digging tree planting holes?

[evofxdwg]

Its time to put out some small trees. I have a 1610D with Koyker 80 FEL and box blade. Any tricks or recommendations for adding an implement to dig holes to plant 4 to 6 ft tall balled seedlings without tearing up a big place in the yard? All i can think of is adding a posthole digger and augering out several closly spaced holes, then shoveling it out by hand. Is there a narrow, offset down, bucket i can bolt on in place of Koyker 80 bucket to use for digging?

 

[Tractors4u]

I saw where a guy had bolted a backhoe bucket to his FEL in order to dig small holes. As far as I know there is no manufactured type device like you descibe.

 

[kayssupply]

You can get larger augers for a post hole digger. I just don't know if a 1610 is man enough to use them. I have a friend with a Bobcat that uses a post hole digger and a 30" auger to plant trees. Pretty slick. I used my auger with a 6" bit to dig a square hole as you descibe. It really wasn't that bad for just the one. Most rental places have small trackhoes or backhoes. It would probably be cheaper than buying a lot of equipment , and fun to use something different.

 

[mark777]

I have seen and watched a gent use a small bucket adapted to his FEL arms. As there is no side to side movement on the loader, it became quite a chore to constantly move in and out to dump the small amount of dirt off to one side. It was not very pratical.

I think the auger is the way to go, especially if you only have a few trees to plant.

Mark

 

[flattman]

I had a commercial apple orchard for over twenty five years in the Rio Grande Valley of central New Mexico and planted many trees by hand with a shovel. What a lot of work. We moved here to West Central Texas about a year ago. I am now planting apple trees using my 9 inch post hole digger.

The land I am using has never had as much as a hoe used on it and the ground was hard. I simply dig down about 3 or so feet with the post hole digger and make one hole as close to the other one as I can and put about 7 or 8 holes in a tight circle, pulling most of the dirt out. It really tears up the ground in this circle. Then, we have been putting in a lot of wet shredded paper, mulch and some peat (never any kind of fertilizer) and then covering the hole back up. We let that sit for a few weeks and then simply pull dirt out again with either a shovel or the post hole digger and plant the trees.

This has made planting trees easy for me...as I have gotten a lot older since I put in my orchard twenty five years ago...

I was also surprised at how loose the soil had become, how rich it looked and how the wet shredded paper had began to dissolve and become fertile matter...


Flattman

 

[thegreatrandini]

I used a 12" auger. I know your suppose to dig a 3 ft wide hole for a 6 ft tree but why? 12" hole worked fine... I left plenty of loose soil under the ball. All those trees are 5 yrs old now. I have added some more but just 2 or 3 at a time so I used an old invention called a spade......I did see on ebay a yanmar tree spade. Way cool looking machine.......