Tree planting

[Tritonman]

What do you guys use for planting trees. I am thinking of getting a middle buster to rip a furrow and thought I would see if that works very well.

 

[johnk]

It all depends what size you are going to plant. If you get 1 or 2 yr old seedlings out of a nursery you can use a sub soiler with a narrow cut and not have to go deep. A middle buster would be good for bigger root balls etc. Depends what you are planting...

 

[kvmapr]

I just planted 300 hybrid poplar this spring, so feel like I should jump into this conversation. I used a middle buster last fall to bust furrows about 12 feet apart running "on contour" across my sloping hay field. Turns out the furrows do a great job of catching rainfall runoff (cause they're on contour) which benefits the trees that I planted in them this Spring. Middle busting also threw the sod back out of the way far enough that weed competition with the small trees was greatly diminished (although I do take a trip through with the weed whacker and touch things up every month or so).

If your planting trees with root balls (as I was) you'll still have to go tree by tree and dig a hole for each one (I did this all by hand and it took me and a buddy 10 hours to get 300 trees in. My knees ache just remembering it). If you're planting a tree that grows from a cutting (like hybrid poplar or hybrid willow) then you could just make a slit deep enough to accept the cutting and move on.

I'm not sure the subsoiler would work out so well. I can see where it would give you a nice deep slit to work with, and if you're putting in cuttings that's a good thing. But you would still have to contend with competition from weeds, or dig a hole if you're planting anything with a root ball. One benefit of the subsoiler is that if done on the contour it would capture rain fall runoff just like the middle buster furrow.

After learning from this year's experience, I'll be trying another approach next year (I have about 1000 more hybrid poplars to get in the ground). I planned to buy a tiller for my tractor this winter. In the spring I'll use the tiller and make passes 12 feet apart, on contour. This will kill the sod and minimize weed competition, and allow me to plant cuttings vice root balls (giving my knees a break).

So what are you planting?

KVMAPR

 

[Z-Michigan]

I think there are good suggestions here. I will tell you what not to do, from personal experience. Don't use a scarifier to loosen the soil and think you're reducing the work. It will loosen the soil, but you still have to dig a hole for each tree, and the scarifier leaves the surface so uneven you can't mow it.

 

[Tororider]

I did 700 last year and another 300 this year all seedling transplants, from 8"-24" trees. Last year we used a transplanting sled and it was a disaster. Mostly because we rented it from the county and it was set up terribly. This year we used a post hole digger and it worked great. Just used a 12" auger bit and predrilled the holes. It was a little more time consuming on the front end but way less on the back end. Provide us with as much information as you can to help us provide better advice. Thanks

 

[kvmapr]

Don't use a scarifier to loosen the soil and think you're reducing the work.

I second that point of view. I used the rippers on my box blade to "disrupt" the sod on my top meadow after I had put in those furrows with the middle buster. I figured it wouldn't kill all the sod, but it would knock it down some and limit the competition with the trees. Boy was I wrong. Instead it opened up the sod and allowed Spring rains to penetrate even better. That got all the sod, disrupted or not, growing in a big way. And like Z-Michigan says, the terrain is now so rough that you can't run a mower over it (fortunately I don't have any plans to mow that area anyway). To fix my mess, I had to go back to the middle buster and plow a second furrow, on the contour, just down hill from the first one I put in last fall. That second furrow is where I wound up planting my trees.

Here's what the meadow looked like just after I finished ripping up the first acre or so. Very rough looking, and a month later it was knee high in new grass.

I thought about Tororider's approach too, using an auger. I bet it's a real back saver for trees with root balls.

 

[Lewiston]

Contact your local DNR. Most have a tree planter that can be rented for a very small amount per 1000 trees planted.

It is a three person operation: Tractor operator, person riding on the planter manually planting the seedlings, and the individual separating the seedling bundles.

We can comfortably plant 3000 trees a day.

Ours is similar to the one pictured in this link but with the seat facing forward.

Tree Planter

 

[ihookem]

Kvmapr I planted 1000 hybrid poplars last year with a rotto tiller. It works very well going over it twice to get it deep enough to just push the stick in the ground. The soil goes down after a few months and leaves the stick out of the ground a few inches and that isn't so bad. Rottotillers leave a nice weed bed for weeds to grow though. I would take off half the tillers on the tiller to just get 12" wide rows for planting if I did it again. One guy can plat an awfull ot of poplars in a day if another guy wants to sit on the tractor and go.

