Natural seed bank

BSK

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Habitat managers always talk about the natural seed bank - what seed is already present in the ground but isn't allowed to germinate under a full tree canopy, but will germinate if sunlight is allowed to reach the ground through timber thinning. What is in that seed bank will probably surprise you. It always surprises me! After having 100 acres heavily cut (down to around 10" DBH), those areas are rapidly filling in with a MASSIVE amount of pokeweed and ragweed, two very good natural food sources for deer. But where in the heck did all that pokeweed seed come from? Yes, we have it here in there around the edges of openings and along powerline right-of-ways, but now I've got about 100 acres of pokeweed! How that much pokeweed seed was already in the soil boggles my mind...
 

JCDEERMAN

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It is amazing the variety of seeds that just lay dormant in the soil for YEARS. I can't remember who recommended the book, but I have been meaning to order the book from Miller and Miller - Forest plants of the Southeast and their wildlife uses. I want to go around and try to identify as many species that I can in our newly-cut areas. Those that are beneficial and those that are invasive. We have a lot of pokeweed as well
 

BSK

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I can't remember who recommended the book, but I have been meaning to order the book from Miller and Miller - Forest plants of the Southeast and their wildlife uses. I want to go around and try to identify as many species that I can in our newly-cut areas. Those that are beneficial and those that are invasive. We have a lot of pokeweed as well
I suspect that was me. I love that book. A true resource. I use it all the time. And the crazy thing is, that book started out as just a graduate student project. Each graduate student in the wildlife department was asked to write a chapter on a different native plant, using a standardized format. After collecting these over a number of years, Dr. Miller realized they would make for a great resource book.

I'm jacked about the pokeweed. In my area, deer hammer it in August and September.
 

DoubleRidge

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It truly is crazy what's in the "seed bank"..... following our timber cut we too had pokeweed develop.. grows fast too! Some areas that were wide open are now so thick with various green vegetation it's truly amazing.

But one thing we had that also developed (which I'm not a big fan of)..is Lambs Ear....not so much where timber remains but more so in the two new plots we created that were previously timber areas....the stuff just appeared everywhere......I've sprayed the plots and knocked it back but it seems new ones pop up easily....I'll get them eventually.

BSK....I believe it was you that shared a story once in the smokies, following a timber harvest, that there were wildflowers appear that hadnt been seen in decades....that's amazing!
 

BSK

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BSK....I believe it was you that shared a story once in the smokies, following a timber harvest, that there were wildflowers appear that hadnt been seen in decades....that's amazing!
Some of the plants that appeared in the Smokies after a timber removal hadn't been seen in over 100 years, and were thought to be extinct.
 

megalomaniac

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My cousin is working to restore native orchids in Fall Creek Falls... plans to convert plantation pines to oak savannas with logging and fire, then let the native seed bank take hold. Amazing what can come up from the ground once sunlight hits disturbed soils
 

BSK

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My cousin is working to restore native orchids in Fall Creek Falls... plans to convert plantation pines to oak savannas with logging and fire, then let the native seed bank take hold. Amazing what can come up from the ground once sunlight hits disturbed soils
What a fascinating project!
 

rukiddin

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Look on top of any wooden fence post in late summer and they'll have poke weed seeds in the bird droppings. Seems like all songbirds love them and I've shot a lot of doves that were full of them.

you mention the seed bank in forested areas, it is impressive but just as impressive is a field that's had the fescue nuked off of it. Just one glyphosate treatment usually won't get all of the fescue killed but it's amazing to see what comes up once the fescue is killed off. Even if it's just partially killed out.
 

BSK

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I often use pokeweed as a deer density indicator plant. How prevalent the plant is and how much it gets browsed in August and September will tell you a lot about your local deer population.
 
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