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Planting Pine Seedlings

Started by Magicman, January 07, 2012, 10:02:48 PM

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Magicman

I have a few more spots that I want to plant Pines, so I ordered a box of 330 containerized trees.  Instead of being bare rooted, they have a little root ball.  We got about ½ of them set today.


 
Luke is handling the seedlings while Marty is on the dibble bar.


 


 
I found that I could poke a nice hole with the peavey and then pinch it together with a sharp shooter. 
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

WDH

Those boys should have been able to follow that string!
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Magicman

It was a productive time spent together.  Yup, the rows are straight.   ;D
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Corley5

Containerized are the way to go.  I planted 500 containerized red pine each of the last two springs and the survival rate was excellent.  My luck with bareroot has been dismal.  I planted into furrows I plowed with a Farmall Cub  :)  I've got my order form for the Conservation District tree sale and may plant another 500 this spring. 
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Magicman

To me, it's like eating an elephant "one bit at the time".  I have planted several hundred trees for the past 5 years or so, but that is about over.  I have now used up all of my space to plant.   ;D

We like having a  few open spaces.  We gotta see.   :)
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Meadows Miller

Gday

Lynn I noticed that when I was there you almost had the farm chock a block full of trees Mate ;):):) Ifn you ever need a hand at thinning time you know who to call :)  :) containerized was about all you could get here for years some companies have gone to bare rooted though ;) As you said Mate time spent with the family is good time well spent Mate  ;) ;D ;D 8) 8)

Regards Chris
4TH Generation Timbergetter

Bill Gaiche

Nice work MM. In about 25 yrs. It will be intresting to see what the farm tour will be like at that special chicken-crispen? bg

Magicman

I already have about 7 miles of woods trails, plus, I'm working on some new ones.  As my existing Pines get a bit more age on them, I have some more plans.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Side loader

Magicman I've got 5000 containerized pine seedlings to plant.  They came from the plum creek nursery at Georgetown.   I had clear-cut a 10 acre tract this summer and am replanting it now.  On days when it's too wet to log my 2 man crew plants trees. I had to use a string and some pin flagging as the rows were crooked.  Lugging that dibble bar around gets old fast. Even though they cost more the containerized are better. Bare root seedlings are much easier to J root. I hope you get a good stand.
Side loader log truck w/492 Detroit, bell super T feller buncher, Barko 160 with JD power, Kubota M4900 with brush raker grapple on front and shop built bunching grapple on back. JD 350B Dozer; JD 548D skidder;  and a couple of saws.

customsawyer

I will agree that with long leaf container seedlings are the way to go but if you are planting lob or slash then you can get a good stand with the bare root. My company used to plant about 18,000 acres every winter and 98-99% was bare root trees. This is all in the south so when it comes to what you folks do up north I don't have a clue.
This is the back of the planter with the wife dropping the trees


 
Another shot of same thing


 
This is how it all got started
 

 
This is what my boys thought of having to work on the weekend.


 
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

mad murdock

Quote from: customsawyer on January 08, 2012, 05:38:15 PM
I will agree that with long leaf container seedlings are the way to go but if you are planting lob or slash then you can get a good stand with the bare root. My company used to plant about 18,000 acres every winter and 98-99% was bare root trees. This is all in the south so when it comes to what you folks do up north I don't have a clue.


Here in the PNW it is all random hand planted usually 10x10 or so spacing with coastal doug fir. Ground is too steep most areas to use mechanized methods. A planting shovel works better than a bar in most soils around here. We planted about 1300 trees in '08 (late winter/ early spring, hired it done). 2 guys had all the trees in the ground in 6 hrs.
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

WDH

Ripping the soil to bust up the plow pan or hard pan does wonders for survival. 

Here is a thread about planting bare root stock on old pasture.  The trees are entering their fourth year, and there is better than 95% survival.  I need to take a pic and update this thread ........https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,33920.0.html

Lynn,

Your grandsons will remember this for the rest of their life.  You are creating quite a legacy with your tree farm.  It will always be a special place for your family.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

Taylortractornut

That transplanter looks alot like my Pepper setter I use in my market gardens to transplanted  onions and peppers.        I had a ton of  oak trees come up on my compost yard.       I have a friend that got a grant for ashelter belt.     We ripped and disked the ground and  then  we planted 1400 trees almost 2.5 hours.
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Magicman

I have not had any problem with the survival rate of machine or "hodad" planted bareroot seedlings.  SYP or Oak.  It's just that in this instance, I only wanted a few Loblolly seedlings, and containerized was available.  330 seedlings cost me $40.

