I had not planned to stay overnight, but I felt too tired to drive home, so I stayed at Fairfield in Emporia. Not planning to stay, I didn’t have my computer, my phone was almost out of power & I didn’t bring a book, so I just went to sleep at 9pm and got a good night’s sleep.
Early today, I could go out to the farm and work all day w/o getting very tired. I got a lot done, but there is a lot to do.
I looked for and cut around the longleaf on Brodnax. Chrissy says I am praising my cutter too much, but it is great. Unfortunately, there are large areas where the longleaf are just absent.
Too few longleaf
As I have written before, I think they were planted too late in the year, so survival was not great. I think others were killed by the brambles. Anyway, I learned a few things I should have done. Not able to go back in time, however, I have two options and I will exercise both in part.
Oaks fill in
First is to allow oaks to fill in and then favor oaks. I want to have more oaks on the land, so I am cutting around the oaks where there are not many longleaf.
Super trees
The second option is to fill in with “super” longleaf. I ordered 1000 Varietal Loblolly Pine from Arborgen. These are supposed to be the best genetics. I figure that the longleaf have a three-year head start. If these loblolly grow as they say they should, they should end up at about the same in ten years. No matter what, I can see how well they grow.
First picture shows some of the longleaf where there are enough to them. Net is a little longleaf near a burned stump. I just though it was a good picture. Also indicates that the longleaf survived the fire. Picture # 3 is one of the oaks I found and trimmed around. Next is the 2016 loblolly on one side and the 2016 LL on the other. Longleaf are harder to grow. Last are tracks I made w/o noticing on the way to Burger King. I noticed only when I got inside. I guess the clay was on the bottom on my boots and it got loose when I walked across the wet parking lot.