General tilling question

[Noodlearm]

I have purchased some trees from the local conservation district (all seedlings). I plan on planting them where I currently have a field. I was told that it would be best if I tilled the field prior to plantint the trees so that the overgrowth and brush does not kill them. Is this what you all would suggest and if so, is it ok to till while the ground is still very damp? We are just getting rid of the last remnants of snow (still have some in shaded areas). I have never tilled anything before and I don't know if I should wait until the ground is a little drier. I am getting the trees on the 15th of April and would like to have it tilled before than so I can get to plating immediately? Any and all suggestions are appreciated!

 

[Hambone]

I have found with the clay soil I have, it will tend to clump more. Then I have hard clay balls after it dries. I would still think that would be better for the tree's than just putting in the ground. I would cover with 2" of much afterwards too!

 

[Holzster]

Tilling will help with some weeds now. BUT it will also bring other seeds from dormancy. I think this is one that could go back & forth. BUT my local Ag agent has never steared me wrong. So.........

 

[EastTexFrank]

Brian, without knowing the specifics of your area, it's a little difficult to give you advice but here goes anyway. It sounds as if it is still a little too wet to till and the ground still too cold to plant out the seedlings. I think, if it was me, I'd wait a little while for the ground to dry out a little and the soil to warm up a bit. The last time I received seedling trees from the Arbor Society, they arrived in February and were bare rooted. I wrapped the roots in paper towels and kept them damp. I also kept them inside until the weather warmed up a little bit.

I don't know if I'd till up the whole field, perhaps just the area around where I'm going to plant the seedlings. I would however mark them with a stake or something. When everything gets growing good in the summer, it's so easy just to mow right over the little things if you forget exactly where they are.

 

[Noodlearm]

Here is some more info. I plan on planting 1000 trees. 100 are transplants and 30 are apple trees. I plan on planting them on approximately 2 acres. I am hoping to plant them approximately 7' apart so that I can run the trator between them when the brush starts to grow back. The soil is definately a heavy clay with standing water still in some areas. I am considering adding mulch as suggested but I don't know if I want to pay for that much mulch. If anyone needs more info, let me know.

 

[Bird]

Like Hambone, my clay did not till well at all unless it was fairly dry.

 

[RalphVa]

I'd just brush hog any high/heavy stuff. I'd then wait until green stuff starts showing up and use glyphosate (Roundup) on each spot where you want to put a tree. Wait a couple weeks and then stick the trees into the ground. If they're seedlings, you can probably almost stick a skinny shovel in the ground, tilt it, stick the tree in, remove shovel and push dirt moved by shovel tilt by foot back against the tree. This is the way they plant bare-rooted grape vines.

Seven feet apart is awful close. You need to allow for the spread of full-grown trees to be your distance. Even dwarf trees will have at least a 7' spread, more like 14' diameter. You need half the diameter of the tree spread x 2 = distance between trees, which is the spread of a single tree.

Then keep about a 2-3' alleyway down each tree line cleared (glyphosated) of growth so you don't have to bush hog too close to the trees.

Ralph

 

[PBinWA]

I can hear the dear's tummy's rumbling as you speak!

Unless you also have a 8 foot fence around the property you can expect the deer to do some good damage to the new trees pretty quickly.

I would just brush hog everything down real low and then find out what paths are easiest for the tractor to mow. Then spary Round-up on the other areas to kill off the weeds. Then plant the trees 8-10 feet apart.

I've put in about 1000 trees on my five acres and I found that I could do pretty good keeping the weed competition to a minimum with around 2 applications of Round-up a year. I also have tree tubes around anything that the dear like to eat. I spend morning with a 25 Gallon sprayer and a wand and just go around the base of each tree to kill off the weeds. Works better than the mower and is less effort.

I'm not sure I'd till - it's a waste of time for trees.

Head my warning on the dear. I lost about 25 Cedars in two days due to the "rats with antlers" (I think that is Bob Skurka's term). I have another 50 potted inside a fenced area waiting to get big enough to handle the dear - I figure I can plant them in 2 more years.

 

[Noodlearm]

thanks for the sugeestions. I refuse to use round-up due to my own health concerns (I have a bone marrow disorder that is believed to be caused by chemicals and I don't want to do anyhting that may make that start up again). As for the tree spacing, after how many years should the trees be large enough so that the brush growing between them wont effect their growth.