They will eat most of the nuts though, but a few will be left and might grow into trees. Birds are doing that service for me all the time, mostly with beech and hazel.

Which is why this idea only works if I can get a lot of the nurts cheap. I can't find a source of the beech seeds that is cheap enough to be practical. Is there a particular time of year squirrels are more likely to bury nuts then eat them right way?

This fits right in with my theory to control chipmunks. Let an Alpha Chipmunk establish your yard as his territory and he will chase all other chipmunks away.

It works really well, maybe too well, with walnuts. I've got Juglans nigra seedlings popping up everywhere, because I can't resist collecting the nuts while out hiking around and then feeding them to the squirrels.

The biggest problem I see with this is that a lot of trees are designed to survive deer attacks when quite young. So you cut them down and they resprout. It's not necessarily easy to get rid of the ones in bad places. Maples are the absolute worst for that, but oaks and hickories also don't necessarily get the idea. However, if there is a particular place you want the nuts planted, try mulching it well to soften the soil, and provide some sort of cover. My squirrels rarely cover open space because of fear of aerial attack. I have found squirrel tails hanging ten feet up a tree, so it is a legitimate fear.

Black Walnut would be the easy one, but because of jugalone fears and a pine border with our neighbors I kind of want to control where I plant walnuts. I'm thinking acorns and hickory would lend themselves to this strategy. I'm hoping the squirrels plant trees 1.) in the "no man's land" between the row of trees and shrubs we planted along our border and the neighbor planted along theirs, and 2.) The cliff by the water. Of course, the risk is they will put them in our foundation plantings...I tend to think people are too paranoid about planting close to their house, but even I don't want oaks growing between the foundation plantings and the house...

FYI, our squirrels have no fear of going in the open.

Any other suggestions as to trees that lend themselves to this strategy? Or good sourches of cheap seeds Also, what time of year do squirrels bury nuts?

True, mad_gallica, that is interesting, many tree seedlings must have a lot of energy stored in their roots to resprout.

Ed, one positive about the juglone is that there appears to be some suppression of invasive plant growth underneath the big black walnuts growing in the wild areas of this neighborhood (which is overrun by invasive woody plants like shrub honeysuckle, oriental bittersweet, buckthorn, privet, etc). So I'm letting them get established in a couple more naturalized sections of the back yard.

Not sure about seed sources, but you can also search for them yourself, I often stumble across a tree that has dropped a ton of nuts while out walking.

I'd second Mad Gallica's suggestion to create little pads of mulched areas. Wherever we've mulched around trees and shrubs, flower beds or what have you, squirrels always seem to plant nuts into those areas. So, we have some parks in the older parts of town full of native-genetics oaks and hickories. This is the best way I know of to have those gene lines continued-letting squirrels plant nuts of the trees into mulched spots and then later sorting out what we want, what we don't. I'd say too that if black walnut is in the area, you will get a great deal of these coming up as well, perhaps more than the oaks and hickories. For my part, squirrels have always managed to plant black walnuts in spots where I absolutely cannot let them go on to maturity. Usually right in the middle of an established shrub.

+om

If I had time to prepare mulch beds I'd have time to plant the nuts myself.

I don't much care for shrubs and there are a few shrubs I'd be OK having a tree sprouting in the middle of. With the previously noted exception of the foundation plantings. (In fact, there is a self sown tree growing from a yew that is coexisting rather nicely).

The real hope is to get some trees growing in the space between the neighbor's privacy planting and ours. I question the longevity of the choices that were made. Also would be nice to get some trees growing on that bittersweet infested cliff I have trouble reaching.

Funny you should mention black walnut. There are no black walnut in the neighborhood. I'd decided NOT to do this with black walnuts so as not to damage the neighbor's young pines. However, I did recently plant a few black walnut. I'm hoping when they grow up their spawn will give the self-sown maples (Norway? Silver?) a run for their money...

