By Lee Schlunder
A Weed? Sometimes. The native plant has grown in the location for hundreds of years. It is well adapted to local conditions and generally is easy to grow. Douglas county's plant community is spendidly supplied with interesting native plants but also invasive weeds. The Sweet brome and himalayan blackberry were imported as nice plants. They grow too well and fill many beautiful locations with explosive fire hazard or thorns. In doing so they put biological pressure on the native plants. From this we learn that non-natives that grow in a garden but don't spread are probably useful but spreaders are more than weeds. They are dangerous to the general plant community and the Oregon we love.
The advantages to growing natives is that they are easy to grow but proven to not explode out of control as the sweet brome and blackberry has. I particularly like the Oregon sweet pea but there are many hundreds of other very desireable natives.
Not all natives are nice. Poison oak is native but a hateful thug of a plant. It attacks humans only. Goats and deer can eat it without regret. If someone invented a use for it all Douglas county would be rich from it's harvest.
We have some land in Roseburg Oregon. Here are a few things we have learned gardening on this site.
The soil is 'Oregon black clay'. This stuff is a heavy clay that is sticky when wet, workable when moist but hard as iron when dry. Weeding in iron is not easy. My solution is to put a 2" layer of loam on top of the clay. This gives a fine crumbly surface to start seeds in and to hoe out weeds. The plants really like the clay so keep the loam layer thin.
The plants do rather poorly in a thick layer of the loam. We had the stuff trucked in so we don't know much about where it came from. It looks pretty free of organic matter. The addition of an organic mulch gains immediate plant improvement. The benefits are 3 fold.
Two times you might grow plants hydroponically and think everything is the same but you still get different results. I think that microbes are the really big unknown. They eat fertilizer and return broken down fertilizer that the plants can absorb. They are not just a sideshow they are the main event. If they do the job right your plant will get what it needs. We are dealing with millions of microbes and in a very complex mix of different kinds. Each one eats and eliminates in its own way so that who they are affects what the plants get.
My friend put in a small pond. He loaded it with fish and his wife added things to keep the water algae free. The fish promptly died. My pond has algae. The goldfish I added thrive and multiply so what is happening? Fish ,like all of us, make waste products that if at a high enough level will poison the fish. Plants find our bodily waste to be fertilizer that they consume as they grow. In a pond one must not add too many fish or mess with the algae plants. These 2 will find a balance of mutual growth that will work. If you must have clear water then you must mechanically filter the water to provide what the plants would have done for you.
Mulch, algae, microbes are all things that may not seem tidy and polite but are essential to good growth.
We had Cannas plants that grew about 12 inches tall each year. One year I decided to water them heavily. They grew to 4' tall and bloomed like crazy. It turns out they are swampy type natives and really respond to water.
Corn is a good plant to study. It has an internal clock. After so many days of growth it goes to seed ready or not. This means that corn planted early will be cold and not grow much. When its clock says tassel out it is a mini size plant that will make little food. Success then depends on getting the plant to quickly grow to a large size. It responds dramatically to fertilizer. Organic growers claim that mineral fertilizer is bad because microbes are killed. The idea is that nitrogen kicks up microbe activity which digests all the organic matter in the soil. Once it is gone most of the microbes die. The solution is to make sure there is an abundance of organic material in the soil. With all that fertilizer in the soil your plants should grow like crazy and make lots of organic material. The secret is to resist all your tidy urges and plow that organic mess into the soil.
My favorite varieties of corn are Bodacious and Candy store. I believe they are both super sweet. Their flavor is far better than just sweet corn and they keep for up to a week and still taste great. Many know that sweet corn rapidly changes the sugars to starch destroying the flavor. Ordinary sweet corn therefore should be eaten as soon as possible. External link about super sweet corn
I feel much better when I have eaten some raspberries. I have read articles suggesting health benefits from eating them. They may be right or maybe I just feel better in the summertime with lots of exercise and fresh air?
Our Raspberries variety (yellow to pinkish) surprised me. I thought all raspberries made berries on second year canes in July only. The surprise was that this year's canes make a fall crop, a second year July crop and then become old and die. I have some red raspberries that double fruit and some single fruit ones but none approach the great flavor of the pinkish ones. If you are planting get a good variety. In Lyndon, Wa. (they bill themselves as the raspberry capital of the world) they grow a giant red berry that is thornless. It is delicious. If I were starting from scratch I would make sure to get that one or the pinkish ones.
I also had received transplants in June but thought perhaps that was not the best time to transplant. It turns out they send up a lot of canes and June is a good time to dig then out of your walkways and other unwanted places. Therefore whether a good time or not June is when surplus plants will be in circulation.
The hard clay didn't hold to the dug up berry canes very well so many transplants were June bare root. With regular water these bare roots grew just fine. We inherited a garden in late June when it was pretty warm. We dug many roses, dahlias, strawberries and such that came up bare root. I figured such plants would die for sure. We made sure to cover the roots immediately in a temporary pile. So they were dug twice and generally very mistreated. With regular water most of them survived. By August the strawberries were making berries and the roses and dahlias were blooming.
