75 trees in 3 hours

[Ridgewalker]

I planted 75 bare root seedlings today. I got them from the Missouri Dept of Conservation as part of their annual seedling program. I got a wild life cover mix that consists of Choke Cherries, Brushy Dogwood, Hazelnut, Post Oak, Red bud and Cedar. That's a blend that is supposed to be good for bunnies and birds.

I used my new Linebach PHD to dig the holes, it did a great job in some varying soil types. I hit anything from good topsoil to red clay, some yellow clay, rocks, etc. It was a lot of fun, I wish I would have thought to take pix.

It was my first time to use the PHD and I was a little tentative going in but it
really was very easy to use. +1 for Leinbach.

I hit the roots with root stem, tamped them in solid and watered them well.
Then I put some deer b gone on them...I am hoping 50% make it.

 

[saltman]

I am planting 50 Elderica Pines tomorrow at my property. I got my from the CA Dept. Of Forrestry. They were a bargain but I was a little disappointed to see they all fit in what I would consider a large grocery box. I didn't unpack them yet since they are going in the ground tomorrow.

 

[Tororider]

Don't be too disappointed in the size box that they will fit in. We planted 700 last spring, some that were even 18" seedlings, and they fit into a couple small boxes, I was amazed at how well they pack those things.

 

[Egon]

It's always nice to see trees being planted.

But my back aches just thinking of you fellows!

 

[UpstateSC_Papi]

Planted 50+ trees this past fall. Amazing what a tractor and PHD can do. About 40 minutes to dig the holes and about that same time to plant them. Knock on wood - all survived the winter!

I wonder of SC has a seedling program... Off to Google!

Michael

 

[vettemanwight]

When I was a kid we got seedlings through 4 H . We had a JD B tractor and took a 2 " pipe that was about 6 " longer on each side of the tire. Every revolution it made 2 holes that were about 7 ' apart. We planted about 2 acres in 2 hours and there was 3 of us doing the work. When I was 26 I cleared enough of those to build a house there and the remaining trees are still growing and some are about 45 - 50 ' tall. I sold the house about 8 years ago. We planted those trees about 40 years ago. V

 

[Botabill]

Over the last 24 years my wife and I have planted upwards to 10,000 trees on our 34 acre property which was identified originally as a gravel pit when we bought it. Yes that's right 10,000. We simply used the vee cut method with a shovel and popped in the bare root trees which varied from a few inches tall to 2 feet. Mortality was about 50 percent as we didn't give any after planing care. Today we have trees everywhere. Some spruce trees, pine, larch, tamarach and poplar are over 30 feet tall. The oak, walnut and some of the other species aren't that tall yet. I wish we'd planted hickories and some other less abundant valuable slower growing species back then but we've started to do that now. It sure feels good strolling thorugh the forested areas we have created.

 

[Knight9]

I've been starting to work on expanding the trees on my place too. We have 10 ac, of which it's probably close to a 50/50 split on open/treed. However, we have a total of 3 naturally occuring evergreens on the entire 10 ac. Thus, last year I planted 250 pine trees, 50 colorado spruce, plus an orchard of 6 cherry, 6 plum, 6 pear, 7 apple (gave me a free one so I planted it anyway ), saskatoons, raspberries, strawberries,and honeyberries.

This year my order is in for Larch (tamarack), more colorado spruce, and some laurel leaf willows (for a screen).

I think it will be on the books over the next 5-10 years to keep adding trees every year. I too struggle with deer (they ate about 30 of my pine seedlings this winter), but my mortality rate other than that is very low.

Keep up the good work guys! Trees are a great thing to add to any property!

 

[smfcpacfp]

I have been planting seedlings on my property for decades. The first year my wife and I lived here we got ambitious and planted 1,500 trees which took many, many hours with a tree planting spade. It was a really dry year and they all died!!

After that we decided to do things differently. We would plant 100 each year (red pines and white pines mostly) and if they all died, it wasn't such a tragedy. We did that for many years and with our poor soil (almost pure sand) some are actually starting to get fairly tall. Our land is, and has always been, densely wooded with mostly jack pines which I hate because they are so ugly.