In the past, I have always pulled the subsoiler through first, but we really did not know exactly where all of these were going.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Magicman

Quote from: WDH on January 08, 2012, 07:17:12 PM
Lynn,  Your grandsons will remember this for the rest of their life.  You are creating quite a legacy with your tree farm.  It will always be a special place for your family. 

I have tried to continually involve them with the tree farm as improvements are made.  They are already looking forward to painting the remainder of the property lines.  Then we can start over again with re-painting.  This way, they will grow up being familiar with exactly where all of the boundaries are.


 
The Tree Farm boundaries.  The great majority of the open pasture land is now planted Pine and Oak.  PatD's Straw House overlooks the brown spot in the approximate center.


 
Showing the additional 200 leased acres.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

SwampDonkey

Quote from: Corley5 on January 08, 2012, 09:12:15 AM
Containerized are the way to go.  I planted 500 containerized red pine each of the last two springs and the survival rate was excellent.  My luck with bareroot has been dismal.  I planted into furrows I plowed with a Farmall Cub  :)  I've got my order form for the Conservation District tree sale and may plant another 500 this spring.

Bare root definitely take a lot more care. However, we had great success with red pine bare root when DNR grew them. They were big seedlings. I had a crew plant some and they were not well looked after before planting. I filled in and maybe had one or two die.

On old field we had best success with a 2-furrow plow and plant beside the hinge of the sod. That way you have the scalp on one side and the uprooted sod on the other making a big bare spot giving the tree a couple years before the weeds thicken in the bare spot. We found just spraying herbicide made it worse releasing weeds that were worst than the stuff already growing. Bedstraw is a curse on old fields.

I've seen old timers in their 80's plant trees. You have a while yet MM. ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

SwampDonkey

Quote from: Side loader on January 08, 2012, 03:36:15 PM
I had to use a string and some pin flagging as the rows were crooked.  Lugging that dibble bar around gets old fast.

I got a kick out of that. One for the straight rows concept and two the dibble bar. How heavy is your bar? They make special ones with a step on the side to seat it into the ground. Curved handle. We had ones that were threaded on the end for different sized container diameters. J-rooting happens from improper planting, can even happen with container. Happens when seedlings are stuffed into a smaller hole than required. I can plant 1200-1600 trees a day, depending on the site, how much trash is on the ground.

One site we planted one time, the moose and deer came along and pulled them all out. One site with red pine, the deer nipped off all the candle growth of the new seedlings. :D
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

Magicman

All of the Pines that I had planted were "low density 2nd. generation" trees.

Most of our manual planting is done by "South if the border" workers.  They are short anyway and use hodads instead of a dibble bar.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Side loader

Swamp, these dibblebars are exactly as you describe, curve handle with the step on the side and as majicman said "south of the border" is where the labor comes from, however I've got 2 guys that are use to pulling wood with a skidder and running a feller buncher BUT it's too wet to work SO they get to plant trees. Thus the pin flagging. This is a cut-over (clearcut) so a tree planter is out of the question. I wish you were closer and you could show these guys how to do it ( 1200-1500 trees/day.) loggers are use to cutting trees, not planting them!!
Side loader log truck w/492 Detroit, bell super T feller buncher, Barko 160 with JD power, Kubota M4900 with brush raker grapple on front and shop built bunching grapple on back. JD 350B Dozer; JD 548D skidder;  and a couple of saws.

customsawyer

I will not get into the numbers I used to plant by hand but I will say that a tree planted right is a tree planted right. It don't matter what it is planted with.
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

Taylortractornut

A few years ago I was working out of the shop doing welding  work and  odd jobs.   One weekend I Had an old man get me to plant  trees.   After  a half a box I figured there was a better way.          He marked the ground with   ground paint.        I took his old  Case tractor where the   wheel turn out flanges were  and mounted a  pipe with some  pin hles in it.   I  turned a hay spear on the lathe i nthe shape of the root ball.       I drilled 2 holes   a few inches apart to bolt the  spear in.    THis made the spear retractable.      WHen it was run out it made an automatic dibblebar.     Just  drove down the  lines and   then  went back and dropped the  trees in and  and water them in.       Fun till I found the phone line.
My overload permit starts after sunset

Magicman

This good soaking rain will be good for my freshly planted trees.   ;D

As Jake stated above, I have very good survival rate with various planting methods.  The best growth rate was in areas where I pulled a subsoiler through the Fall before the planting.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

WDH

The rain will be wonderful.  Root growth will begin, getting the trees ready in case of spring drought.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

SwampDonkey

I wish that would work on hair roots. Lord knows been rained on lots. ;)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

WDH

Well, come on down to Mississippi and give it a try  :D.  It might not work without the grits, though.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

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