Advice on planting trees.

[Deerherd]

A couple of months ago I ordered 200 Norway Spruce 2-2 bare root trees from the State, that are supposed to be 18-24 inches tall. I am planning on planting them in three rows about 600 feet long.

Well I have to go pick them up tomorrow and they need to be planted fairly soon. Problem is the snow isn't all gone and it's 28 degrees this morning. The weather is supposed to be above freezing and sunny for the next 4-5 days so that should help but this AM the top couple inches of ground is pretty frozen.

I was planning on discing up an area 40 ft wide by 600 feet long, dragging it with a drag harrow and planting them, but winter doesn't want to leave. I am going to attempt to disc the ground this afternoon but I'm afraid I will just make a huge mess. I'll post some pictures later. I'm hoping exposing the ground to sun and wind will help dry it out.

I know I can toe the trees in for a little while but not sure how long that will work.

My other option would be to pot them up and plant them in the fall but that will be a little more work/expensive. Not sure I can locate 200 3 gal pots in short order either.

Anybody have any ideas? Thanks in advance!

 

[Deerherd]

The other option I could do is try and rake the trash first and then run my ditching plow to make the rows. That way there would be a lot less digging but a lot more filling after the trees are planted.

What I'm trying to do is not make it so rutted up so I can mow around the trees to keep the grass/weeds at bay.

 

[oldballs]

I did something similar with 200 assorted pine and cedar bare root stock from the Kansas Extension Service. I had already worked up an area that I called "The Tree Bed". This area was close to a water source and allowed me to cultivate the trees for a couple years. Then, as time went on, I selected the site for each tree and dug the holes for transplant. Of course, I had to dig up a root ball with each one for the transplant. But I was 45 in those days and did it all by hand.....with the help of our four kids. Cheers,
Mike

 

[forgeblast]

Forestry Suppliers, Inc., JIM-GEM? OST (Dibble) Bar
What I did was the fall before planting spray a row of roundup down so that I knew exactly where I wanted them. Then (i was planting them in a grid) measure off and do my other rows so that I had 15' spacing between. Then come spring I could see right where I wanted them. Bare root use the dibble bar, Stomp it in drop in the tree and then step on the dirt. Your done. You will need to control weeds around them, especially any invasives.

 

[ace10]

Heel the trees in with mulch. Don't put all the bundles in one bunch, so you can remove them as you need them without disturbing the rest. Don't store them in direct sun.

The first time I planted bare root trees of that size, I too had poor ground conditions. Tried to trench them in and ended up with a huge mess. In my area, you'd have about six more weeks to get those trees in the ground. Up your way, it's probably more like eight. Do it right. You're going to be mowing between these trees for many, many years. You really don't want a mess.

BTW, I've switched over to using Norways exclusively on my wind break. I'm losing a lot of white pines to borers and bag worms. I've found that there are very few issues with the Spruce, even down here in a warm climate. I'm also using black pines in spots where I have to fill for dead trees.

My spacing is 12' X 15'. Which is probably tighter than I'd do, if I have a choice again. 15'X15' will allow for row maintenance for a good long while, during the early growth of the trees. Array the trees diagonally.

 

[oldballs]

The tree selection is important. After forty years many of the White, Scotch and Austrian pines died with the borer disease. The cedars do get the bag worms which I control with a large tank sprayer. Losing many of those pines was sad for me. Most were stately in maturity and have kept me busy sawing and disposing. But we do have some nice fall party bonfires out of them.

 

[ruffdog]

I would find a shady spot and put mulch on the roots but let the tops breathe. Keep them damp till you plant. I have planted thousands using a dibble bar with good success so 200 is a weekend job with no frost. We would normally get 4000 to 7000 of them a year, dig a trench in the garden, put them in the trench slightly spread out laying to one side, cover roots with dirt and water. We would pull 50 at a time, put in a pail that had 8" of water in it, go plant. Stick the dibble full depth in the ground, wiggle it to and fro to open the hole as needed, pull dibble out. Insert tree to the bottom of hole, then pull up to the correct depth. That helps get the roots pointing down. Stick dibble a couple inches behind tree and wiggle to help close dirt onto tree. Now, stick dibble a few inches behind that, (shallow, about 3-4" DP), and turn handles about 80 deg. What that does is give you a chunk of loose dirt to shove with your heal toward the tree to help close the hole.

