SwampTHING

There is a 400+ yard long snowmobile trail that runs through a corner of the property I hunt. It was levelled this past fall and will be bare dirt this spring.
What can I plant along here? its mostly shaded, splits a couple swamps so its damp/wet. It will have snowmobile traffic on it in the winter, and possibly very light atv use in the summer. Would a no-plow clover be good?

remingtonman

If the area is shaded most of the day the clover will not do very well. It will need some direct sunlight 4-6 hrs and/or broken sunlight all day to do very well at all.

lunchbucket

Do a soil sample. Also, get a post hole digger and dig some holes and measure the depth of the top soil and see what is underneath. Can you work the soil? Lime?

SwampTHING

I better crarify a bit more, the area will recieve direct sunlight for 3-4 hours a day, the canopy is broken enough to allow some light through the rest of the day.

This property is on Manitoulin island, the island is basically a large lime stone, with 3-6 inches of dirt covering the rock in some place's.

The trail would be about 8-10 inches of dirt that's been built-up and levelled for a provincial snowmobile trail. I will not be able to "till" this area, I want to get something down before weed's take it over.

farm hunter

3-4 hours of sunlight is not enough for a clover product. Also, clover is shallow rooted and will not tolerate much ATV traffic. No Plow type products need the same sunlight (4-6 hours min) - on good soils, and only will last one year if they take. Grasses will stand up to traffic well, but are a poor chioce for deer. However, unless the vegetation is real sparce around the trail, I'd go with a cheap, shade tolerant grass, spread thinly to encourage natural forb growth, and I would fertilize the trail and vegetation on either side of the trail to encourage good browse as the woods try to "fill in" the trail. We do this with our log roads with one exeption - we continuously cut back the brush on either side of the trail (10 ft) to encourage browse production. You may not have the option of cutting back the edges.

I can tell you from experience that planting the roadways is a tough proposition if the trees are over 20 ft tall on the edges. You get fooled in the spring, because it seems there is enough light, but once the leaves come in, shade is generally the rule.

lunchbucket

You may have an instance where you have too high a pH level. Check the pH. If it is over 8.0 you have a serious problem.

Dan O.

Swampthing; My property is similar, down the bruce peninsula and my soil runs 7.5 - 8.0.

Dan O.