Planting another 300 trees

[ihookem]

Tororider, here in Wisconsin we us a rototiller. It helps a lot, but makes the weeds come up better too. I was thinking of using a sub-soiler but don't want to spend 150 bucks. You might want to try one. We got 1,000 white pines this year again. . I never used one but King kutter makes two kinds, one is a plow and the other is like a foot long chisel that goes on your pto. We don't have deer problems with white pine or red pine just popples,oak,ash and maple.

 

[Tororider]

This is similar to the transplanter we used, except the one we used had the seats at the very back where you close up the seam in the ground.

http://www.tractorhouse.com/listing...3&guid=54B5C9C65D8E48B8867A56EB870431D7&dlr=1

 

[john_bud]

For 300 trees just use a tree spud.

You should be able to do 3 trees a minute with 2 people that is a leisurly rate. One guy jumps on the shovel and the other stuffs and stomps.


How did your food plot come out last year and how is it looking now?

jb

 

[tony123]

I like all the suggestions above. Is the ground such that one jump on the shovel would give you the hole you need? if so, that's probably the easiest route.

I didn't think about just ripping a line with a subsoiler....that would be pretty easy too. Although, it would depend on your planting layout. Are you wanting a straight line? or a staggered pattern? Shovel is looking better and better if you want to go staggered.

 

[ToadHill]

You should be able to get the gel at most large nurseries. You won't need a lot of it, for 300 trees 2 or 3 lbs should do.

 

[Tororider]

Toadhill, thanks I will see if I can find some for this weekend.

Tony, A shovel sounds like a lot of manual labor, I think we will try to avoid that.

JB, Do you think a tree spud will work for bare root trees that are 16-24" tall? The spud, if I remember correctly, is only about 3" wide and a foot and a half to two feet deep. I am just wondering if we will need to put it in the ground twice to get enough space for the roots.

I am taking the boys out there this afternoon and my dad will be out there so we will probably see how easy/hard it will be with the phd. I will keep you updated.

JB, The food plot never really got going, I think we ended up planting too late in the season, just a few things came up. As soon as we get some time after planting these trees we will reseed it and hopefully end up with better results. I will resurrect that thread once we get going again.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I recommend that your plant your trees in a row, that will make it easier to mow between. I have mine on 8' centers tree to tree and row to row with the rows staggered. This gave me the coverage I wanted from the highway (visually a tree every 4') but still allows me to come in from the side to mow between the rows.

I hope that makes sense...

 

[Tororider]

Ridgewalker,
That is exactly what we did with our first rows, except we spaced the rows 10 feet. This time around we are going to space rows 8 feet and trees 8 feet, staggered every row.

I think we have decided to use the phd. We were able to flag some lines for holes this evening with the boys "helping". It shouldn't take too long as the holes only need to be a foot or so deep. I think once we get our system down we should be able to predrill the holes pretty quickly.

Toadhill, I am still looking for the root gel, the larger nurseries that I know around here don't have it, but hopefully I can find some tomorrow.

 

[john_bud]

I don't think you would have any problem manually planting and would be done significantly sooner.

But, the PHD will allow you to add soil amendments so there is that.

 

[Tororider]

We dug all but 50 or so of the holes. My dad was able to get 100 dug in an hour and a half this morning before the boys and I got out there. The straight lines were pretty easy, the parts where we had to tuck them in a bit took a little longer only because we had to maneuver the tractor. My dad was able to get most of the balance done after the boys and I showed up to "help". Really for the boys to play at the farm. The trees arrived in the mail today, so if the weather holds out we should be good to go tomorrow(it is supposed to rain in the morning so we will see).

Ridgewalker, Haven't been able to find the root gel, but I talked to a lady who taught a Master Gardener class I took a couple years ago about the root gel. She said that we shouldn't use the gel because with clay soil if we did get rain the roots would rot in the continuous water. We have the 325 gallon tank for the F250 so if we get drought like last year we will just have to water them again.

I will try to post pics later of the work in progress.