Somewhere along the line we got off the mailing list for our state's program and haven't planted trees for many years, but I went on line this year and found it again, so I ordered a hundred trees of so. At 60 it really isn't for my benefit, but for the next generation. Anyway, I love trees but wish we had better soil so we could have a greater variety and could see them grow faster.

 

[OverlyRun]

Smfcpacfp: Great pictures of snowy trees. I wish we'd had some in Virginia this year.

The good thing about trees is you don't need to mow them all summer! So the previous owner of our place planted about 100 acres of white pine 30 years ago, having given up on running cattle and not wanting to mow. They now are quiet avenues of mature trees where the sunlight hardly penetrates and the deer hang out all winter. Great for walking across the property with no underbrush. But they need to be thinned now....they are too close together and I can't mow them with my tractor.

The loggers I have talked with assure us the brush will disappear in a few years, but that seems a long time to stare at brush piles. But if I can push the brush around with my tractor, it will be great excuse to go out and play. First gotta find a logger who will do this and pay a positive amount for the pulp. THEN, it would be great to be planting new trees for my kids to worry about when I am 90.

 

[EdC]

Two years ago we planted 60 pines on our place. We are down to 4 left some due to deer but most being girdled by porcupines. This year we are ready, made a bunch of circles made out of 4 ft fencing. I'll stake them down around all the little tree to give them a chance for the first few years. Front yard is going to look awfully funny for a couple of years with a bunch of tubes made from fencing sticking up all over.

Edited to put an "n" in pines. We did not plant pies all over the yard.

 

[smfcpacfp]

Smfcpacfp: Great pictures of snowy trees. I wish we'd had some in Virginia this year.

The good thing about trees is you don't need to mow them all summer! So the previous owner of our place planted about 100 acres of white pine 30 years ago, having given up on running cattle and not wanting to mow. They now are quiet avenues of mature trees where the sunlight hardly penetrates and the deer hang out all winter. Great for walking across the property with no underbrush. But they need to be thinned now....they are too close together and I can't mow them with my tractor.

The loggers I have talked with assure us the brush will disappear in a few years, but that seems a long time to stare at brush piles. But if I can push the brush around with my tractor, it will be great excuse to go out and play. First gotta find a logger who will do this and pay a positive amount for the pulp. THEN, it would be great to be planting new trees for my kids to worry about when I am 90.

It seems a shame to use white pine for pulp, since they are such a hardy saw log. When I first started to build my house about 30 years ago, an old gentleman used to stop by and chat with me. He said that a forest fire had come through the area about 80 years before and burned off all the white pine trees. Typically after you have a forest fire, Jack Pine are the first trees to come back. This forest fire thus occurred over 110 years ago. Yet when I walk through my woods, I can still see some charred white pine stumps.

One of the problems with having them beautiful snow on the pine trees is that it is very cold here, which limits the kinds of trees that will grow here. They say that a tree must be able to freeze solid in order to survive here. Some of those beautiful walnut trees that you find in Virginia simply couldn't make it here.

 

[saltman]

The one year old bareroot Pines were about 10 inches not counting the roots. I have had problems with deer eating my apple trees, I hope they don't bother these little tender pines.

The planting went pretty fast but it didn't make sense to use the tractor to dig the small holes to fit these little trees in, I think it went faster by hand.

I put in a 800 foot drip line on a battery timer to water them for the first 5 years or so.

I took this photo on the way home, you can see my little cabin, tractor shed,batroom building and water tank up on the hill, the trees will run paralel to the water tank away from the other buildings.

I think I'll shoot for 100 or so a year if these first 50 seedlings make it. I have planted 7 other pines out there and they are all doing fine but they were a little larger from the start. I have one now that's about 6ft tall it grew over 2 feet this past year!

 

[davitk]

Here in Wisconsin, I've discoverd it's best to let the grass grow tall around the seedlings, hides them from the deer. My first year planting, I followed the DNR's advice and sprayed round-up to control the 'competion' and mowed and trimmed around the trees, what a waste of time. Just showed bambi EXACTLY where the tastey treat was planted.

 

[smfcpacfp]

The one year old bareroot Pines were about 10 inches not counting the roots. I have had problems with deer eating my apple trees, I hope they don't bother these little tender pines.