Ed, do as you wish, but the scenario I lay out is one of great ease and simplicity. Not sure what kind of "mulch bed" you are envisioning, but really, they can be as small as just a few sq. feet, or, as you seem to have a linear planting in mind, a long narrow bed. But of course, if you don't like the idea, don't use it! I'm merely telling you of something I've seen happen time and time again.

+oM

"Maples are the absolute worst for that"
but at least maple seedlings are easy to pull out. Ashes send down a tap root much faster, at least in my soil.

come on ed.. lol ...

dig a small plot.. a few feet each way ... throw down some acorns... step on them to secure them in the soil... cover no more and an inch or so.. like a squirrel ..... cover with hardware cloth ... and come back in a year or three ...

move them in a couple years ...

dude.. how lazy can you get.. rotflmbo ...

one thing for sure.. wildlife will never plant them in a good spot ...

ken

FYI, this is the one success of the experiment. I found it while doing clean up. It's growing in a bed full of lily of the valley and English Ivy in the shade of an old concolor fir.

The squirrels at my last house definitely planted acorns in all the wrong spots. Right next to tree trunks, inside shrubs, etc. Stuff that I spent time planting and caring for mind you so the seedlings became worthless.

Depending on the space I see where you're going.

I have a combined 400'x50' of a farm tree line that I'd like to get Ironwood, Musclewood, Sugar Maple, Hickory, Pagoda dogwood, etc growing in between, in front of and behind the ultra mature Basswood. There are some spots where they have already died and some spots of weed trees like Boxelder trying to take over. Would be nice if I could get some help with seed/acorns/nuts from the nearby forests in this tree line.

The squirrels just don't dare crossing into the farm fields.

This tree is at the edge of a bed, near a (non-asphalt) driveway. There is a mishappen yew...on this side of it are lily of the valley and Ivy, on the other are ostrich ferns and a concolor fir then the house. Ideally I'd want this tree farther from the house, but it's a decent spot.

Ideally I'd like the squirrels to plant trees in spots its risky for me to plant in...like the overgrown cliff or the scrubby border with the neighbors. Places with lots of cover, if that's what the squirrels want. This tree isn't far from the bird feeder...they don't seem to have transported it far. I suspect the acorns in scrubby areas got shaded out.

whaas_5a If you want to try to use squirrels as gardeners, buy hickory nuts by mail order...you can get them cheap. Gather them in the nearby woods. Then put them in a bird feeder near where you want them, put in some flower beds in the fields you want trees in. The squirrels will but acros the field t get t the bird feeders, even f they won't hang out in the fields. Don't think you would get a regular tree line...or you could make a long thin hedge bed connecting the tree l e to the fields as a squirrel path...

I left out that the field is probably 1 mile long on all sides of the subdivision, lol.

I might collect them from the forest as I hike it quite often in the fall. No acorns this past fall but now that I think of it there was a bumper crop the year prior.

Good luck with your project!

whaas_5a: You can buy hickory and black walnuts in bulk quite cheaply. You could try hanging bird feeders full of them and acorns low in the dying basswood and boxelder. Although admittedly my efforts had only one confirmed success.

Black walnut?

Logan L Johnson Juglans nigra: A European relative of the English or Carpathian walnut we usually eat. It's grown as an agricultural product...I find seeds grown as a crop are usually cheaper. (See my thread on Would a Cranberry Border make sense?)

You are the only person to thiink this is a good idea. What do you use as tree guards? I wonder if there is a time of year squirrels are more likely to bury then plant nuts.

I think hickory would lend themselves to this strategy. They are seldom sold in nurseries because they don't transplant well, but there nuts are readily available cheaply and in bulk.

I was debating trying this at my parent's summer place, but I kind of like the trees naturally growing there.

it's not so much the time of year, but the amount of seednuts you put out.....more than they can eat will cause them to hide some for later. Squirrels may not make the winter, so even fall buried nuts may not get eaten later if a hawk picks off that squirrel. [url=https://postimage.org][img]https://s6.postimg.org/q33sglnf5/woods_011.jpg[/img][/url]