Top 3 Deer Habitat Screenings

[@mikeclement5383]

I am all about the hybrid willows. They grow SUPER fast, thick, and the deer seem to eat the heck out of them. Plus once you get them started, you can just nip off cuttings and stick them into the ground to thicken the screen. If you want to create an impasse, you can actually weave them together to make a living fence. Also, I have put hybrids in between trees I want to keep protected, because if you prune them to a single leader, they become a sacrificial rub tree. Hybrids willows for the win!

[@kurtpearson2793]

This is EXACTLY what i hope to do someday. This video will be watched a dozen times by me alone. Thanks for your dedication and devotion to helping all us habitat-ers’ !!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

That's great to hear Kurt! I hope it really helps you out 😊 You are very welcome...

[@whitetailhabitatandhunting]

Amen!

[@steveo2129]

good post kurt, jeffs help is very much appreciated.

[@edgoguen7295]

Wondering if there were holes punched into the ground first before the willows were shoved in. ? Also we’re the stems dipped in rooting compound? I have a few red osier dogwoods around. Can I do cuttings and plant them the same way? Great video!🦌

[@LS-vs7bi]

Great video! Last week with the help of some Amish kids I paid we planted 5,000 miscanthus bulbs. It’s is really easy if you can rent a small ditch witch . It’s like a little tractor with a dozer blade on the front and the trencher in the rear. You can dig the trench and at the same time fill in the old trench with the dozer blade. Makes miscanthus quick and easy .

[@donaldardell5742]

Jeff, solid advice on selection of conifer species, and a great example of deer preference browsing. While Northern Maine's deer are by no means overpressuring winter browse availability, white cedar is a whitetail winter favorite and trying to make a screen from it is an almost comically bad idea, and you highlight that well. White spruce, on the other hand, is very tolerant of poor and acidic soil and drought, grows very thick and full, and will accept grass and perennial growth competition. While close plantings will work for a quickie screen, long-term individual tree health can suffer; if you have the space, I recommend a two or three staggered rows of white spruce, with more space between the plantings in the rows. Mimicking the natural conditions that create the healthiest individual trees makes a lot of sense and provides a better screen that will last for generations.

[@gregruotsala6266]

Thanks Jeff,the white cedar brings back memories of the UP deer yards.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Oh man that is so true Greg!! You are very welcome 😊 Hopefully some great memories!

[@bowman8316]

Awesome info on alternate screening 👍🏼 Thank you 🦌🏹

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Thanks David, you are very welcome!

[@scottmohr6186]

Put 200 white spruce in yesterday on an access path and sprayed my plots to prep for buckwheat. WHS Rocks!

[@bowman8316]

Hey Scott, do you fertalize your buckwheat when you plant it or after it's growing ? Thanks

[@scottmohr6186]

@@bowman8316 No fertilizer on the buckwheat at all. I will fertilize end of July when planting and crushing, I have started fertilizing each half of the plot to maximize growth per soil samples. That worked really well last year.

[@bowman8316]

Thank you Scott 🌾

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

That's awesome to hear Scott!! Very exciting 😊

[@bowman8316]

This habitat work is so FUN, but addicting ! My days to kayak fish on the Niagara river get less and less with each new video... 🎣😭

[@edhondt]

Thank you for the video Jeff! We just recently planted some white spruces, Colorados, and some black spruces for screening. Next year, we'll try some silky willows in some areas as well. We're going on year #2 with our switchgrass and hoping that it starts to take off. We appreciate all your knowledge!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

That all sounds great Ed! Sounds like some great screening 👍 I really hope it all helps!

[@edhondt]

I forgot to include Norway spruces and red cedars for our bedding to the north of the property along our swamp. We put down 350 bare root trees total!

[@tfrost33elkhunter]

I’ve got a few different species of pine/conifers in our 3 acre grove. Seems the only ones that dont lose their lower limbs are the Norways. Wish I had planted mostly those. All the rest the lower limbs have died!

[@alanwhite4839]

Teosinte! Great perennial screen plus dove, turkey and quail food.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

"Egyptian Wheat" is excellent!!

