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What is the difference in success rate in planting trees by hand and by a machine.

I am considering enrolling some property in CRP. Just wanted to know the best route to go.

Don't know a success rate of one vs. the other, but personaly I'd go with hand planting. I also don't know if there is a major cost difference. But I do know those Mexicans can plant in wet conditions without rutting up your property, and a tractor can't.

pine or hardwood?

they will use a dozer. not much of a track mark in wet conditions.....

If planting hardwoods I would go with hand planting. But more important than planting method is site prep. Ripping a site goes a long way for survival

DanP wrote:If planting hardwoods I would go with hand planting. But more important than planting method is site prep. Ripping a site goes a long way for survival

What he said.

JaMak84 wrote:Don't know a success rate of one vs. the other, but personaly I'd go with hand planting. I also don't know if there is a major cost difference. But I do know those Mexicans can plant in wet conditions without rutting up your property, and a tractor can't.

i can rent you mine for a slight fee

E

if you are planting a hardwood tract in the delta, you need to handplant. In dry years, the furrow cut in the buckshot by the machine planter will crack open and expose the tree's roots causing mortality. I would recommend machine planting on a site such as an pasture where cattle has created a hardpan. Some sites will be impossible to machine plant due to terrain. Pines do well machine planted, do not machine plant on heavy soils as stated above it cracks open on its own during dry years, it does not need any help by using the coulter on the machine planter.

A part of my thesis was comparison of planting methods, and during a 3-year period early in my career administered reforestation of 65,000 acres. Quality and all things equal, no survival difference, but mechanical planting (and or the practice of ripping) increases intitial growth (and initial survival on adverse sites, i.e., hard pan). In heavy shrink-swell soils (delta gumbo), mechanical planting fissures will splay open during the dry summer as soils contract. A good ripping treatment or subsoiling will mitigate this effect. Good suggestions above. I'll say this too: if planting hardwoods (in Delta) increase the planting rate to about 400 seedlings per acre, and contrary to popular regard to "trash trees", mix in 15-20% soil-specific light-seeded species. I like sweetgum on mid-range soils, but green ash is fine. Long-term growth and survival of oaks will be much improved in teh presence of faster growing, light seeded species.

Soil prep is the key. I planted some pine seedlings a few years ago, and wasn't able to bed the whole place up. It's incredible the difference in the growth rates of the trees planted in well prepared soil than those that weren't.

What is ripping? I notice that plum creek in arkansas basically hips up the land to plant. Big beds, prolly 60 inches or so. But these would be pines.

crowder critter wrote:if you are planting a hardwood tract in the delta, you need to handplant. In dry years, the furrow cut in the buckshot by the machine planter will crack open and expose the tree's roots causing mortality. I would recommend machine planting on a site such as an pasture where cattle has created a hardpan. Some sites will be impossible to machine plant due to terrain. Pines do well machine planted, do not machine plant on heavy soils as stated above it cracks open on its own during dry years, it does not need any help by using the coulter on the machine planter.

have seen it time and time again. The company I work for will not accept anything but hand planting now. I have seen those cracks in July be 2" wide and the sapling leached to the wall of the crack and burned up. This is in that good Quitman gumbo

i'm talking about planting hardwoods.

Todo,

Ripping refers to running a blade through the ground to create a "row" to plant the trees in. Bedding, in pines, as you refer to, is much like a cotton row. They bed pines in wetter areas to keep the roots above the water as much as they can.

Another word of wisdom if planting hardwoods in the delta is to disk or bushhog the fields if growed up. You will be amazed how much damage the rats and rabbits will do to your new seedlings. I would not plant my hardwood tract into thick grasses. If it is too late to get a tractor in there due to wet ground, consider burning. The rodents will wear them out.