Okay, here is my situation... I am looking for something I can broadcast within a timbered area to create more ground level cover. This is an area that a tornado went through back in 85 pushing many trees over. It is used as bedding cover at times, but does not hold any big bucks that I know of during the archery season. It is mostly a doe bedding area. Is there anything I can broadcast within this few acre area that will create ground level cover and still grow without full sunlight?
I can't think of anything commercially available to plant from seed that will grow well in shade and give good ground cover. Growing in the shade is the hard part. We have an invasive shrub around here that takes over the understory of woods without ever planting it. The birds do a fine job of spreading the seed. It's called bush huneysuckle. Started out as an ornamental planting and has gone wild in the woods. I would never reccomend anyone planting it on purpose tho. It will choke out anything on ground level. Kuudzu (sp) is another one that offers good ground cover. But not many people want that in their woods either. It will cover everything that grows. You might check out some type of vining plant. But not sure what you could get to grow in shade. I'm surprised some type of blackberry or other shrub didn't take over when the tornado went through and opened up the canopy. Usually when that happens around here it gets nasty thick with brush.
What the tornado actually did was push most of the trees over, not killing them... You will see where the tree was blown over and what looks like multiple trees growing up from that trunk that is laying on the ground, but they are just branches. Hope what I just said makes sense....
The key is the full sunlight. We bought a property that had no undestory and each year we take a very small part of it and essentially clear cut it to allow that sunlight to reach the forest floor. What was once almost a dirt forest floor is now covered with a variety of native plants and many small saplings. By doing a different area each year we are also creating different age classes within the property. It has been owned for 7 years and I am amazed at the deer the property now holds. I'm a firm believeer in "cut it, and they will come."
On our farm we created bedding area by going through and cut down over 100 Locust trees. This created more sunlight for the smaller Hickory's, Oaks and Walnuts that were getting drowned out by the Locust trees. We also would only cut some Locust trees down half way through letting part of the tree live when it was on the ground. This allows them to grow on one side but not get tall enough to effect our other trees that we are trying to give a sunlight boost to. This in effect makes it very thick helping to make it a better bedding area. Not sure what you have on your property but this was something that helped us and was suggested by our wildlife biologist.
I would love to go in there with my saw, but this is not property that I own and would not feel comfortable asking the landowner to alter his land to that extent.
Sounds like you are trying to do very close to what I'm trying to do Scott. I cannot alter my land either since I don't own it. But.. I'm going to plant native grasses to keep deer on the land longer. I want to do this through a good assortment of native grasses that will not only hide deer and give them cover they'll want to bed in.. but also a valid food source. I'm looking at native grass seed mixes.. taller grasses like big bluestem etc.. with an small selection of native sunflowers for added food. This seems the easiest.. most beneficial.. and most cost effective way to get dense cover that will give deer a feel of security. At least.. thats my thinking.
What sort of area are you planning to do this to? Is this an out of service field or within the timbers canopy?
A kinda bit of both.. light and thin timber with forest floor so full of leaves that nothing can grow below. A lot of sunlight hits it though. My plan is to rake and burn the leaves.. and let the seeds take. I began last year and had a lot of grasses take.. but it needs more improvement.. as I was merely experimenting last year with the idea. Does browsed the undergrowth I planted often enough to take a second look. Some smaller bucks too.
Mike will these taller grasses take a few years to root? I'm asking in the fear of losing land that I have available for hunting if I attempt something like this myself. I doubt I would ever lose this small piece unless he sold it but you just never know. BTW I need to open my eyes more this is the first time iv'e noticed this forum.
IF you get pretty good sun you can plant elderberry or dogwood and they provide great browse and thick cover for the deer ?? each year just take some cuttings to start more bushes.The first year you will have to protect them or the deer will eat them..
I didnt read everyone post but a guy I was talking to a couple weeks ago said something about "Bedding in a Bag"
I would recommend going to your local nursery and asking them what is a good local plant which will grow in the shade. Native plants are the best. Also look for a plant which the deer can browse as well as give cover giving them the best of both worlds.
Most of the NWSG such as big blue or the switch grasses will take a couple years to mature and get very tall.They also need mostly sunlight to grow.if you have too much ground clutter and due to the trees being down sunlight is coming through you may want to look at a cool season burn if you can do so safely.I would try to leave any of the fallen trees.If does bed there I would think the bucks would be checking those bedding areas.Hinge cutting is a great way to provide browse and cover both.Alot of land owners might let you do this if you target specific trees such as locust or hedge.If there is lumber trees such as walnut or oak explain that by falling some trees around these they will grow faster and bigger so that will help the landowner.Check out QDMA.com for lots of hinge cutting advise
bedding cover Buckeye, There is a cool season native grass that will grow in shade and get about 7 feet tall. It's called Canada Wild Rye (Elymus canadensis). You can mix it up with Virginia wild rye, which will prefer areas with wetter soils. This will be good bedding cover until the snow matts it down in the winter. You can hand sow this seed in the spring and it will work fine. It will germ better if you sew into bare soil areas...you could rake up leaf litter and woody debris with a landscape rake before planting Hinge cutting works great to increase year round bedding cover. Do not plant non-native varieties of shrubs (Asian Honeysuckle). There are plenty of native shrubs that will work fine in this scenario like Red Osier and Grey Dogwood, Viburnums, etc. Ideally you want a combination of hinge cut trees, herbaceous cover and native shrubs for good year round bedding cover in a forested area.