[@whitetailhabitatandhunting]

Thanks Jeff! Have a lot of switchgrass screens and bedding going in this week!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Very exciting Isaac, enjoy the day and all the work getting done this week! 😊

[@whitetailhabitatandhunting]

@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 Thanks!

[@MrRABland]

Thanks, Jeff., very timely and answers a question I posted yesterday!

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

That's great to hear Rick...you are very welcome 😊

[@NeedsMoreToys]

I love conifers but a decade to get a screen. At year 3 my Norway seedlings are still only a foot if they survived. Moisture and soil sucks. Red pines have done better in sand and drought. I’ve researched the silky willows and that looks very interesting. Price of seed and chemicals this year means I have to be very selective with improvements. Great content. Another good annual screen is Sudan Grass.

[@tdawgcj7]

Drilled my switchgrass last night for screening. Did a mix of 50/50 cave in rock and Tecumseh from John.

[@billterwillegar9577]

Love the videos Jeff, I would love to hear your thoughts on looping. Keep up the great work, thanks

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hi Bill...what is looping?

[@RS-ms1bz]

Jeff, I’d like to know that as well!

[@billterwillegar9577]

@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 they enter my property in one spot to feed on my food plots and exit out the other side. They repeat this pattern frequently. I only have 25 acres to work with, so I'm pulling them from my neighbors woods.

[@metroplexchl]

So we just bought 36 acres, and I want to plant a hybrid willow privacy screen along a county road so the neighbors aren't tempted to hunt our land. 🙂 But we'll only be going out there every couple of weeks. So we can't water daily. Is it possible for them to grow only being watered at this frequency?

[@big_rock_trees]

Depending on soil, the hybrid willow doesn't need to be watered often. If you are able to water them once a week or every two weeks and you get some natural rainfall, then those hybrid willow will be just fine!

[@georgehelzer7569]

Ive messed with hybrid poplars for a long time.. I would only use those as a screen in a layered screening with multi species. They, Specifically the OP-367, have the terrible notion to put roots above the ground line. that was my only issue with them. Beautiful fast growing trees though. I have several things started in pots this year and cant wait to get them installed on my property later this fall.

[@bucksbucksoutdooradventure4973]

Man this is a great video! Thanks for all the info on the silky willow

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Thank YOU!!

[@travisethridge4062]

Thanks for Whitetail deer content

[@whitetailsup760]

All right Jeff I’m holding u accountable as a 51 year old guy it’s time u go on a diet buddy trust me it’s hard but we got to do it 💪

[@markmilner563]

Great info Jeff!!! Really enjoy the videos. Just curious, I have seen an increase in evasive honeysuckle. Do deer browse this? Thank you

[@bucksbucksoutdooradventure4973]

They sure smell great

[@JP_BowHunter]

This was really good information. Thank you.

[@brienposter1140]

Hi Jeff, I was a born and raised michigander who moved to Southern North Carolina 8 years ago. I have been following you for some time now and noticed that you don't talk much about North Carolina. I own my own property and was wondering if you have any information about whitetail habitat for the area that I live in?

[@fredmcintyre9889]

Good morning from the Thumb Jeff!, near you old stomping ground! What can I use for screening to divide a property line in open hard woods until until it gets regenerated. Have a fence sitter

[@alexpinnow6509]

Think the willows and switch will help cut down on the road noise too if they thicken up Jeff?

[@Rsford1193]

Jeff, do you think your findings with food plots and big buck and doe movement patterns translates fully to the south? Particularly the southern piedmont of North Carolina? I know many of your ideas and findings are great, but it seem like our deer down here and especially our rut differs from your upper midwest deer in some ways.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hi Cody! Your rut timing is a lot different...more of a trickle rut. The further north youbtravel the more definedthe rut is. However the concepts of access, stand set up, low impact hunting, parcel building and layout, the relationship of deer to deer and deer to man...is all the same. Just the variety of habitat changes...

