Food Plots Honey Suckle

[Bone Collector]

I know some are going to disagree with me because it is an invasive species, but i have done some research and read good things about introducing it in areas of your property.

Problem is, where do you get it aside, from finding a plant and transplanting?

Also if you do find a plant I read were some sell "clippings" on e-bay.

what do you clip?

 

[TheLBLman]

Wherever you want it, start stretching some wire between posts or trees. Birds will land on the wire and deposit the seeds. This is part of why you see it so much along fence rows.

 

[Boll Weevil]

No disagreement here; plant it whenever/wherever you can. Pluck the little purplish black berries off to plant in places that they can climb with good sunlight like hedgerows and the edges of brush piles.

 

[Doskil]

Bush honeysuckle or vine honeysuckle?

 

[Boll Weevil]

Bush honeysuckle or vine honeysuckle?

Yes.

 

[BSK]

You definitely do NOT want bush honeysuckle. It is not used much by any wildlife. Now the vine Japanese honeysuckle can be a useful winter food source for deer. The problem is, if you have deer, establishing honeysuckle is extremely difficult (because they eat it all). In fact, honeysuckle vine is so invasive and ubiquitous, that if you DON'T have it, it's probably because you have too many deer for the current winter food sources available. Increase other natural food sources, and/or decrease the deer density, and suddenly Japanese honeysuckle will appear.

Japanese honeysuckle vine is an excellent "indicator" plant in most of TN. If deer density is matched will with winter food sources, you will have Japanese honeysuckle. If you DON'T have Japanese honeysuckle, you most likely have too many deer for the current winter food sources.

 

[Bone Collector]

You definitely do NOT want bush honeysuckle. It is not used much by any wildlife. Now the vine Japanese honeysuckle can be a useful winter food source for deer. The problem is, if you have deer, establishing honeysuckle is extremely difficult (because they eat it all). In fact, honeysuckle vine is so invasive and ubiquitous, that if you DON'T have it, it's probably because you have too many deer for the current winter food sources available. Increase other natural food sources, and/or decrease the deer density, and suddenly Japanese honeysuckle will appear.

Japanese honeysuckle vine is an excellent "indicator" plant in most of TN. If deer density is matched will with winter food sources, you will have Japanese honeysuckle. If you DON'T have Japanese honeysuckle, you most likely have too many deer for the current winter food sources.

Funny you mention that. I smelled it in April of last year along the fence row. I want to move some into other areas. I need to find it, but it seems like it disappears fast.

Japanese Honeysuckle is the one with the flowers that you can pull the center piece out of and suck on it and it tastes like honey, right?

What do you cut off to transplant it?

 

[BSK]

Japanese Honeysuckle is the one with the flowers that you can pull the center piece out of and suck on it and it tastes like honey, right?

Correct.

What do you cut off to transplant it?

If you really want to put out the effort, you can cut a bunch of it and just lightly disk the sections into the ground where you want it (having moist soil helps with rapid rooting). I've even seen people cut sections and keep them in wet newspaper in sunlight until the sections begin to root before planting. However, the biggest problem is deer eating every little sprig that sprouts. If honeysuckle doesn't exist naturally, the browse pressure keeping it from existing is the real problem, and planted sprigs will need protection to become established. I've seen "tents" of chicken wire used to protect the growing honeysuckle. This allows the honeysuckle to become established, and protects the plant a foot or two off the ground, but allows deer to eat the excess that grows beyond the wire.

 

[BlountArrow]

It's interesting to hear of people actually wanting to establish Jap Honeysuckle. I guess the areas I hunt have just never been void of it. As a matter of fact, a TWRA biologist last year recommended I spray a good portion of mine back and kill it. I have not done so. I think it could be a good idea if I was further along down the road in my "habitat rejuvenation plan", but I'm not there yet. After reading posts since then, I think maybe some biologists tend to down play or not appreciate the importance honey suckle can play as a winter food source. That's just my opinion from what I've read. Still though, it baffles me a little to see a post about trying to introduce honey suckle :) for reasons previously stated. Good luck though; I just can't imagine it being very difficult to introduce to your property.