Much of our area is steeply sloped. Watering with a hose results in much water running down the hill and very little soaking in. One can hire a caterpillar tractor to terrace the hillside. This runs into real money but does yield a little flat ground. I have quite a lot of worthless logs lying around. One can cut 1/2" rebar to make 18" spikes. Two or 3 spikes can hold a log in place across a hillside. One can then shovel dirt from above to just above the log. This makes a small 1 or 2 row terrace. Better yet one can fill the area above the log with bulbs and transplants before shoveling the fill in. Plant and terrace in one operation. As always mulch in the soil and on top of the terrace will do wonders with the microbes, moisture capture and conservation.
Drip irrigation delivers water slowly so that it can sink in instead of running off. Whether on a terrace or on the slope drip irrigation is part of the answer.
At the Home Depot drip irrigation demonstration I was overwhelmed by all the stuff they wanted us to buy. I figured if you do it, it must not be so expensive?
Right you are! The demo is just the stores dream. We can do better.
I tried water filters. It works fine unless you have junk in your water then it quickly clogs up and needs cleaning. Instead I would buy simple cheap drippers that you can clean easily. Buy big 16 quart/ hour models. A big hole is less likely to clog. Put an easy to remove end on your supply hose. Open that up every once in a while to blow out the line.
In a very heavy salt situation a dripper can still lime up. I put 5 dripper per tree and curve the hose up so I can see the drips coming out. In this way I can stroll through the orchard and spot clogged units. The chances of 5 units all clogging at once is very remote so I don't have to check often.
For most folks on city water, your water comes prefiltered and none of these precautions may be necessary.
I use a water tank on a well to let the sand settle. This makes a huge, effective filter that won't clog or need service.
If you have very high pressure you might need the pressure regulator but for most water systems the pressure is low enough. If drippers and fitting come apart then the pressure is too high.
The cheapest and most trouble free system is PVC pipe with a riser for each plant. The riser has a pipe cap. Below the cap drill the smallest drill bit hole you have. Use full pressure. I have used this kind in very poor water conditions for years without trouble. Obviously this system is for fixed plants like foundation plantings around your house and trees.
For a farm field drip hose is too small. Use PVC pipe to feed the smaller drip hoses. To convert from PVC to drip I buy blue inserts that glue into the PVC. the hose is pushed into the blue sleeve. I like the push in fittings in general. In quantity the blue sleeves are quite cheap so that you can use them with PVC fittings to make all other fittings like tees, elbows and unions.
I try to keep down the use of fittings. The hose is pretty cheap once you move up above the retail 100' size so just coil it around and keep the system long, continuous, cheap and simple.
My drippers have an insert that pulls out for cleaning. I buy them at a farm supply store in bags of 1000. I think they are about 12 cents that way. I also like to buy the hose in 1000' rolls. It is cheapest that way and fitting cost is minimized.
A drip just doesn't do it for a flat of seedlings. I have used drip hose adapted sprinklers in the greenhouse. They work as well as any sprinkler. One must weigh the cost against larger lawn sprinklers.
Electric valves and timers are a must for me as I don't garden every day and might not even for weeks. One 1" valve will feed a huge number of drippers so this need not be a big expense.
The newer electronic timers can be as complicated as a VCR to program. When the battery goes dead any power outage will make you reprogram. Lightening surges have killed more than one of my electronic timers. The solution is the older timers that are programmed mechanically. When the power goes out the clock motor stops but starts right back up when the power returns. These older models are often at patio sales for next to nothing.
One must make a distinction between tree farms and native forests. In the native forest there is a diverse mix of native plants that support each other. NPSO people seek out the diverse plants. Wildness and other federal preserves are intended to protect these plant communities. Clear cut Douglas fir plus incense cedar plantings are known as tree platations. By their nature native plants are somewhat suppressed. This is farming. With hundreds of millions of acres I feel there is room for both kinds of forests. These comments are about tree farming.
Disclaimer: When using spray read the label and follow the warnings.
I just got back from tree school at the Umpqua Community College and wish to share with you the excitement of growing trees. The blue spruce and noble fir are popular Christmas trees but Doug fir is grown for that purpose too. It has that Christmas smell if crushed. It is mainly grown for 2x4's and plywood. Most likely your house is built with Doug fir. It is a dominate native of the Northwest.
It grows very well here in Douglas County. Most of the people at the school were older tree farmers who wish to improve their growing abilities.
My first class was concerned with getting the little trees started. We looked at a test plot where baby trees of different sizes had all been planted. After 4 years the big starting trees were at least double the size of the small starters. The conclusion was that 90 cent big trees were a better buy than 20 cent little trees.
Dougs don't grow as fast as weeds. Little dougs need help getting up above the weeds. I originally planted in among a bunch of big oak trees. The forester said that Dougs like bare ground and do better without the oaks. He said that grass sucked the moisture out of the ground and should be sprayed. I did it wrong and many trees died.
My place has some old cone making trees. I looked around for baby trees. I found they grew out of my road. That is the only bare ground around here. Few weeds can grow in the hard rocky area. Since the Dougs started there I had better start believing the forester. He was stating fact about bare ground and was not just supporting clear cutting.
