Silvopasture wannabe

[Prairie Shepherd]

My sheep need shade! I love birds! I want to grow trees and shrubs to help with both, but haven't had great success getting woody plants to grow here in northcentral Montana. I would like to establish site-adapted shrubs and trees that eventually won't require supplemental water (11" precip zone) or winter protection (zone 3), and that can tolerate our high pH soil. Chokecherry, buffaloberry, wild plum, hawthorn, serviceberry and golden currant do well here, as does the introduced leguminous shrub caragana. I want to establish the woody vegetation not out on the prairie grasslands where trees can cause issues for wildlife, but in draws and out in meadows that historically would have had those native shrubs and more besides.

I ordered a bunch of seedlings for planting in the spring and I could use some advice on how to boost their establishment. Better to plant in well-spaced clumps, or in long rows? Amend the soil with my excellent homemade compost or not? Drip irrigation or some type of irrigation aimed at developing deep roots? Weed barrier cloth, mulch or nothing on the surface?

Juniper grows well here but I've read that it hosts a rust that damages apple-family trees. Does anyone have experience with that? I want healthy hawthorns more than I want junipers, but having some scattered porcupine-resistant conifers would be good too.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

 

[kfavor]

Hi Prairie Shepherd!

Silvopasture is a great way to get shade to your sheep and support wildlife. It's important to arrange trees in ways that make sense to your management system. If you have equipment that you regularly use in your system, or if you plan on harvesting a product from your trees, it probably makes sense to arrange trees in linear rows. If not, you can plant trees however you'd like, as long as you provide enough spacing so that light can get through to the groundcover below.

Trees always do well with a little extra nutritional love, so compost wouldn't hurt when you're planting them. Applying water is definitely important though - drip works well because it's efficient and targeted. But if you're already irrigating your pasture with sprinklers, that's a fine way to get water to your seedlings, too.

Weeds are one of the biggest issues with getting trees established, so mulch is definitely important to apply. A biodegradable weed cloth would work, or wood chip mulch. Coming through regularly during the first few years to do mechanical weed removal is important, too.

Protecting trees from sheep is important during establishment, too. You could exclude your sheep from the area for 3-4 years while the trees are growing, or you could get tree cages.

After 3-4 years your trees will likely be able to withstand sheep, weeds, and less water, and maintenance will be much easier!

 

[Prairie Shepherd]

Thank you, kfavor!

Re the use of compost in the planting holes: I read a caution somewhere that the tree roots might not elongate beyond the compost-enriched zone if there was a significant difference in soil fertility and texture outside that zone. The recommendation was along the lines of all or none -- dig compost into the soil throughout the expected rooting area of a mature tree, or don't use any at all. While I can see why this would be beneficial to tree establishment, the idea of digging these big areas by hand seems daunting with a few hundred shrubs to plant in clay soils at the same time I'm lambing next spring. Hmmm, maybe I should have ordered a few dozen instead of a few hundred seedlings!

 

[kfavor]

I've never had an issue with this when establishing silvopasture - in fact, when compost is fungally-rich, the mycorhizzae can actually help tree roots get established faster. But if you're planting native trees, I'm sure they'll do just fine without any compost at all.

 

[Prairie Shepherd]

Thank you for the advice, kfavor!

 

[High Plainsman]

I have found that using a weed barrier is very important in getting seedlings to survive in our semi-arid climate. It helps if drip irrigation can also be established, but if that isn't feasible, even just hauling water and giving each one a drink once a week or so really helps. Some folks advocate putting polymer in the hole as a means to hold water when in excess, and then releases the moisture as it dries out. Others claim that roots then do not expand out in search of moisture and so never establishes a good wide and deep root structure. I have done it both ways and have not been able to see a difference one way or the other.

Some other tree species you might consider is locust trees. I have them volunteering in my pasture. The black locust trees have a lot of sharp thorns on the branches when young, but the sheep still are able to nibble on the leaves. If you rotate grazing, even if the sheep strip the leaves off, they will grow more when the sheep are removed. I understand that locust trees are actually legumes, so we get some nitrogen fixation. They are very drought hardy, but I don't know if they are cold hardy enough for your area. We do get below zero temperatures here, but not for days and weeks at a time like you do. They grow fast, and if moisture is plentiful in the spring they will blossom in mid-June with white flowers.

 

[High Plainsman]

Here is a picture of my pasture.

 

[Prairie Shepherd]

Thanks for the advice, High Plainsman! Your pasture looks great. Wonderful to have grass along with trees that provide shade, fix nitrogen and provide food for sheep and bees all at the same time! I'll look into weed barrier. Your example has me excited to give this a try!