It is not a pretty sight. The willow cuttings I stuck this spring on 3' centers (about 100 of them) I found about 8 that were still alive.
The dry period we had from May 1 until the end of July pounded the planting. We had about 4" in that three month span with an evaporation potential of 15 inches.
Rugosa Roses, Marge Elderberry and horseradish plants did relatively well.
I counted four plum seedlings from 100 seeds planted and maybe a dozen raspberry plants. I can live with 4/100 from seeds. Seeds are cheap.
In all, I counted 39 desirable, woody plants in the 300' length of the hedge. My preference would be to have 300 so I can cull heavily for fruiting quality and other qualities I desire.
I will keep throwing plants and seeds out there and one of these years we will have an excellent growing season and I will get the plant density I want.
The willow cuttings I put in a year ago in the spring did poorly, about 25% grew due to the drought a year ago and the ones that did well were destroyed by the deer in September. Deer really like willow and I never had any luck with it. I just came in from pulling pigweed in the garden and the soil at the root bottoms is very dry. This is the second bad year here.---ken
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