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agray132

damaged russian olive

agray132
10 years ago

I planted 6 Russian Olive trees in September of last year. The trees were grown from seed in a greenhouse and were approximately 18 in tall. I transplanted them to my soil and staked them. In November of last year deer came by and ate all the leaves off them and topped them a couple of inches. Should I dig them up and try again or is a Russian Olive tough enough to come back?

Comments (10)

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    10 years ago

    if they are anything like my ROs ...

    you cant beat them back with a stick.. a truck.. or a deer ..

    give them a month .. and see what happens ...

    why in the world would you throw them out.. when technically.. its still winter????

    ken

    ps: i have cut down 20 foot monsters to 3 inches to the ground in summer .. and by the next summer.. they are 10 feet again .. much thinner though ... wonder if they are the same plant.. one of the problems with common names ....

  • drpraetorius
    10 years ago

    Unfortunately, they will grow back.

  • agray132
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Ken to answer your question I was gonna wait and see if they died or not but wanted to get an idea of what to expect. Sounds like I'm good to go. I live in the high sierra desert in northern Nevada at 5500 feet so I don't think I will get growth that fast.

    Dr I planted them for a wind break at the edge of my property line. You see, out here in the desert anything is better than sagebrush.

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    10 years ago

    of course your babes wont grow that fast ... mine are 20 year olds ...

    keep us posted ...

    if they die.. it wont be from a little deer browsing ...

    ken

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    10 years ago

    "You see, out here in the desert anything is better than sagebrush."

    Not ecologically speaking! Russian olive is a well-known and documented environmentally damaging agent in Nevada. Some invasives may be even more of an issue there, but Russian olive is still detrimental.

  • agray132
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Come live out here and then tell me if a tree is a bad thing. We also have gold mining and the argument is it's detrimental to the environment. I guess if sagebrush and clay dirt appeals to you then I could understand it.

  • brandon7 TN_zone7
    10 years ago

    "Come live out here and then tell me if a tree is a bad thing."

    Believe it or not, there are actually biologists, ecologists, and environmental scientist already in Nevada! They have already determined that it is a "bad thing".

    "I guess if sagebrush and clay dirt appeals to you then I could understand it."

    The same argument could be made for dumping your trash outside in heaps (of course the example is not perfect, because planting invasives can be far more environmentally harmful than dumping common trash). One could claim that the pretty colors of the trash presented a break from the same old dull scenery.

    It's your decision as to whether to "do the right thing" or not. And, as I said earlier, there are even worse choices of plants for Nevada. Elaeagnus angustifolia has not been outlawed, yet, in your state. The species is so harmful in some of your neighboring states, like Utah, that it has been declared a noxious weed (which has legal implications). I am only giving you this information because you seemed not to understand when Drpraetorius said that it was unfortunate that it would regrow. There was a valid reason for him saying that.

  • agray132
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    Scientists could find any reason to not have anything. I get that. Gold mining and digging a huge hole in the middle of nowhere isn't comparable to dumping trash and neither is planting an invasive tree so why compare the two? Scientists also argued to shut down mining because of sage grouse habitation. Even threatened legal action. Come to find out it was the black crow killing them off because the scientists protected the crow decades ago. So in reality government intervention (scientists for the BLM) created the problem. I'm sure the Russian olive is invasive, I've seen them grow, and I'm aware of other states who are losing native trees to the Russian Olive but I highly doubt that is the case in Nevada. Doin the right thing? I look out my door and see several different species of noxious weeds because that is what the landscape here is made out of. In fact I spend hundreds of dollars a summer controlling them on my little two acre lot.

  • canadianplant
    10 years ago

    The thing about russian o;ive is that it is a pioneer species. Give it enough water and of course sunlight (all pioneer species need light to grow. Most if not all cannot survive well under canopy). it will grow. They take over disturbed and poor soil in order to get the conditions ready for the next stage of succession. IF we stopped disturbing soil and forests so much, there probably wouldnt be as much of a problem with invasives....

    You pretty much cannot kill russian olives once they are established, except by shading them out. There growth slows then they rot from the bottom up. Snapping off a few inches of a plant, even seedlings shouldnt do any harm. If anything it will encourage branching making a shelterbelt a bit more effective.

    Bottom line: SHOULD you be using russian olive in an area in which it is known to be invasive? Probably not, but if it is already established in your area a few more really wont do much damage.

    If I were in your situation, I would do everything I could to create high and low areas in the soil to trap water as much as I could. I would then find as many native pioneer plants to cover the soil, then adding as many native AND non native usefull plants, which also are pioneer species.

  • agray132
    Original Author
    10 years ago

    I planted them and will continue to plant them around sagebrush. I don't know of anything tougher than sagebrush. I've dug down a foot and hacked off their roots with a hatchet and removed them from the ground and they will start growing back the next year. They are highly invasive if you are talking about desert climate. A Russian Olive will not knock out a sagebrush which is what grows here. Ive seen that to be the case for the past 25 years.