen some significant extra growth happen this way. This kind of extra growth on white pine happens rather rapidly as a kind of extra growth "spurt."

With hardwoods there are similar differences. The kinds of oak trees I observe never show free growth, but may have two or three growth spurts, each of which develops out of a new bud that forms. Other trees, like tuliptree and sycamore, for example, grow only by free growth--one leaf at a time emerges as the stem gradullay lengthens.

Well, I am sure you know most of this already. I always go into more explanation than necessary.

--spruce