For tree planter, patience is key

WASHINGTON — Larry Krotz bought 130 acres of pasture northeast of Washington in 1962, planning to leave behind his life in the air force for a civilian job when the armed forces found itself too saturated with pilots. The plan, at the time, was to grow his own black walnut trees and pursue a woodworking hobby without paying for the expensive product.

He only managed to plant a few trees on the land before the Cuban missile crisis, an event that raised demand for his line of work, and called him back to the service. When he returned years later, he noticed a pattern: everything planted from a seed had grown without him. Every tree brought in as a transplant, however, had died.

Since then, Krotz estimates he’s planted millions of trees on the property, all of them grown from seeds. He’s since given up on the dream of cheap black walnut wood, although it’s still abundant on the property. He still considers the acreage a garden, just not one that’ll see harvest any time soon.

“In 150 years, I’m going to be extremely wealthy,” he jokes. “Until that time, it costs me money. But that’s when the trees will be harvested.”

Krotz has learned a lot of lessons in the intervening decades. Namely, that black walnut trees can’t grow alone; They don’t produce enough shade to kill off grass, which ultimately competes with them for nutrients, stunting the trees’ growth.

  Buy Photo

In response, he’s diversified the plants, with seeds collected from across the country, but mostly from Iowa — one of his favorite place to find oak seeds is a park in Iowa City. Land that once offered a Conservation Reserve Program tax credit is now densely wooded enough that it’s simply classified as a forest.

“I don’t try to grow trees, I try to grow a living, breathing forest, and let the forest grow the trees,” he said. “So far, it seems to be working OK … I try to imitate nature, nature’s been my guide.”

That said, the tree-planter is more than happy to give Mother Nature a hand, at times. The forest is fenced off, to keep out deer and rabbits that otherwise mow down new growth.

The planting process involves a device that drills holes in the soil before dropping seeds in, with dirt stamped back on top. Furrowing may be tedious, but Krotz found that discing the soil tore up root systems, while simply scattering seeds without equipment rarely worked.

It’s a more involved process than anything seen in nature. Krotz says he’s OK with that.

  Buy Photo

“The natural way it would happen, is a forest would take maybe 500 years, to get to the place you wanted it,” he said. “I’m trying to speed that up, and get it to 100 years.”

In theory, the trees will manage themselves, if grown properly. The right balance of species creates an ecosystem that can handle shading, drought protection, nutrient management, and any number of other issues.

Getting there from scratch, however, is hard. Sometimes, the forest needs to be thinned, when too many of the trees succeed. Other times, Krotz has to tear out invasive species, like Bush Honeysuckle, which will crowd out an entire forest floor if left unchecked.

Add to that the fact that he’s still planting trees, most of them from seeds that require careful attention both to maintain until planting season and to prepare for the soil.

“It doesn’t matter how many dead seeds you plant, you’ll never get a tree,” he said. “And there are certain things you have to do, depending on the type of tree … That was a very expensive lesson.”

  Buy Photo

Krotz said he spent 14-16 hours a day outside, shortly after his retirement. Now, he’s down to a modest half-day of activity, on average. His wife teases that he won’t be done working on the land if he lives another 300 years.

Krotz concedes that she’s probably right, but said such a heavy workload was good for him.

“After 20 years as a fighter pilot, I watched all of these other people that would get out of the military, and they would hunt, they would fish, they would golf, they would go to the bar, they’d get a swimming pool, or they did nothing,” he said. “And within two or three years, they all died. I wanted something that was going to keep me occupied. I’m in my 47th year now, of retirement, and I’m still alive.”

The patient work may seem like an odd pastime for a former high-performance fighter pilot, who at one time pushed four or five G’s on a daily basis. While less fast-paced, Krotz said the tree garden still offered a comparable level of excitement, now that his aircraft-operating career is behind him.

“It’s a multigenerational garden … it is thrilling for me to watch the trees, how they can change,” he said. “I don’t come down here and watch these trees grow, I’ve got trees I haven’t seen in five, 10 years, right now. And I get in there, and all of a sudden, ‘Wow! Look at that thing!’”

  Buy Photo

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com