 

[BSK]

It's interesting to hear of people actually wanting to establish Jap Honeysuckle. I guess the areas I hunt have just never been void of it. As a matter of fact, a TWRA biologist last year recommended I spray a good portion of mine back and kill it. I have not done so. I think it could be a good idea if I was further along down the road in my "habitat rejuvenation plan", but I'm not there yet. After reading posts since then, I think maybe some biologists tend to down play or not appreciate the importance honey suckle can play as a winter food source. That's just my opinion from what I've read. Still though, it baffles me a little to see a post about trying to introduce honey suckle :) for reasons previously stated. Good luck though; I just can't imagine it being very difficult to introduce to your property.

Some biologists are very anti honeysuckle, simply because it's non-native and can be very invasive. However, I'm more neutral if not positive about it. In some circumstances, for a winter food source, it's better than most other natural food sources.

In large sections of the western Highland Rim (expansive forests), deer have eaten all of it away. In those circumstances, you won't be able to establish it due to deer browse pressure. But in these areas, if enough timber is thinned allowing sunlight to hit the ground over a large enough area, honeysuckle will "magically" appear all on its own.

 

[Boll Weevil]

I've seen "tents" of chicken wire used to protect the growing honeysuckle.

Can also use medium-sized felled cedars for this purpose. I kind of stumbled upon this after cutting a bunch of cedars and making a pile on the edge of an opening (that already had a little honeysuckle). Came back several months later and the honeysuckle was growing up/around/through and all over it.

 

[Hunter 257W]

I've seen the wire tent method recomended by the Wildlife Group to protect the young plants from deer. I can't imagine not having honey suckle though. We always used to sprya it every year along all our fences trying to kill it back as much as possible and it just came back for more. Since I've pulled way back on farming and look at the land more for deer hunting, I've stopped spraying it and it honestly hasn't spread beyond where it was to any noticieable degree so I don't see why some people are so dead set against it. It stays green all Winter long and feeds deer. With the temperatures we've had lately that is significant. Even some of my WI "Winter Greens" have died back in a big way with the single digit temps and that plant was developed to grow all Winter long. Deer don't have a lot of growing stuff left this year.

 

[Bone Collector]

I've seen "tents" of chicken wire used to protect the growing honeysuckle.

Can also use medium-sized felled cedars for this purpose. I kind of stumbled upon this after cutting a bunch of cedars and making a pile on the edge of an opening (that already had a little honeysuckle). Came back several months later and the honeysuckle was growing up/around/through and all over it.

That's good I have a bunch of downed cedar saplings. Also have some old fencing materials.

 

[Bone Collector]

Japanese Honeysuckle is the one with the flowers that you can pull the center piece out of and suck on it and it tastes like honey, right?

Correct.

What do you cut off to transplant it?

If you really want to put out the effort, you can cut a bunch of it and just lightly disk the sections into the ground where you want it (having moist soil helps with rapid rooting). I've even seen people cut sections and keep them in wet newspaper in sunlight until the sections begin to root before planting. However, the biggest problem is deer eating every little sprig that sprouts. If honeysuckle doesn't exist naturally, the browse pressure keeping it from existing is the real problem, and planted sprigs will need protection to become established. I've seen "tents" of chicken wire used to protect the growing honeysuckle. This allows the honeysuckle to become established, and protects the plant a foot or two off the ground, but allows deer to eat the excess that grows beyond the wire.

Good deal thanks,

 

[catman529]

I have been hacking and killing a lot of jap honeysuckle vines to clear paths thru blackberry patches so I can pick berries in the summer. Lots of deer in there but also lots of honeysuckle and other greenery to keep the deer fed. Those vines seem to help make bedding cover even better.

 

[BSK]

I've seen "tents" of chicken wire used to protect the growing honeysuckle.

Can also use medium-sized felled cedars for this purpose. I kind of stumbled upon this after cutting a bunch of cedars and making a pile on the edge of an opening (that already had a little honeysuckle). Came back several months later and the honeysuckle was growing up/around/through and all over it.

And this is EXACTLY why I tell people who have had some logging done NOT to clean up the left-over tree-tops. The branches of a downed tree-top are perfect "exclusion cages" for growing/protecting highly preferred plant species from eradication by deer.