 

[ruffdog]

Here is a dibble and a wind-row of trees.
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[Deerherd]

Thanks for all the replies and it kind of eases my mind a little bit, it seems I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to get them planted. I'm going to order up a dibble bar today. I did try the rake, but that was a bad idea. Hooked up the disc and one end of the field was pretty wet but got it opened up so hopefully that will start drying things up. Thanks again for everyone's help!

Here's a before and after shot from each side of the field:

 

[Deerherd]

Ordered up a couple different dibble bars from that link. Thanks again!

 

[TripleR]

We are just finishing up 1700 trees of various types on one farm and will put about 1000 on another beginning tomorrow. My brother is doing the planting with a dibble bar we made from patterns on various sites. Years ago when we reforested larger sections, we hired a crew. When we called this time they wanted the ground preppred and marked then they would charge 80 cents a tree.

As mentioned, you can toe them in, but we are keeping the roots damp and storing them in a cool dry place like we did before and they will be good for about two weeks. We will be using Poast for grass control as our areas have no weeds and won't hurt the trees.

 

[sld]

What about just running a middle buster in the lines you want to plant?

 

[Deerherd]

What about just running a middle buster in the lines you want to plant?

I thought about using my drainage plow but I think it would create more work, that's a lot of filling in. I ordered up a couple of those planting tools.

Looking at it this afternoon it's dried out a lot. I'll disc it one more time and use the drag harrow. Plant the trees, seed with clover and cultipack it.

Now I need a water tank......

 

[Ranger Rick]

Now I need a water tank......

Look on Craigs list for an IBC water tank. They hold 275 to 350 gallons. You should be able to find one for $50 to $100. They are used to ship all kind of liquids. I have one and use the tractor to move it around. It has a valve at the bottom and you can fix it up to connect to a hose with just a couple of PVC fittings. I bought a 12 volt transfer pump to get give me water pressure, but for a long while I just used gravity to water my trees.
Rick

 

[BHD]

IF the ground is not froze, I would scrape the snow off or if it is not so deep it is a problem, go plant them

here is a picture of when I planted about 3000 trees, we put the weed barrior cloth on later,

 

[Deerherd]

Look on Craigs list for an IBC water tank. They hold 275 to 350 gallons. You should be able to find one for $50 to $100. They are used to ship all kind of liquids. I have one and use the tractor to move it around. It has a valve at the bottom and you can fix it up to connect to a hose with just a couple of PVC fittings. I bought a 12 volt transfer pump to get give me water pressure, but for a long while I just used gravity to water my trees.
Rick

Funny you mentioned those, I found these a few days ago and can pick up one tomorrow.

275 gal. gallon water tote tanks

Looks like I could put it on my forks and rig up some kind of boom/electric pump. That way in the heat of the summer I can drive up and down the rows in air conditioned comfort and water the trees while listening to the radio. That should work!

 

[Deerherd]

here is a picture of when I planted about 3000 trees, we put the weed barrior cloth on later,

That's great! I can see how that is a fast way to plant a lot of trees.

 

[ruffdog]

Years back we would get the WI DNR tree planter that was pulled by a tractor. It is the only way to go for large areas. We had 3 fields at about 10 acres each.
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EQUIPMENT RENTAL - Land Conservation Division - Dunn County 

 

[BHD]

also when planting them (bare rooted) can be easy to J root, and they normally will die in a few years, or that was my experience, I planted some hard wood trees and they grew for about 5 years and were looking great and killed over, no apparent other problems,
these were planted before I built the tree planter, a few years, in the yard,

the rows I use the tree planter, I had close to 98% survival rate with the weed cloth on, we went through one of the worst drouths that summer, only 2" of water during the spring, summer, and fall total that year was about 5 inches, watered them once, the trees with out the weed cloth was about 4% survival, (I had a small area where I ran out) so the next year I had to replant and put down the cloth.in that area. that was on my own extra area,


J rooting is when the roots of the tree are bent over or even bent 180 degrees on the bottom of the hole,
http://classes.forestry.oregonstate.../1993 Haase et al TPL Effect of root form.pdf

https://nurserycoop.auburn.edu/PDF files/BSSRC10.pdf

one of the problems I have heard about with using a post hole digger auger is that the auger can compact the sides of the hole in some soils that the roots have difficulty to grow past that hole, kind of of like a root bound container plant, (in my sand it is not a problem but I hear it can be in some harder soils),

on storing your trees, they will stay dormant if keep in a walk in cooler for a good wile but still best to plant as soon as possible, one year I had some time problems and I put them in a cooler for a few weeks and no problems,

 

[BHD]

also this was told to me when I was asking questions, about tree planting, and the time to plant them.

one old timer said 20 years ago,