Planted Pines Question?

[CWT]

I have about 30 acres planted pines on our total 182 acres in west tn. The pines were planted in April of 2007 and are about 2-3 ft tall now. They are in 3 groups. 3 acres, 18 acres and 9 acres approx. I also have a neighbor that borders us with 150 acres of pines that are about 10-15 years old.

My questions is... If anybody has planted pines or experience with them... at what stage of growth do you see more deer using in and around them? I have read several articals on this matter and was wondering what opinons and experience everyone might have.

Thanks for any comments you may provide.
cwt

 

[muddyboots]

Ive hunted around pines most of my life. They stay in them most of the time. Id say the best times for hunting is the first five years. Last year was different though. Weve got sime pines on our lease that are about 15 years old. Very tall and little underbrush. The timber company came in and cut strips every 30 feet. Now there is under brush in the openings and we saw more deer last year than ever before.

 

[Football Hunter]

great cover,but little food after they get 10 foot tall or so

 

[BSK]

The cut area they are growing in provides good food sources for about the first 4 years. After that, cover is the main draw, and that cover will last until the pines are about 12 years old. And if they are isolated patches of pines surrounded by hardwoods, they will be THE #1 bedding area for older bucks.

 

[Stalker]

I've noticed on our lease that the three big Cedar thickets couple hundred yards long and two are over 100 yrds wide...that they seem to be travel corridors...The biggest one has some bedding areas in it... I try not to go into them very often as I believe that the deer use them alot and I hunt the out skirts of them and between them alot...Do Cedar thickets work any differnt? Since they are shorter trees I would guess that the cover would be good for longer...Should I concider clear cutting any of them to allow them to regrow or let them be?

 

[CWT]

The cut area they are growing in provides good food sources for about the first 4 years. After that, cover is the main draw, and that cover will last until the pines are about 12 years old. And if they are isolated patches of pines surrounded by hardwoods, they will be THE #1 bedding area for older bucks.

The pines were planted in old fields. There are moderatly thick hardwoods elsewhere on the property as well a couple growed up 3 acre fields. The old fields the pines are planted in are starting to get briers & small trees in them. I suspect in the long run it will be good habitat. It is definatly a good investment for the future anyway.

 

[Howa]

And if they are isolated patches of pines surrounded by hardwoods, they will be THE #1 bedding area for older bucks.

Why is that? Please elaborate BSK, what is it that would hold bucks here? Very interested in this, as I have Westvaco pine country bordering me, I know the deer pour out of there in the evenings coming into my hardwoods. Why do they like the pines so much?

 

[BSK]

The cut area they are growing in provides good food sources for about the first 4 years. After that, cover is the main draw, and that cover will last until the pines are about 12 years old. And if they are isolated patches of pines surrounded by hardwoods, they will be THE #1 bedding area for older bucks.

The pines were planted in old fields. There are moderatly thick hardwoods elsewhere on the property as well a couple growed up 3 acre fields. The old fields the pines are planted in are starting to get briers & small trees in them. I suspect in the long run it will be good habitat. It is definatly a good investment for the future anyway.

Once those pines grow tall enough that it would be difficult to walk into the old field, they will become THE bedding areas on the property.

 

[BSK]

And if they are isolated patches of pines surrounded by hardwoods, they will be THE #1 bedding area for older bucks.

Why is that? Please elaborate BSK, what is it that would hold bucks here? Very interested in this, as I have Westvaco pine country bordering me, I know the deer pour out of there in the evenings coming into my hardwoods. Why do they like the pines so much?

Impossible to know exactly why, but in the fall and winter pines are such good bedding areas because they produce shade during sudden warm spells, break the wind and rain during cold, wet periods and actually produce a little heat during very cold snaps. In addition, being evergreens, they block visibility when hardwood saplings have all lost their leaves. I find older bucks prefer bedding in the pines versus a jungle of hardwood saplings like you find in a regrowing clear-cut.

 

[Boone 58]

I love to hunt in pines for about the first 4 years or thereabouts and then they get too high......depending on the surrounding areas i like to hunt them anyway if they border a good hardwood flat/ridge.

 

[Football Hunter]

bsk is right deer love planted pines for cover

 

[kubotakid]

you can keep brush in your pines if you do a 5th row cutting about 12 years in. You will like the result of taller pines with brush within. The brush tends to be more centralized in areas where light penetrates most leaving clear ares for easy travel. For turkeys, they are just a bonus. They love the open pines on my farm. BSK is dead-on. My sanctuary is a huge area of pines that I go in 1 time a year to look for sheds and the rubs and scrapes are wicked compared to the hardwoods. May not be the case this year with acorns but the mature deer dont bed in hardwoods if there is a clearcut or most prefered cedar/pine thckets.

 

[Swampster]

I have about two hundred three year old pines scattered over 80+ acres in small groupings. Last year, it seemed the bucks had a preference to rubbing on these young pines. They even killed a few of them.

 

[BSK]

I have about two hundred three year old pines scattered over 80+ acres in small groupings. Last year, it seemed the bucks had a preference to rubbing on these young pines. They even killed a few of them.

In my rub studies, Loblloly Pine is the 2nd most preferred species of tree for making large rubs (signpost rubs) on. Eastern Red Cedar is #1.

 

[BSK]

you can keep brush in your pines if you do a 5th row cutting about 12 years in. You will like the result of taller pines with brush within. The brush tends to be more centralized in areas where light penetrates most leaving clear ares for easy travel.

I've seen some really cool things done with 3rd or 5th-row pine thinnings. On one project we did 3rd-row thinnings and then converted every other thinned row into a long, narrow food plot. So the sequence would go--as you walk perpendicular to the rows of pines--2 rows of pines, then a cut row growing back in brush, then 2 more rows of pines, then a cut row planted as a food plot, 2 more rows of pines and then another cut row growing back in brush, etc. Amazing how much useful habitat can be created in pine plantations if the landowner/manager wants to do so.

 

[TNTony]

The best hunting spot I've ever had in my life was in the top of a 30Ft tall pine tree, in a honey suckle thicket surrounded by other pines scattered hither and thither about. Pine thicket across on one side, hardwoods on the other two, beautiful!

 

[DEER DAVID]

On our place in west TN, the pines have become a haven for the deer.
Rubs appear along the back trails....(An old fence row)
Trails are all through this area........( I do not enter these areas, very dense vegetation, the floor covered with pine needles and I don't wish to disturb any deer in there)
Deer tracks lead from this area toward the food plots and other trails...........
Deer droppings are all over this area....

 

[Boone 58]

Good info BSK!

 

[diamond hunter]

I found this thread and thought Id bring it up,a real good one for me as Im currently planting pines on my place.

 

[Football Hunter]

I found this thread and thought Id bring it up,a real good one for me as Im currently planting pines on my place.

wow,you did some digging

 

[diamond hunter]

Yes I did and that dang dibble bar is about to break me.

 

[tickweed]

using on myself.

 

[tickweed]

using on myself.

Thats ONE . planting some myself this week.