 

[Tritonman]

I ended up getting a middle buster and it worked very well. I rototilled the hill side a couple of times and busted the sod up to nothing and then ripped with the middle buster twice to clean out the furrow and I was able to plant the trees nicely with that set up. I planted crab apples, poplars, and lilacs, caraganas, and maples. Put 200 in in 2 hours. These were trees that had no root ball and were about 2-3 feet tall.

 

[ToadHill]

I use the local boy scout troop. It is one step for their forestry merit badge. We then spend the rest of the day in the woods doing tree ID and learning forestry practices.

 

[john_bud]

I use a shovel. But then again, since that mule kicked me in the head...

jb

 

[TomC]

Planted several hundred seedlings using two methods: middle buster; and PHD.
The first method, I switched out the plow on the middle buster for a chisel point. I forrowed and then cleaned a hole for each seedling using a manual phd. The chisel point made it possible to fold back the sod over the slit so I didn't have a problem mowing and it was pretty easy using the manual phd to clean out each hole as the soil was broken up by the plow. Next year, I used a 3pt. PHD. I didn't disturb a lot of soil unnecessarily, but I still needed to clean out each hole manually. So either way, it's alot of work. My best advice would be to use roundup and spray your rows about a week before you plant. You won't have to worry about weeds for awhile.

 

[savageayape]

I used a dibble bar to plant 2000 seedlings. It was a lot of work, but it does a very good job if you are planting seedlings and you want them to look natural rather than having rows of trees from using a tree planter behind a tractor. It also goes a lot faster than you might think. I planted about 100 trees per hour and then I took a water break (sometimes a fishing break too )

 

[SLOBuds]

Most of the replies here are assuming that you want to plant a tree farm, large volume.

I've planted about 500 trees on 10 acres for landscape and orchard purposes. The parcel has fairly tough conditions because of the hundreds of gophers and ground squirrels. Plus hungry deer. Plus some unfavorable soil in parts. Plus dry and hot weather in the summer.

Our tree locations are done randomly so that it does not look like a tree farm. I used a PHD for probably about 300 holes. Hand-dug about 200 holes.

I plant each tree inside a gopher cage built from chicken wire. Then guard it with a tree tube. Then, with poor soil, I add compost which is produced on-site. Then each (non-native) tree gets a drip system with irrigation which stays on until I believe it is sustainable itself. Native trees are watered infrequently by hand because these are Oaks usually, and that's what they want.

There is no easy way for me to plant trees. Drip systems attract gophers, making it necessary for the gopher cage, making it necessary for a large planting hole. The drip system itself is not free of maintenance. We inspect the entire system regularly and repairs are almost guaranteed to be needed.

Using a PHD only makes the process a little easier. Dirt still has to be moved from point A to point B inside the hole. No easy way to do that.

Most tree farmers think that I'm absolutely nuts for taking all of these steps. But I love trees and find enjoyment as they grow. My neighbors are farmers and they at first looked at all of this activity as over-the-edge, but after several large sections of the parcel began to fill out with nice trees, one by one they come by and thank us for making the 'neighborhood' look nice.

My biggest disappointment is when I have losses. Especially when I lose a tree that is over 3 years old. It does happen. The saplings I expect to lose some part of right away. But after investing 3 years or more in getting the tree established, the loss is hard to take. We have also lost fully mature and beautiful Oak trees which really breaks the heart to see.

The people who owned our parcel before us did tree planting way back. But they did not continue adding stock from year to year, so we were faced with aging inventory which were dying off without any new starts taking their place.

So there's our story. Thanks for asking because this is a joyful part of my life and I admire anyone who is a tree person of any flavor.

 

[Bill Barrett]

Contact your local DNR. Most have a tree planter that can be rented for a very small amount per 1000 trees planted.

It is a three person operation: Tractor operator, person riding on the planter manually planting the seedlings, and the individual separating the seedling bundles.

We can comfortably plant 3000 trees a day.

Ours is similar to the one pictured in this link but with the seat facing forward.

Tree Planter

That is one place, try your local Pheasants Forever might be free!
I just did 7200.

 

[rogdan]

Just curious about the two of you planting so many hybrid populars, are they
for timber production? I planted 10 for quick shade last year and had to cut back the dead stem on several and now have bush like growth.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I planted "75 trees in 3 hours" this spring using my PHD. There is a thread with that title with lots of good ideas thanks to the guys on this site.

I also dug 7 post holes with it last weekend. It's one fun toy!