What trees to plant on my new propoerty

I recently purchased a few acres in zone 8a. The soil is sandy and acidic. I'd like to plant some fast growing, mast producing trees for deer. Sawtooth oaks are already on the list. What else should I throw in the mix?

Dunstan Chestnuts

Jap Persimmons

Keiffer Pears

and Keiffer Pears....yes sir.

chestnuts
nuttal oaks
pears
native persimmons

I wouldn't waste my time with jap persimmons because they do not drop. You have to literally pull the fruit off. They will rot on the tree. Coons and any other climbing critters will enjoy them and so will you, but not the deer. I would contact the Wildlife group and get some of their wildlife packages. They have everything. Located real close to Auburn.

gallowway pears and keiffer pear. galloway will not drop until roughly dec and the keiffer will drop mid to end of october.

Thanks guys.

I've not heard this? I was under the impression that they were more bush sized meaning they weren't totally out of reach.

These folks are great to deal with! I purchased ~100 trees from them last Winter and I'll be buying about 50 more from them this year...I planted Sawtooths and Shumard oaks ($1.75 per tree since I bought a large quantity), and I also got 2 Japanese Persimmons and 2 Arkansas Black Apple trees ($20 per tree for a 4' tree)

The deer might be able to reach some on the lower limbs, but they will not fall off. They will actually rot on the limb and are hard to get off without breaking a limb. They are delicious to eat.

BamBam32-great question. Purchased land 2005, (SE AL) got very aggressive with planting trees purchased from the Wildlife Group right away. Looking back the pear trees were the most trouble and required a lot of work and addition $'s to fight fire blight. I think I could have spent that time and money more wisely. Chestnuts and sawtooth are easy if you practice keeping the competition far away from trunk and plant no closer than 30 feet feet apart. If I could do it over I would plant on 40 feet center. It has taken my persimmons till last season to produce.
The very best practice with your new trees is the use fertilizer stakes placed two feet from trunk and repeat this practice every 90 to 120 days. Sight One sells by the box ($80.00). The best money you will spend on your tree planting. Good luck and enjoy.

Mack thanks for the tips.

Walnuts keep them growing strait 30 years later sell them and retire

Not sure which variety of trees you got but most of their pear trees are pretty blight resistant that I've bought. This is been in the last 5-6 years so maybe they've changed some of the varieties since you bought from them. I've only gotten it a little bit on a couple trees. I've always thought pears were the easiest. I planted them and protected them from rubbing and that's about it.

paintRockO is spot on. If I were 30 vs 69 I would plant Walnuts on every suitable parcel of land I own. I have always wonder why Auburn University is not absolutely aggressive in using their land holding to plant at least some sizable parcels in Walnuts. Money in the bank. I bet government regulations prevents students from planting crops for future profits to the University.

Pears are the easiest fruit tree to grow with the least problems and the least maintenance.

Ditto on the pears above. Crabapples pretty low maintenance too. Get some blueberry bushes also. Dunstan chestnuts for deer.

Maybe someone is watching too much CNN.

Why don't you think all of the timberland investment companies who are trying to maximize income are not planting black walnut trees. If they produced more income than everything else more people would be planting them in my opinion.

Bwhunter, Your opinion is correct because American’s generally are too use to quick gratification for least amount of effort and time applied. The future value of the Walnut Lumber is strictly speculative and has very long term appreciation horizon. I grow several 100 acres of pine trees now and still trying to figure out income strategy and at the same time not get taken to the cleaners by the middle guys required to participate and the market changing conditions. Your example of Timber Investment Companies making income is extremely complicated and difficult for many reasons that is why so many have merged over the last 15 years. To plant black walnut trees for the future requires a separate set of success scales. Most timber operations can not afford the investment, is the answer to your question and most will not exist at the trees maturity anyway. I would enjoy being around on payday 40 yrs out with my walnut trees, it will certainly be a much better experience than my investment in GE for the past twenty years. Sometimes it worth taking the road less traveled! Corp. America does not have all the answers and are not always run by smart people. Auburn should be!

