Is cluster planting advantageous?

[straightree]

Usually, man made plantations have a lower plant density than natural forests, mainly due to planting costs and maintenance convenience. This is not good for trees, since they will grow less straight, and produce large branches, that will create big pruning scars. It seems that an alternative is to arrange tress in clusters, at final spacing, of about 6 - 10 units each, so that each cluster will produce a final tree, and trees would have the benefit of close competition, at only 6 - 10  times the final tree density.

Has anybody had experience with that?

[woodtroll]

Competition is good and just for the reason you said. Tight spacing pushes trees up... to a point, then causes stress and growth rates to slow down.
Plantations that have shown good result for me have moderate competition from natural regeneration that was allowed to develop once the planting became established.  In other words we would plant on a 10 x 10, control vegetation competition for one or two years, then let them go. It may need a thinning around age 15. This is what we would do for hardwoods, mainly oaks.
Pines we would plant closer and mow for two years then let them go.

[Ron Wenrich]

I don't agree with your premiss that plantations give inferior trees.  Inferior trees generally come from silvicultural techniques that don't eliminate those trees that have poor form.  Diameter limit cutting in natural stands will give the same results. Plantations have greater stand density than most natural stands.  Its those intermediate thinnings that need to get done.

Clump planting will only yield worse trees, not better.  Planting in a clump means that all the trees have to compete for the available sunlight.  Those on the outside of the clump will bend outwards, and deform the bole, especially the butt log.  The inside tree may or maynot end up being a dominant tree.  It could just as easily be crowded out.

I've seen clumps in natural stands that come from stump sprouts.  Chestnut oak is a good one for this.  Most all have problems with the butt logs.

[straightree]

Thank you for your comments.

Ron, when you say that plantations have a greater stand density, how much you think is good.

I see the real danger of outward bending, when planting in clumps, but I have found some trees that have grown accidentally in clumps to be very nice looking. But of course, as we say in our country, a flower does not make spring.

Woodtroll, would 10 x 10 be enough if no natural regeneration is expected, or should plantation density be increased in that case?

[Ron Scott]

The planting density depends somewhat on what your objectives are and what species you are planting. Here the common spacing for pine plantings are 6x6 or 6x8 for timber purposes. Christmas tree plantations will go to a wider spacing such as 7x8, 7x10, 8x10 etc. Hardwoods will be planted at a wider spacing such as 10 x !0.

As previously stated, cluster planting of trees for quality timber puposes is normally not recommended except for possibly wildlife shrub plantings.

[WDH]

In the US South, loblolly pine is typically planted from 500 to 650 trees/acre.  That is about a 7 x 10 spacing.

[woodtroll]

I am with Scott, It depends on what you are planting. I would not plant anything greater then 10 x 10 unless it was a special situation such as a restoration project(savanna or barren ect.)

What are you wanting to plant and grow? What is your end goal?

[straightree]

I am planting hard woods: oak, walnut, cherry tree, ash tree.

[BaldBob]

   :-\ There may be a little mis-communication here. While we talk of spacing in feet (e.g. 10x10) and trees/ acre, the rest of the world (including Spain - where straightree is) uses meters and hectares.

[beenthere]

I'm bettin straightree knows our foot from his meter...

[SwampDonkey]

I agree with Ron W about spacing of plantations, they are managed acreages. They tend to have more trees per acre at maturity. That being said about plantations, I've been tasked to lay out plantations on crown land and you couldn't tell where the plantation ends and the natural began once you got about 200 yards from the road. An amazing waste of money and trees.  : Generally, if you compare a site with natural regrowth on a forested site that had been clearcut which is at the same age as a planted site, the stem count can be 20 times higher on the site with regrowth. But, the untreated site can also be raspberry canes and pin cherry as well. When we space young stands up here we space the stems the same as planted stock, but the trees are 12-15 years old at that point and the lower branches have pruned up to about 5 feet by then if hardwoods. Spruce/fir lower branches hang on for about 25 years. If I can't see a good distance in under the hardwood canopy, then it isn't time to thin or it's whickedly thick. I have seen 15,000 stems per acre in hardwood and as high as 25,000 stems/acre in spruce fir thickets. You are pulling the trees apart to walk through that mess. When spaced you are literally walking on those cut stumps. The worst you could ever witness. When we plant and thin stands we have another treatment in mind in 25 years to space the trees further. The idea of thinning as Ron says is to increase quality of the stand, increase growth rate and to mold species composition of the stand. Sometimes you have leave a junk tree to fill the spot.
There is a point at which delaying thinning is detrimental and the trees will not recover and are probably in decline with rot in the stem. Balsam fir in New Brunswick for instance is one species to be careful with, it can be 50 years old and 4 feet tall. To space that junk is a waste of energy and good money. Your better off to start over.

[crtreedude]

We run 3.5 meters by 3.5 meters. I agree with Ron.

We do some mixes - Acacia seems to really help other trees to grow and it grows very fast as well and produces very good wood.

[straightree]

Yes, Beenthere is right.

