Christmas Tree Spacing

[mhasel]

I've got some trees on order to be delivered later this month, ERC, Douglas Fir & Norway Spruce and would appreciate any practical guidelines on spacing. I'm thinking about 15' in & between rows to allow a decent shape and still allow room to mow between with a 6' finishing mower.

Am I on the right track here or should I go more or less spacing :P

Thanks,
Mike

[Ron Scott]

You're on the right track. Christmas tree stock is usually planted at a wider spacing to allow for annual maintenance such as mowing, prunning, pesticide treatment, etc. depending upon the width of the maintenance equipment used. Easy access for maintenance needs to be planned for.

You might find the following of interest:

http://www.realchristmastrees.org/

[SLOBuds]

Excuse me for latching onto another post, but I have a similar question regarding non-Christmas tree spacing.

I own a small farm in Central California and invited a professor from Cal Poly to visit the site and give us some advice on care for what was there - plus ideas for expanding into some unplanted areas.

When talking to him about adding stock, I asked him how close they should be planted.  He answered '6 to 10 feet on center'.

That surprised me because I know the trees I am planting will grow to have 30' crowns.  Or some even larger.  But he stuck to his recommendation and I never quite understood why they should be planted so closely.

We planted about 80 trees so far.  Some Poplars, Chinese Elm (Drakes), Sychamores, Bald Cypress, Willows, and a few others.

Was he wrong?  Or is there a reason behind this?

Thank you,
Martin Petersen

[beenthere]

I would plant them that close initially, for the reason that they will then compete for space, and that means growing up and not out. I would expect natural pruning for some species, and save on mechanical pruning work to do the same thing.

When the trees start to suffer from lack of crown space, some may need to be thinned out, to improve the stand.

Now, if you want open-grown stand of trees, then a wider spacing would do that.  I would recommend you plant them as you want them.
 

[SLOBuds]

Thanks beenthere.

Right now I have them exactly where I want them: in the ground.  And they AREN'T coming out!

I planted them in a random manner.  (I only like straight lines when it comes to the way I get from my work to my home.)  Some of them are within the 10' rule.  Some are further apart.

Martin

[Ron Scott]

It somewhat depends upon the purpose of your planting as to what spacing you use. Are you doing it for commercial timber production, aesthetics, erosion control, wind breaks, wildlife cover, natural appearing which seems to be your preference, etc. ?

6x8 and 8x10 spacings are often used for commercial plantations of conifer species when one wants to establish a commercial timber stand. Hardwoods may be planted at a little wider spacing.  One needs to plant at a spacing that with encourage the trees to grow staight and tall with natural prunning.

Thinnings of  forest products are then made at different intervals to release the better quality stems and improve crown spacing.

Check out the tree spacing calculator in the Forum's Tool Box to determine trees/acre for different spacings.  

[Stephen_Wiley]

Martin,

Due to the species you have listed, (none have great commercial value) I was wondering if your site is sensitive to erosion or very wet.

The prof may have been taking this information into account from your site in making his recommendations.

Are you aware of the root systems of these trees?

What are your long term management plans for this site?

[SLOBuds]

Hello Stephen.

We planted these trees purely for landscaping aestheic purposes.  The property is new to us and we were grateful that one of its previous owners enjoyed trees and planted somewhere around 200 a long time ago.  Unfortunately, she did not introduce new stock on a regular basis.  So many of the trees are diseased, or old or otherwise toward the end of their healty lifecycle.  We have lost quite a few pines to one of the pine beetles.  It surprised us to see how quickly the pine beetle will kill a tree!

Our property is located in the central coast of California.  We don't notice a broad range of 'native' trees out there except for quercus (agrifolia).  The climate is fairly good except that we live inland where it is not the 'perfect' weather that many people associate with California.  We are in climate zone 8a.

As a result of the mild climate, we do have opportunities for successful growth of many different types of trees.  The professor gave us a VERY mild lecture about planting natives, but then admitted that our impact with planting a small fraction of only 10 acres with non-natives is most likely nothing to get very excited about.

We are going to baby the trees for a few years.  Each one was planted inside a cage (gophers) and and tubes (deer) and each one will be drip irrigated until we are satisfied that they are ready to be on their own.

Our property has a wide variation of soil.  Many places have an extremely rich farm-perfect well-draining sandy loam, which extends down indefinitely.  Other places have heavy clay that I can directly use for making pottery.  We planted our trees in all of those soils, except in a few locations that did not seem to drain water at all.  Those places were abandoned (even though I think the Bald Cypress would survive there).

In terms of water, it's pretty typical of what you might think of here on the west coast.  There is a lot of irrigation that happens here in California.  For everything that needs to grow.  We tried to pick species that were somewhat adaptable to low-water conditions.  Or for the species that seemed to need more water, we tried to plant them where the property tended in that direction.

I am not aware of the root systems on these species.  We DID research each one, but it was probably not the extent that you are asking about.  The willows seemed to be more needy of water, so we planted those close to culverts that have water some times of the year.  The bald cypress were planted in some of the challenging areas.  The poplars were planted everywhere, simply for aesthetics to get some quick results.  The sequoias were planted on a whim, not expecting many of them to survive.  Etc.

My biggest concern now is whether we considered the landscaping aspects well enough.  There were 2 of us doing the work.  And the project just got ahead of itself because the bare root trees were ordered, then received, then had to get into the ground right away.  I'm worried that we just planted them randomly, not thinking enough about how they will look through time.

Then on the other hand ... in the middle of moving dirt and building gopher baskets for 80 holes in the ground ... what the heck!  It can't end up being all THAT bad.  Can it???   ;D

I'm hoping that we will get a very nice survival rate with all of this baby attention that we're giving them!

Thanks
Martin

[SLOBuds]

Sorry - 'long term management' will be to introduce new stock on a reguar basis.  The prof recommended every 4 years.

Martin

[Ron Scott]

You might want to "draw out" a simple landscaping plan for the property after you've determined your management direction. Consider:

Color, Texture, Lines, Seen Area, Visual Quadrants, Edge, Travelways, Vegetative Diversity, Distance from Structures, Exposure, Aspect, etc.

[mhasel]

Thanks Ron, I'm glad to know that I was on the right track and not planting too close. I also have some hardwoods that I'm going to be planting mostly in standing timber and I'm glad to know about the 4-year management guidelines, it makes good sense.

That is one of the things I really like about this place, real down to earth common sense answer and solutions.

Thanks again everyone, I'll try and put up some pics once we get done.

Mike

[SwampDonkey]

Sorry, didn't read the whole thread here. But, alot of Christmas tree growers will inter-plant seedlings between the larger Christmas trees 2 or 3 years before the larger trees are harvested, to get a jump on the next crop.

just something to consider.

cheers