What is the market going to be in 40 or 50 years on Walnut? The mill up the road will probably be out of business.

Call Allen Deese at The Wildlife Group and let him help you choose. He is a great guy and he plants their trees across the southeast for folks so he knows a little about what grows best and where. Expect 80% survival rate out of what you plant.

I contacted the Wildlife Group and downloaded their catalog. I'm looking forward to getting started.

Sounds like my experience. I started very aggressively planting lots of mast producing trees from the Wildlife Group and others in 2006. Planted 1000’s of trees over 1000’s of acres for 10 years. I think I use to fantasize that I was Johnny Appleseed. Killed them every way you can kill a tree - mowing, spraying, over-fertilizing, under-fertilizing, you name it & I did it. Spent way, way too much $ for a very limited return. Wildlife Group sales good trees, it’s just difficult to pull a small tree out of a nursery and get it to mast bearing age in the wild. Hardwoods are much easier than any soft mast tree. We’ve planted over 100,000 trees for wildlife. Every condition and every scenario can imagine. We spared no cost with our program. Tree tubes, weed mats, irrigation, fertilizer, chemical treatments, you name it & we did it. Our success rate with apples and pears over an 11 year period has been less than 5%. Some of these continue to die from fire blight each year. Hardwoods are much better with a success rate of more than 80%. I’m sure plenty of people will comment on everything I’m doing wrong, but believe me we have done it every possible way and still can’t our success rate with apples and pears over 5%.

Instead of planting nursery grown trees, we started identifying, daylighting, and nurturing native trees, primarily native crabapple, plums, and persimmons. I’ve never walked a property where they don’t exist. Our success rate is near 100% and our property is now covered with native fruit trees. Just something to consider. This work was conducted in So Cullman County under very controlled conditions.

Crabapple orchards of about 1/4 acre in size.
Deer love them and they drop every year on my place.
Just plant them so you can mow between them.

I've had Wildlife group apple,pear, and crabapple for about 5 years now and have been producing fruit for several years. These were 7 gallon grafted tree's.

Regards to fruit: Alabama cooperative extension's aces.edu site has a lot of research for agriculture/etc in Alabama. Type aces.edu, publications and services, aces publications and store, search box type, Fruit Culture in Alabama Selecting Adapted Varieties (http://www.aces.edu/pubs/docs/A/ANR-0053-F/ANR-0053-F.pdf). Probably something on mast producing and nut trees also. Everything Alabama, go to that site.

I started planting trees 5 years ago on a small property, my first purchase was a 25 tree package from Realtree Nurseries that had Dunstan chestnuts, sawtooths, American persimmons and Southern crabapples. I have also attempted to add apples, pears, plums, Jap persimmons and peaches at different times. Six of my original 7 chestnuts are still alive and look healthy, I had my first nuts on 3 of them this fall. I have also grown several other chestnuts from nuts I bought online and have about 10-12 others still alive. I learned a lot from the old QDMA messageboard about growing chestnuts. My Sawtooths look healthy, but so far still no acorns. Persimmons and crabapples have not thrived, either died or struggling.
I agree with what others said about Jap Persimmon, waste of time. They produce a pretty fruit, but does not fall, and have yet to see sign of deer eating. My apple experience has not been positive, even with spraying I've had lots of diseased trees that don't make it past a 2-3 years. I won't replant any more apples. Keiffer pears are doing pretty good, haven't produced every year but trees are healthy and a lot of fruit per tree in good years. Overall, the Dunstans and sawtooths are the healthiest trees I've got, and the persimmon trees (native) I left standing in my food plot are awesome, probably due to (like RiverWood said) opening them up to get lots of sunlight. Also, I fenced my young trees with field fencing wire, it prevents the deer from damaging.

If I was going to try and improve an area, I would fix a few Honeysuckle patches. Deer love the stuff, it's cheap, it is very hardy, easy to start and it stands up to heavy foraging even in winter months.