What method of planting trees?

[J Beyer]

Say I aquire 40 acres and only can plant a few acres at a time.  By a few I'm thinking of 2-3 acres at a time.  What is the most effective method of planting the acreage for both hardwoods and softwoods?  Or would I be better off planting the entire acreage at once?

JB

[SteveS]

I would just plant them with a dibble bar if you only wanted to plant a few acres at a time. I am fixin to plant 3 acres in hardwoods for a fellow. (bout 1000 trees)

[Ron Scott]

First decide what your management objectives are going to be for the site and acreage that you have. If you want a productive commercial forest, plant the entire 40 acres. Machine planting is preferred with any needed site preparation in advance.

Do a first and fifth year survival count and fill-in plant any failures as necessary to maximize your comercial forest acres.

[Tillaway]

Species, Site prep, and seedling type (plug or bare root) all determine the best way to plant.

If you plant yourself, a hoedad is the fastest once you get the hang of it.  In fact the 110 degree angle is the easiest and fastest with the longer blade.  It much harder to get a good verticle hole  with the 90 degree angle head.  Expect 300 to 500 trees per day production if you work hard.  The Mexican crews here average 500 to 1000 per day.

Knowing what I know I would contract it out and inspect closely.  You can always interplant yourself later if you want to fill some holes.  Close inspection means fewer holes.

[Bro. Noble]

If you are planting hardwood seedlings and plan to use a machine,  make sure it is designed to plant the larger seedlings.  Most machines are made for planting conifers.  Another method that is used in our area for planting SYP on rough and rocky ridges is to broadcast seed.  An offset disc is used to work up strips,  the pine seed is mixed with lespedeza seed ( to dilute the seed and provide a non-competitive cover and wildlife food) and broadcast with a 3pt. seeder.  It works well where SYP is native and is cheaper than seedlings.  

Check with the local farm forester for local reccomendations as well as plant or seed sources and planting machines.  Here, the machines are loaned to anyone wanting to use them.

Noble

[Larry]

I started my tree planting by getting a forester involved up front.  We discussed planting methods, species, weed control, and spacing.  The first 4 or 5 years I just planted about a half acre at a time to see what worked.

The method that I ended up using was to spray a 6' strip with roundup in the fall to kill the grass and planting with a 3-point machine in the spring.  This gave me the best survival rate and I didn't have to do any weed control in the first few years except for mowing in the rows once or twice a year.

After my learning period I got some state cost share money and started planting 10 acres each spring.  The only strings on the money were that I had to have something like a 60% survival rate after 3 years, a management plan, and then keep the ground in trees for 15 years.  The state also has cost share money for TSI and plantation maintenance.  I never did apply for that so can't comment on how it works.

We planted trees every night after work, on the weekends and it would take about 2 weeks to get 10 acres planted with the 3-point machine.  Our spacing was 12' wide rows with 9' between the trees.  I think that worked out to a little more than 400 trees per acre.

[Don P]

I was a hoedad planter for several seasons, tried the dibble but didn't care for it. We just did loblolly and white pine although a few of the crew have done hardwood by 'dad the last couple of years, basically excavating a hole with it. On the lobs in the eastern coastal plains of VA, NC, SC we were "encouraged" to put down 3000 bare roots/day. My best day was 2750 and I averaged 2500. But we had several that made production daily. This was one swing type ground usually, never more than 2, on 6 x 9 spacing. The white pine was mountain work and I ran more like 1500/day with alot of rock hits, 4 swats were pretty common. Have taken all 4 bolts out of the blade in one swat and had to walk out once...tough ground .

What are you guys planting Tillaway?



You have to watch the length of your blades, they do wear out, they fit in the frame of the truck rails for weld repair pretty good ;D
The collars on these are brass for throw weight. Michelle started with a tinsulite(sp?) collar but switched out pretty quick, easier to throw more weight than throw twice.

[Tillaway]

10' by 10' spacing with scalping and lots of rock.  Two or three swings per tree average often more.  Planting plugs in the hardest ground and bareroot 1/0 and 2/0 in the easiest.  We do allot of root trimming and have some real steep ground.

2000+ a day you guys are animals.  Thats like 4 a minute.  I have a very hard time doing 1 a minute but I'm not built for tree planting.  Its a long way to the ground for me.

[swampwhiteoak]

What's the cover of the area now J?  If it's cropland I'd sow a cover just to keep it from going to thistle and weeds.  Spray stips of Roundup in your rows in the fall, plant in the spring.

If it's cropland you might want to hold off a year, keep farming, and enroll in CRP whenever the next general signup is.  You'll get cost-share money to plant and an annual payment for 10-15 yrs.

It's been my experience that machine planting is far superior to hand.  I usually recommend 10' X 8'.   I don't know your exact situation but I would much rather plant at least 10 acres at a time.

I like plugs but they are spendy.  Definitely get a forester to help you to come up with appropriate species.

[jwoods]

If you're in the States, maybe your local soil and water conservation office has a mechanical planter you can borrow.  In Ohio where I am at, they rent one for a few dollars and acre.

[Frank_Pender]

I have used everything from, hodads, dibble sticks, planting shovels, and a 6" augher on my posthole digger (then backfilled with horse manure and shaveings mixed  with some good red clay soil). :'(  One side took 3 plantings, even after site prep of cover crop, plowing disking and harrowing.  The third time I drilled the holes 4' on center and hand backfilled. ???