Only better looking areas are the wetter spots where I have springs seeping.

Did you burn late spring two years ago? Have you been experiencing drought around this property? I bet a good, wet spring will help you out a lot.

Throw out a runner of kudzu and run like hell

It was right before the drought in February but we had plenty of rain this summer

I would love a 3-5 acre kudzu patch if I could keep it contained. Deer hammer it.

Does any sunlight hit the forest floor? If. It, that is your problem and you need to create some holes in the canopy.

I agree with the "run a disc over it" folks. That should guarantee results.

I can check and see if some of the Japanese tallow trees around here gave seeds on them and fill you a sack full. Them bastages will grow thru concrete and will be 5’ tall in 6 months and will sprout new trees every 2 weeks. Let me know buddy. I’ll fix you up.

I appreciate the offer but I’m good. Sunlight is definitely not an issue

Might try a couple of soil tests in pine stand to see what you are dealing with. Disking and maybe some fertilizer might work. I would not plant anything non-native.

Arsenal herbicide may have been used at original site prep which encouraged your briars and killed your grasses. Briars are now likely blocking sunlight. I think killing the briars and disturbing the soil will get your ground cover growing again. Longleaf Alliance is a good resource. They suggested a herbicide mix of Garlon and Escort under mature longleaf for me that encouraged a lot of native grasses and reduced my briars.

I wish I had a good briar stand but I have a thin stand of everything.

This is what the majority of the property in long leaf looks like now.
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Dang. Burn it again

I’ve never seen a burn or a spray where sage grass and briars wouldn’t come back.

Turkey neck do you remember the spacing those LL were planted on? Look awful tight and thick to me. The canopy cover is beginning to shade it out underneath. Usually LL are planted on a wider spacing, or less TPA, but those look pretty thick to me.

Matt those are on 8x10’ there’s plenty of light getting to the ground but if that is the consensus I’ll limb them up before spring. I just want growth.

Longleafs planted on the WMA are planted at about half that density, maybe even less, you definitely have sunlight issues due to how thick it is. I'd run some fire through it again this spring

8x10 is 545 TPA so shouldn’t be to thick unless there’s lots of seed in. IMO 545 is not near enough

What was the problem with your site prep?

As for the lack of regrowth that's very odd. I've burned longleaf on some really poor soils and we still have plenty of growth in the understory after fire. Is the longleaf planted at a really high density where the canopy is already starting to close up some? Even at 622 trees/acre you shouldn't get canopy closure in longleaf at age 7.