The first time I saw a clear cut it seemed like a disaster zone. I certainly can see how city folks might think the lumber companies are bad guys. Yet I saw the same land 7 years after the clear cut and it looked great with 10' and bigger trees. It looked like a young healthy forest.
If one sees a green field of wheat and then sees a harvested stubble field one might have the same reaction as to your first clear cut. Rest assured the farmers in both cases know what they are doing and soon the fields will be beautiful again. The city folks do not need to pass laws to tell the farmers how to farm.
Weeds grow great here so getting bare ground is not easy. I have lots of trouble with poison oak when I use the chain saw to cut down oak trees because it throws little particles all over the place. Non-native Wild black berries also choke many areas. The country is usually sloped so getting around can be difficult. The bottom line is that herbicides are often the answer to getting bare ground.
Many people lump pesticides with herbicides and fear them all. Insects are much more like us than trees. Bugs are pretty tough and take strong nerve poison to kill. So pesticides are strong and often dangerous to humans. Herbicides are often just plant hormones that would do little to people other than get them wet. The popular roundup herbicide does nothing even to plants once it hits the ground. I believe the use of herbicides should not be feared so much.
My second class was "Practical Forest Herbicide Application Techniques". Bryan Nelson the instructor is a reforestation Forester with the Lone Rock Timber Company. Here are some ideas from his handout.
He showed us his 'Hack and Squirt' method of killing even big trees.
I liked the idea of buying a blue dye to add to your spray. It doesn't cost too much and helps to show where you have already sprayed. In the methods below a sticking agent is also suggested to be added to your spray. It makes the spray penetrate and stick to the plant better.
I bought a cheap spray bottle. It was too heavy and awkward to carry so I tried to set it down. That does not work well on a slope. Also anything set in poison oak become dangerous to me. I then bought a 15 gallon model with a 12 volt pump. This worked pretty good especially after I bought an add on hose so that I could really cover some area before moving the tank. It worked even better when I put a car battery in a cart so I could get away from the truck.
Bryan showed us his professional spraying equipment. He has the Solo brand backpack kind of tank. He said the straps that come with it are not comfortable so one needs to upgrade at a hiking equipment store. The spray tip he upgrades to a D5 or D6 nozzle. This upgrade includes a adjustment knob in the back of the handle. The cheaper ones I bought require a turning of the brass nozzle for adjustment from spray to squirt. That leads to wet hands if you don't wear rubber gloves. I think everyone in class had enough experience to see that the professional had better equipment.
Here is the 'Low Volume Foliar (directed Spray method)'
Waving Wand (broadcast) Method
Calibration or how to figure gallons per acre
Put one gallon of water and color dye into a backpack sprayer. Spray a small amount of water to determine the width of the spray swath. Walk in a straight uninterrupted line spraying the solution until empty. Measure the distance walked and multiply by the width of the swath. Divide this by 43560 ( sq. feet in an acre). Take 1 and divide by the number. This will give you gallons per acre.
To start Little Doug Fir trees:The picture is of a Douglas Fir tree. The buds open in the spring to make that beautiful light green growth. This particular tree has been planted for 3 years. It has had nearly ideal growing conditions, is about 3' tall and I think, looks very good.
Mr. Schlunder,
I saw your website contained information on planting Douglas Fir. We are starting a tree farm and would like to plant more Doug.
Could you please recommend a tree nursery to get some dougs? Thank you.
Dl Phipps Oregon State Nursery
That link normally would get you the DL Phipps Oregon State Nursery, in Elkton Oregon where I bought trees. However the link did not work just now. They literally sell millions a year. Natives of an area grow better than imports. Phipps has maps of Oregon and an adapted strain for each area. You might write them and ask for the buyer's catalogue and price list.
That link has a large list of links to tree sellers. Since you don't appear to be from Oregon you might find something better suited to your needs in that list.
I have a small (about 3') blue spruce that grew all by itself in a bad place. When is a good time to transplant it ?
The trees do little from the first freeze to bud break in the spring. This is the closest evergreens get to being dormant and is the safest time to transplant.
Around here we plant them by the thousands and so can't weed them. If you choose to spray herbicide make sure you do it before the buds break open. I have killed lots of them spraying a little too late.
Immediately rinsing off a sprayed tree with clean water will cancel your spray errors.
It is nice to keep dirt on the roots but if it all falls off go ahead and plant anyway. We buy them here bare root.
What you don't want is for the roots to dry out so once you dig it up immediately plant it.
If you cut off a great deal of roots in the digging you might consider pruning the green part a bit. It is a matter of will the roots be able to supply enough water for the top. The commercial guys prune to get the perfect Christmas tree shape the customers want. The deer eat the tops off and that makes an ugly tree. Don't prune the top.
I fertilize in the spring with general purpose 16-16-16. We can't water all our trees but the ones we do, grow much faster. Blue spruce is a slow grower. A nice Christmas tree at 10 years after transplant is possible. A doug fir would probably be way too big by then.
I need a cat like this.
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