Grass Versus Trees Again

 I am covered up right now putting together plans for tree planting next spring, and part of every plan is a section telling landowners to kill fescue before they plant their trees.  Some listen, and some don't.  The ones that have fescue in their projects make good examples to show other landowners why killing grass before they plant is important.  The top photo is a tree planting project that was installed in crop stubble, with no weed control.  It has nearly 100% survival, and good form in the trees because of competition with weeds, and the natural concealment from deer.

This sad looking planting project is right across the road from the first planting, and it was actually planted before the other, in Hamilton County, Illinois.  This project was a fescue field, and the owner never got around to controlling the fescue grass.  White pine is one of the few trees that seems to be able to fight it out with fescue and survive, but they would have performed better if instructions had been followed.  The hardwoods were essentially a 100% failure.  Very few of these failed cases ever call to rectify the problem, so I assume that these folks weren't terribly interested in the first place.