Fall is a great time to do your site preparation or site prep for spring windbreak plantings, especially new windbreak plantings where trees and shrubs are going in an area that hasn’t been planted to trees before. Site prep will make or break the survivability of your windbreak. Think of it as the groundwork for your windbreak, literally.
With windbreak site prep, you need to till deep because the planting machines can go down about 18 inches into the ground and if you don’t have good soil to root contact, your trees and shrubs will die. The best method is to roto till strips where the rows will go. When it comes to the width of the rows, it will depend on if you are putting down the black plastic weed barrier or not. If you are having the weed barrier put down, it is a good idea to till rows 10 – 12 feet wide so the installation machines can throw some of that excess soil back onto the black plastic and anchor it down good.
If the black plastic weed barrier isn’t being installed, you can simply go 4 – 6 feet wide for your strips. If in doubt, contact your Natural Resources District or the contractor who will be doing the planting and if necessary, the weed barrier installation to make sure your widths are adequate for the machinery.
If you are worried about cool season grasses coming in, you can always put down a pre-emergent to abort seeds in the prepped ground. Cool season grasses, especially brome grass, can be detrimental to young tree and shrub seedlings. The cool season grasses will come out of dormancy quicker and out compete the seedlings for nutrients, water, and in some cases,
sunlight. In the forestry and agroforestry realms, brome grass is called the green death not only to for seedlings, but for mature trees as well – especially during drought.
The question about adding fertilizers to the soil always comes up and the straight answer is stay away from synthetic fertilizers with trees unless you have a soil test performed. The best additive to the roto-tilled soil is organic mater such as compost, biochar, or small amounts of manure. I have known folks to roto-till in old hay into the mixture but be careful if seed heads are still on the hay and a pre-emergent will need to be put down to make sure the seeds don’t germinate.
For more information about fall site prep, contact you local Natural Resources District or the Nebraska Forest Service Agroforester at pbergstrom2@nebraska.edu.