[Ron Wenrich]

I think your spacing will also be dependent on what kind of care you plan to give the stand.  If you have a "plant them, then forget them" type of management system, then you'll need a fairly large planting grid.  Of course, you'll end up with something taking over those unused areas, and could possibly surpress your planted stock.

A hardwood plantation could be planted fairly thick, as long as there was sufficient management practices to periodically go into the stand and thin out the trees that aren't doing well.   Guidelines would be to open up crowns and remove trees with poor form.  Planting to thick is probably a waste of trees.  But, not thick enough will require some form of weed control.

When you do that, you may end up with trees that are more clustered in an area.  But, this type of clustering is due to growth patterns as the stand develops.  You can't plan for that type of clustering ahead of time.  You're trying to work with nature to your end, not mold nature to your means.

[roger 4400]

     Hi all !!!
    I have a red pine plantation (3500 +_) that I bought 4 years ago. The average size is 6 to 8 in. and +- 45 ft tall. I do not know how old they are. Originally they were planted 6ft by 6ft apart.. The year before I buy they cut one row , let one row, cut one row let one row...etc     
    Is that a good procedure to let more space to the remaining trees that are now 6 ft apart in the rows and 12 ft spacing rows???
    I guess that will help them to grow faster ??
    Some of the rows are gray pines but they did not touch them ( I understand, those are not very straight and even ugly and young balsam are everywhere while in the red pines no other tree are growing.)

[SwampDonkey]

I would have taken every other row out and removed the runts in the remaining row so that the trees were at least 12 feet apart, even if I had to leave 20 feet in one stretch and maybe a couple nice ones 6 feet apart. You have to work with the stand, but I would definitely cull any junk out. If some hardwood or aspen start in between, so what. The pine are beyond them now and it will give diversity to the stand if they seed in. Some people like the manicured look, I don't and I think it limits future options.

[Ron Scott]

Row thinning is a common practice in the first thinnings of plantation pine depending upon the basal area. It must be a very thick stand if every other row was removed. Removing every 3rd row or approximately 1/3 of the basal area is usually more common here.

We also selectively harvest between the rows removing the "worst first" in the remaining rows as Sampdonkey stated.

[roger 4400]

   HI  !!
    When I,ll have time, I,ll follow your advice and cut every *bad* tree. Swampdonkey, where the red pines grow nothing else seems to grow, just a very few balsam.
    This plantation (a flat area near the public road, maybe 10 acres)  is a small part of the land (145 acres). Elsewere there is mostly hard maple (150 years old) yellow birch, lime, some red maple, and very old white cedars down the mountains.
    Thank you Swampdonkey and Ron.                                Roger
   

[Ron Scott]

If the red pine has been planted on a hardwood site, you will probably get hardwoods coming in under the red pine overstory as the red pine is thinned out over time.

[roger 4400]

     Ron, What I can see is that plantation was made on a land that was once farmed( I do not know if we can say that in english) . This part of the land is flat and near the road and is mostly sand (poor). I think that those trees might be 25 to 30 years old (maybe Swampdonkey that lives *near* me could answer how trees that size and growing in Quebec are old??). Around on that flat portion of the land, only aspen, white birch,balsam or spruce are growing so fast growing trees. My hard wood are on the hills. I do not know if the pine needles that fall on the ground are too *acid* but the only thing that is on the ground is moss and lychens. See  you.    Roger

[WDH]

Removing every other row in your situation will definitely jump start the growth.  The key to determining whether to remove every other row or every third or fourth is a function of the % of good crop trees.  If you are targeting for, say 200 crop trees per acre, then you have to determine the % of crop trees in the unthinned stand. 

So, if it is every other row, you are removing 50% of the prospective crop trees with the row removals.  If the % crop trees left in the leave rows do not account for the target #, then you have to go to every third row for consideration.  If that does not leave enough to choose from, consider a fourth row.  It is all a function of the target residual stocking and the % of good trees in the unthinned stand.  Simple math looking at it from a common sense standpoint.

[SwampDonkey]

The age sounds right Roger. I know 10 inch stuff is 40-45 years old here. We will get birch and aspen and sometimes spruce and fir mixed in our red pine. Most of the time I suggest leaving them unless they are doing serious harm to the planted trees (whipping leaders and over topping and such).

Only when we plant pine on hardwood sites like Ron says do we get sugar maple, yellow birch, beech into it. I think that is improper management to plant softwood on hardwood sites. Goes against my grain, but it continues to be done. But, what Roger mentioned about planting on old abandoned farms is common practice here. Better than alders, willow and dogwood brush. The best farms are maintained as farms and have to be to defer tax.

At Rogers planted spacing, removing every other row still leaves over 500 trees per acre before thinning the culls out of the leave rows. 200 trees per acre at maturity is still a good density for pine. I've seen pines planted at 5 x 5 for 40 years and they are no dang good. Too thick for far too long.

[roger 4400]

     Thank you, WDH and Swampdonkey, I,ll follow your intructions and thin this site later on.  Have a nice day.                                Roger