Establishing a New Pine Plantation

[ppine]

This is the kind of forestry I have only seen in textbooks.  You have level, pretty fertile land and plenty of rain. It is easy to be envious.  On the other hand it is more like planting trees as a crop with mechanized equipment.

In the West, we plant trees by hand except under unusual circumstance. Most guys can do around 600 seedlings in a day or an acre. I have run planting crews of 30 men for a month at a time in the mountains. A very interesting kind of little society develops when people work and live together. We always looked forward to Fridays when we would head to an RV park for showers and then head for Flagstaff to the salad bar and dinner out. Then there was often some girl chasing.  In a month we could plant 1,000 acres, sometimes more.  For difficult ground we would use an auger on a chainsaw engine. 

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, most of the machine planting here is on private woodlots and that is due to Christmas tree farming on fields and government incentives to plant and also to develop equipment or tractor implements. Our public land and mill land here is all hand planted. Not much of our ground is very hilly, if it is steep high ground it probably isn't cut either if it's too rocky.

[WH_Conley]

Most all of the planted trees here were passed out by our Division of Forestry over the years. Back when I was a kid they were really pushing White Pine. When you went to a lumber yard that is what you got, or what it was called anyhow. No internet, no technical advice about forestry. We now have a bunch of trees that are too open grown to be anything but knots or too thick because they were planted to close together and never thinned. Threads like this one are really educational and should be required reading for anybody thinking about planting a seedling.

[customsawyer]

Y'all need to keep in mind that Danny is living right. First of all we was taking land that had been growing hay (fertilized) or hog farm (fertilized). We also had a educated customer (Danny) who knew the value of all of the steps in the process. He also got some of the very best seedlings. One of the most important things is that he got perfect rain behind each step of the establishment of this plantation. You have to have all of the sun, moon and stars line up perfectly to get some of these results. Or you can just go by Danny and all is well .  ;)

[WDH]

Yes.  The land was prepared right.  The right trees were planted right.  The weed/grass control was right.  The weather was right. 

[Peter Drouin]

How did you get the weather just right? ;D

[customsawyer]

He's that guy.

[thecfarm]

When you eat grits,strange things happens.

[WDH]

Another view.  Note the powerline for perspective.



 

Very little light at the end of the tunnel.



 

[thecfarm]

I posted in some other thread about how I don't see much of that in this area. The paper company,IP at the time,planted some up on top of the hill,only a few acres,maybe 10?
They sure do look good.

[SwampDonkey]

Several acres here of red pine plantations on private land, not a lot on public land. Sometimes along the road side where the spruce would not take, it will catch up with the rest that survived. But the only use for it up here is poles, so it has to be growing for a long time in these parts to make a pole.  ;D

[PC-Urban-Sawyer]

He's that guy.

No, but I think he knows HIM...

Herb

[customsawyer]

I didn't mean Him. I meant that he always seems to be in the right place at the right time kind of guy. You know the one that pulls up to a parking lot that is full just as a car is leaving from the parking spot that is closest to the door.

[SwampDonkey]

Just like farming, as dad would say, there is a lot of luck involved.  ;D    And ya got no moose to rip them pine up. :D

[WDH]

Luck, schmuck. 

So it is luck?  I guess that I must get lucky a lot  :D. 

[Magicman]

Folks that are continually lucky need to be watched.  :P  Could it be that they may contribute to their luck? 

[SwampDonkey]

Luckier than me, the moose, the weevil and the blister rust did my white pine in pretty much. Planted 3500 white pine, might have 10 straight ones left, and dwindling every year. They are at random to and not rows.
:D

[WDH]

Folks that are continually lucky need to be watched.  :P  Could it be that they may contribute to their luck? 

Now, that is a novel concept for some  . 

[WDH]

The plantation had a visitor.  The trees are in their ninth growing season.  If you stack the visitor up on himself 5 or 6 times, you can see that the trees are between 30 and 40 feet tall.  When the stand height averages 40+ feet, they will be thinned, which will be in the next 3 years or so. 

This visitor is not lucky, he uses Magic, not luck  :D. 



 

[nativewolf]

Update.  Here is the plantation after the 8th growing season.  Full crown closure.  Nothing but pine straw. 



 

In my opinion this is why much of the US can't get good prices for dimensional lumber logs, the fast southern plantation pine is so much easier to cut and process.  You can see miles and miles like this from Southern VA through the Carolinas, thru Georgia, N Florida and across to Alabama, Mississippi, and LA.  Even East TX.  If you are a logger it does not get much easier than this, cut and load and sell. 

Looks great and shows everyone what we're up against. 

[Claybraker]

If you are a logger it does not get much easier than this, cut and load and sell. 

Looks great and shows everyone what we're up against.

It's not that easy being a logger down here. It's very capital intensive. Sometimes it's too wet to be in the woods, and sometimes you have equipment breakdowns.  Last summer I saw a grapple skidder operator with the windows open on his cab because his a/c wasn't working properly. The horror. The horror.

[SwampDonkey]

In my opinion this is why much of the US can't get good prices for dimensional lumber logs, the fast southern plantation pine is so much easier to cut and process.  You can see miles and miles like this from Southern VA through the Carolinas, thru Georgia, N Florida and across to Alabama, Mississippi, and LA.  Even East TX. 

I don't know about being easy. But like the north here, it is not a scarce commodity (wood), so logs can be bought cheap. Not only that, but establishment and tending are subsidized by governments of many countries. And if not, you can not compete against the government purse. ;)

[pappy19]

You might consider your planting in a circle starting in the middle of the field and gradually make larger and larger circles. This makes for a much nicer looking plantation than one that looks like a row of corn.

[WDH]

Not so much about how it looks but more as to the efficiency of the whole process.  It is in essence farming trees.  The trees are a crop, just like in agriculture.  Only with trees, it is called silviculture. 

[nativewolf]

Not so much about how it looks but more as to the efficiency of the whole process.  It is in essence farming trees.  The trees are a crop, just like in agriculture.  Only with trees, it is called silviculture.

And the overall cost/harvest unit has to be about as low as it can go.  Processor will just go through that stuff, loading is all the same, hardly have to think, no worrying about crotch or anything.  No rocks, maybe some water issues once in a while.  Mostly though, wham bam and it's done.