I am going to buy 100 baby white pines about 12 inches tall this spring. I am planting them, side by side, across the back of my property to block the view quickly. Because of the width of the property and I am growing a living fence, they will be about two to three feet apart. How long before they will make a good fence?
How does “never” sound?
There are a number of things to consider. Regardless of what you want, plants also want. Your will to have this line of trees is not going to win or how trees have grown for a million years. Your white pines could eventually grow to be about 60 feet tall with a spread of around 30 feet. Height is not your problem, width is.
When you are planting cute little trees not much bigger than a toothbrush, it is hard to imagine them being this big. But for needles to remain densely on the trees, they must get eight or more hours of full, not shaded sun.
By the time the trees are three feet tall, they are already crowding their neighbors. In the best of times, the shaded needles fall off, never to return. In the worst of times, the trees begin dying because of overcrowding. These trees grow and compete for moisture and nutrients. Even careful watering and fertilizing cannot preserve these trees to maturity.
This many trees will never grow to become your dreamed of fence. Consider the term, “living fence” as an oxymoron. To create and maintain plants this closely for a long period of time is very difficult. Also consider that if the trees spread onto the neighbor’s property, they may lop off any parts that overhang the line.
Realistically, 10 trees in a straight line or 20 planted in a zigzag pattern might work. But it will be many years and a great deal of care before this happens. Block the view now with a solid fence and plant trees slowly and intelligently in the future. The hundred-pine line is not going to be cheaper or easier in the long run.
Something so bizarre happened recently I don’t know if what I saw was real. It was one of those days when the snow was melting and around some footprints that had grass showing, there was black stuff on the snow. It looked like the prints were lined with ground pepper on the snow. When I looked closely, all the pieces were wiggling. Is this possible or am I going crazy?
You may be crazy but it will be for other reasons. You just have good eyesight. You actually saw living, non-scary things. The tiny insects are called snow fleas.
No, don’t even think for a second that they have anything to do with pet fleas. They get the “flea” name because they hop around.
Snow fleas are very primitive insects that belong to a large, non-famous family that are called Collembolans or springtails. The family feeds on decaying plant matter in the soil and can be active at cold temperatures. They do this by manufacturing their own version of antifreeze for themselves.
Some Collembolan family members are found around arctic melted snow pools. In your yard, they live in to top inch or so of soil and quietly feed on already dead plant material. They do not damage any live plants. You don’t see them because they are in the soil in warm weather and being dark in color, they are hard to see.
When the snow melts and warms the soil around the foot prints, they warm up a bit and begin hopping and wriggling. And that’s all they are doing. They will go back into the soil as the day cools. They are unique and unusual.
Be excited you got to meet them. You have now met the tiny race from the Order Collembola.
Contact Gretchen Voyle, MSU Extension-Livingston County Horticulture Educator, at (517) 546-3950.
