This grew in my yard this year via root sprout. Instead of mowing I decided to do an experiment. This is good growth for the first year. I don't plan on leaving it in the yard but wanted to test it this year to see how it'd go. I didn't water it. It made it far along 'til a deer found it a week ago. It might still survive. I'm trying to get some Aspen going on my hunting property, since they're not only a nice tree but also good deer food. A key is to get enough growing so deer don't mow 'em all down. Even once they get big enough deer can still like to rub 'em. I tried planting bare root once without success. Root sprouting is maybe the way to go, although it might be worth fencing 1 or 2 good ones in an area & then allow 'em to root sprout in future years, which they like to do if they have sun. This 1 appears to have a sucker. I've never tried growing them from seed.

If you transplant the young popple, you will have to cut it very far back, to avoid bad transplant shock, since it's used to feeding off of a much larger root system. I had that issue with sour cherries that grew the same way. Only 1 of the the 24 trees I transplanted survived. The surviving tree suffered damage that took it nearly to the ground. Since then I have successfully transplanted sour cherry trees by cutting 2/3rds to 3/4s off of the tops, down to a strong leaf node.

Keith

I think the only reasonable way to transplant a popple would be is if it started from seed not from root

transplanting a popple is about the last tree I'd bother with.



The value to deer is overrated. The habitat created by clear cut logging and popple regeneration is due to all the other plants that thrive in the more open environment that the clear cutting produced.
Its a short term habitat that declines quickly as time goes by.

Poplar is my go to Beaver Bait

yes poplar is way overrated, good while it is young and good when it 40plus year old for birds to bud in winter , but oaks, beechnut, an other mass producers are much better imo

With all the pests around here, popple are an important part of a diverse forest, but I wouldn't want an entire 40 of them.

they grow like grass here we hinge cut them to try and stop

I have popular seedlings about to take over one of my small fields. I mowed a path through them along the tree line. There are a few pro 6"+ in diameter.
I have gone back and forth between leaving them or mowing Them all over. Bees like them in the spring .

There is a timber market for them, though I'm not sure how good.

Absolutely

Mine too. It's like candy to a beaver.

They are an aesthetically pleasing tree

I have a diversity of tree species and I would rank Aspen (a member of the populous family) as my number one tree for deer. I try to manage an age class of 25% of my property between 1-10 years of age through successional cuts. An Aspen clear cut can produce 1,500 lbs of browse per acre, with a 1-acre nutrional value equal to 26 acres of soybeans. Soft mast and hard mast production is an important part of management but limited to seasonality and competition from other animals and bird species. I prefer browse plots over mast production and food plots.

I prefer them over food plots too, Eagleye. Thanks

It's not just a food source...deer love to rub aspen.

depends upon where you live, in my part of WI there is no market for popple.
Only thing it goes for is out door wood burners and it has to be CHEAP
I had to give away 90 cords of the stuff about 2 years ago to local guys with outdoor wood boilers..
I charged $10 loading fee to cover my cost.

Poplar is a good firewood mix for fall.

They are only good for browse for a couple of years. I live in area that has much better trees more numerous than popple.
Popple are rather uncommon around me. Hardwoods dominate the southern 1/2 of the state.


Guess it all depends upon where you are in the state, northern 1/2 then popple ain't so bad, southern 1/2 they are pretty much useless.


For browse they are only good for a couple of years, Much better things to do if one for some reason wanted more deer on his place.


For deer rubs, if there ain't no popple in the area the deer will rub something else, not like a buck is going to travel to find a popple tree to rub.

As far as aesthetics, meh, they are alright, Sugar Maple are better.

Popple are like the Jimmy Cagney line of an old movie, I can't remember the title. Line went like this, "live fast, die young and make a good looking corpse".
Except for popple its "live fast, die young and make (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) poor wood".

The porcupines seem to leave them alone