[@Rsford1193]

@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 I totally agree. We have a trickle rut. I began watching your videos and reading your books before last season. I noticed you're very accurate with some things. The biggest for me was i was getting pictures of a few nice bucks within a couple hours of dark. I realized they were coming from further off our property. I backed my cameras up and seen they were in fact moving during the daylight hours on our property, even very late season! Beyond that, I'm looking forward to establishing low impact entry to our stand locations. Our goal this year is to let the bedding to feeding patterns establish within out property interior. I'm excited to have our plots established and see what we can produce. I greatly enjoy your content as do many of my friends

[@j_saxon_9754]

In another video you say not to allow to much brush around your food plots cause deer think about how predators hide in it, but you said Berm via hinge cut? I follow you strictly for mature deer tips so I say this to ask which one applies to a rough acre or larger food plot?

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Natural is always best. Hardwood and shrub regen along with briars is natural. Berms are great from a distance and when limited to one side of the plot, and also when effectively screened with natural borders such as shrubs, grasses, hardwood regen, briars, etc. There is also a predator factor...for example in the lower Midwest there is really no predator factor. When you get into wolf country the game changes. Also, a large plot bordered by a hard edge like evergreen (when there is none) or Miscanthus grass is OK...but a small hunting plot can greatly suffer in use when bordered by hard evergreen or Miscanthus grass edges. In particular by mature buck use. This also changed when hunting in a fantasy land state like Iowa or Kansas where hunting pressure is low enough mature bucks are less wary...even suburban areas where deer are used to odd shapes and humans and less wary. When you hunt in states where bowhunters are measured in the hundreds of thousands and not tens of thousands things change drastically too. Again this...shrubs, hardwood regen, briars...they are all natural and fit most anywhere. Hard walls of conifer, Miscanthus, berms and logs are less tolerable to mature bucks depending upon your location, size of plot and predation factor.

[@benborgschatz9525]

What happened to yesterday video? I didn't get a chance to finish watching it.

[@benborgschatz9525]

@Number 1 Fan I just read that, thanks. Hopefully Jeff will make another video about switchgrass. I just got my switchgrass planted.

[@paulsipe8481]

How far apart would you recommend planting plum with staggered rows for screening?

[@johnhuls2695]

Jeff do you do anything for mice control under those weed mats. I have problems with mice gurdling my younger willows. It looks like a great way to put bushes in otherwise

[@amandawallinga4628]

How long do silky willow live when fully grown? Would really appreciate any advice on this,thanks

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Ho Amanda! Decades...

[@amandawallinga4628]

@@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 sweet thanks so much for answering my question !!keep up the good work I love watching your channel its so much information!! Merry Christmas.

[@MayorOfGoodells]

Any suggesting for a shade screen that can be planted under power lines?

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

In the shade? Really nothing...

[@MayorOfGoodells]

@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751 I'm thinking of using white spruce, knowing they will be topped later down the road.

[@emanuelpeachey7266]

Where do i buy raffle tickets for the hunt giveaway?

[@exotictones1054]

The deer ate my scotch pine 4'tall, to the ground in one winter.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Wow...starvation food! Or next to a food plot 😊

[@bowman8316]

Woo Hoo 👍🏼🕺🏻

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Hope you like it David!

[@ukjw2]

What is a berm?

[@ukjw2]

Assuming your don’t mean bringing tons of dirt in.

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Dirt

[@thomaschambers5711]

Dang missed it

[@whitetailhabitatsolutions9751]

Haha 😊

[@kurtpearson2793]

I think D.Bowman lives closer to Jeff than I do. He was lightning fast today! Usually the moon helps pattern release timing…weirdly late today??

[@kurtpearson2793]

@Number 1 Fan wait, I’m here in Minnesota, how the heck did he get the video first???? Shenanigans!!!

[@bowman8316]

You guys are cracking me up ! 👍🏼😂

[@kurtpearson2793]

@Number 1 Fan free screening videos! (sponsored by D.Bowman LLC.)

[@kurtpearson2793]

Second

[@ihus9950]

👍🏻

[@tompeterson3296]

TMI!