The planting went pretty fast but it didn't make sense to use the tractor to dig the small holes to fit these little trees in, I think it went faster by hand.

I put in a 800 foot drip line on a battery timer to water them for the first 5 years or so.

I took this photo on the way home, you can see my little cabin, tractor shed,batroom building and water tank up on the hill, the trees will run paralel to the water tank away from the other buildings.

I think I'll shoot for 100 or so a year if these first 50 seedlings make it. I have planted 7 other pines out there and they are all doing fine but they were a little larger from the start. I have one now that's about 6ft tall it grew over 2 feet this past year!

A very beautiful picture, but it doesn't look like there is anything more than 5 feet off the ground other than your cabin. I hope your tress make it. If they do you will truly have an oasis in the desert.

I have a sequoia in a planter in my sun room which I got while visiting Muir National Forest in California. I will keep it protected for 5 years and then plant it outside. Maybe 500 years from now someone will say, How did this get here?

 

[saltman]

smfcpacfp: "A very beautiful picture, but it doesn't look like there is anything more than 5 feet off the ground other than your cabin."



I have only owned the place since 2005. I did some experimenting two years ago and planted a few Afhganistan Pines, a Monterey Pine last year (our live Christmas tree) then I put in two Apple Trees, and Two Peach trees and a few palms. Everything made it so far (except an apple tree the deer ate) the Afhganistan pines grew the fastest. The one in this photo taken last year is now about 6ft tall, so then I ordered the 50 Elderica Pines which are fast growers, and suppose to be drought tollerent.

Your right nothing is native here but sagebrush, cactus and Juniper. If you drive 10 miles west there are a lot of Pines but they get a bit more rain.

 

[Barneyhunts]

Last year I planted 100 3 yr. Norwegian spruce. 12 made it (so far). I planted 5 - 5yr transplants and the deer "stomped" 3 of them. I planted several mulberry trees for the birds, and several paw paw and persimmon trees for the deer - fenced because the deer got into them right off the bat. This year I've ordered blue spruce, cedar and crab apple trees entirely for the critters, although, I try to keeep them out of the trees until they grow to a size where they can't kill them.

 

[mocassincreekranch]

I planted 2000 drought hardy Loblolly pine seedlings in 2006,2007,and 2008. Using a dibble bar, I could plant 1000 trees a day. Our Great Governor of Texas is closing our Forest Service Nursery in August. Said it was not profitable enough. Pine seedling were $39.00 per 1000. And have lost a few hundred to deer destroying them.

 

[Tororider]

Edited to put an "n" in pines. We did not plant pies all over the yard.

They may not be as nice to look at, but they sure would taste better than pine trees.

 

[kmdigital]

Three years ago I had 2,200 trees planted in about 3 hours. Certainly not by hand! He used a JD tractor with a tree planter attachment on the back and sprayer on the front. Sprays a 3' wide swath with Oust to keep the weeds down until about mid July in the rows, but then it peters out and the weeds grow anyway. Not much you can do, and I sure as heck ain't gon'na trim around all those trees.

So far I would gues that I've lost less than 2%, most of them by me mowing them off! I mow between the rows with a bushhog about 2-3 times per summer to keep the weeds down, and it can be hard to see those trees and I get too close to them. Last year was dry, and the spray kept the grass down, but the Mare's Tail was terrible, and hid all but the tallest trees, because this stuff grows about 4-5' tall.

They are planted in 10' rows, every 8' apart. Every other row is white pine and the in between rows are a mixture of hardwoods, mostly black walnut, red and white oak, tulip poplular and cherry. The idea, according to the DNR, is that the white pines grow faster forcing the hardwoods up towards the sunlight to make them nice and straight, but after about 40' the hardwoods top the white pines, shading and killing them, in oh about 25 years or so. By this time the hardwoods are tall enough to create their own competition, and grow straight and tall on their own. I guess in about 25 - 30 years there will be tons of firewood if someone wants it because of all the dead white pines.

I have this in a CRP program, and the gov't pays me a little bit to not farm the land and they paid for ~2/3 of the cost of the trees and planting them, which was about $1,200. The trees came from the DNR, and mostly were about 3 years old, as I picked the older trees so they would be larger and stronger and more likely to survive, albeit a little more expensive.