Cedar tree/screening

[Stubborn1vt]

I have a one acre food plot 200ish yards from my house. It can be seen by the neighbors and the road. I plant a strip of corn for cover and left a strip of grass, goldenrod and ash saplings. Toward the back of the plot, dead center is a big red cedar. The deer love to feed around it. The downside is that it competes with the 6 apple trees I planted. 

I want to cut it. It just gets bigger and wider each year. Any ideas on how to quickly replace it with wood that will provide cover for the deer? My log road enters the plot directly behind it. I'm too busy (lazy) to spray for cedar apple rust. Cutting one cedar probably won't make much difference, as there is a hedgerow full of them 30 yards to the south that aren't mine to cut. 

Leave it? My original thought was that the apples would provide some cover, but the CAR has stunted them. I could replant with resistant varieties, but I'd like a faster solution. 

Any ideas or suggestions welcome. Sorry for the long post. I'm in the blind and it is raining very hard.

[Otto]

Sorghum??

[Bucksnbows]

When it comes to managing for whitetails, a dark forest component is important. But a single cedar not so much. You have a 1 acre plot, but sounds like you’re trying to make it into too many things. An acre is a great size, but I wouldn’t try more than two “crops”. Clover or corn or turnips or apples, but not a few plus bedding cover (goldenrod). If you don’t want neighbors peering in to the plot, switch grass grows fast and tall. It acts like a screen and is bedded in. Big bluestem is native but not as thick. Corn doesn’t go far on one acre. Think of a combo of clover and brassicas. Leave the apples and the cedar in that case. 

[Stubborn1vt]

All I'm trying to do is provide a little screening.  The corn isn't there for food, it's a screen the deer use to eat clover before dark.  The houses and road are above the plot.  The cedar tree was there before the plot was and the deer feed behind it and hang tight to it until dark.  I will probably end up leaving it, because I'm convinced they feel safer with it there.  The strip of golden rod was an earlier attempt at screening.  It will most likely get tilled up next year.  I don't want any bedding cover in the plot, I just need to screen it.  Field corn works ok and I get the seed for free.  Next year I may fence it since the coons population has rebounded and they flattened it.  I'm not sure what you mean as far as corn "not going far".  We don't have NY type deer density.  The plot is just clover and brassica/oats.  Mostly I want my six apple trees to do better, but between CAR and heavy soil, that probably isn't going to happen.

[Bucksnbows]

47 minutes ago, Stubborn1vt said:

All I'm trying to do is provide a little screening.  The corn isn't there for food, it's a screen the deer use to eat clover before dark.  The houses and road are above the plot.  The cedar tree was there before the plot was and the deer feed behind it and hang tight to it until dark.  I will probably end up leaving it, because I'm convinced they feel safer with it there.  The strip of golden rod was an earlier attempt at screening.  It will most likely get tilled up next year.  I don't want any bedding cover in the plot, I just need to screen it.  Field corn works ok and I get the seed for free.  Next year I may fence it since the coons population has rebounded and they flattened it.  I'm not sure what you mean as far as corn "not going far".  We don't have NY type deer density.  The plot is just clover and brassica/oats.  Mostly I want my six apple trees to do better, but between CAR and heavy soil, that probably isn't going to happen.

What I meant by the corn is if you’re leaving it up for food (not screen), the typical amount you want is a full 5 acres. Look into some of the warm or cool season grasses as a narrow screen around the edges.  They provide screening year round, not just a few months. 

[Stubborn1vt]

12 minutes ago, Bucksnbows said:

What I meant by the corn is if you’re leaving it up for food (not screen), the typical amount you want is a full 5 acres. Look into some of the warm or cool season grasses as a narrow screen around the edges.  They provide screening year round, not just a few months. 

LOL.  Totally different deer density.  It would take the 6-8 deer I have a long time to eat an acre of corn.  The edges aren't much of an issue.  Woods on one side, hedgerows on 2 sides, reed canary/cattails on the other.  The corn divides the plot up .

It's nearly impossible IMO to make  suggestions from my vague post.  You obviously know management.  I was just eyeballing that cedar while I was in the blind.  Thanks for the replies!  

[Stubborn1vt]

I was lying awake thinking about habitat improvement, since I don't have a tag, and came back to thinking about his big cedar tree.  Instead of removing the cedar to benefit the apple trees, I'm going to remove the apples that are susceptible to cedar apple rust and replace them with resistant varieties.  

I'm not sure what I will do with the wild varieties that I transplanted from the farm.  I thought they would be resistant, but that doesn't seem to be the case.  Maybe I'll just use that space for more brassicas.  

Starting Monday, the archery season re-opens her in VT and I will have a doe only tag.  Looking forward to hunting again.  While a one buck limit may make sense from a management perspective, I HATE it.  It has cost me weeks of hunting enjoyment. Next year I need to take some of my hard earned dollars and days off to NY.