Forestry field day at the Jerry Rediger farm

By Orlan Love, The Gazette

KALONA Acknowledging the slow growth of trees, most foresters will tell you the best time to plant one is 20 years ago.

But Jerry Rediger, who broadcast more than 325 bushels of nuts on 44 acres of worn out farm ground in November 1997, will tell you that 17 years ago is also a fairly auspicious planting time.

Im excited about what weve got to show you today, Rediger said Wednesday at the start of a forestry field day showcasing the dense hardwood forest, red and gold leaves aglitter, towering in some spots 35 feet above the once badly eroded slopes on which they were planted.

Rediger said he bought the farm in 1993, one of the wettest years on record in Iowa, when heavy rains washed 8-inch-deep gullies between all the rows of his corn.

That sickening experience, he said, got him thinking about planting trees, and he took action in 1997 after he met forestry consultant Steve Hamilton of Cedar Rapids.

Hamilton recommended the then experimental technique of direct seeding, rather than planting rooted saplings.

They roto-tilled 5-foot strips, with 8-foot spacing between the strips, and tossed acorns and walnuts onto the tilled soil from the back of a pickup, Hamilton said.

The following May they were delighted to find slender saplings poking through the soil, he said.

With Rediger mowing and applying herbicide to control competition from sod grass, the trees grew rapidly, establishing after five years a canopy that eliminated the need for further mowing or spraying, Rediger said.

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Forestry field day at the Jerry Rediger farm