| give me your tree planting how to |
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By:
duckhunterbrad
Date:05-Feb-25
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I've done a tremendous amount of habitat work but haven't broached the job of planting trees. I have a variety of areas that could use anywhere from 10-20 trees or a few hundred. What sources of information do you use for having the best success with your plantings? These will mainly be oaks with the possibility of a few fruit trees as well.
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By:
duckhunterbrad
Date:05-Feb-25
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I've done a tremendous amount of habitat work but haven't broached the job of planting trees. I have a variety of areas that could use anywhere from 10-20 trees or a few hundred. What sources of information do you use for having the best success with your plantings? These will mainly be oaks with the possibility of a few fruit trees as well.
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By:
JSW
Date:05-Feb-25
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I've planted thousands of trees in Kansas over the past 14 years which might lead one to believe I'm an expert. Not even close.
The number one factor in tree planting success rain or lack of rain. I seem to plant the most trees at the beginning of a drought.
If you can regularly water your trees, you will have much more success. If you can't, you might spend a lot of time and money and they all die. I've had great success with older, more expensive trees purchased from Morse Nursery in Michigan. You might pay $25-30 per tree but your survival rate should be good, even if you can only water them a few times after you plant them
I've purchased thousands of trees, mostly bare root, in bundles of 25 from Kansas Forest Service in Manhattan. Some do alright, some don't do well at all. If you are planting for cover, you about have to go the cheaper route from KFS. If you want a few dozen oaks and fruit trees, go with the more mature trees from a nursery.
I almost always plant in the spring, just because that is when it works for me. I have apple, crab apple, pear and persimmon from Morse that are doing great. Probably 90% survival. I can't seem to keep a chestnut alive at all. Oaks are hit and miss. They seem to only want to grow in certain spots.
I planted a bunch of small container trees from KFS last fall and we've had a fairly wet winter. I'm excited to see how well they survive by this spring.
I use a 6" post hole auger on the back of a tractor to drill the holes. Digging the holes by hand is a lot of work.
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By:
Pat Lefemine
Date:05-Feb-25
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I’m in the same boat. My biggest concern is I have so many deer I’m worried they will eat them before they get established. I would love to plant evergreen trees for cover and security.
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By:
jmiller
Date:05-Feb-25
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First get a free soil map from Web soil survey, part of the USDA. Just because a tree is suited for the zone doesn't mean it's suited for the soil. The two options I always give a landowner is either the plant like heck and let nature take course or plant a few and baby them with fencing, watering, etc. Bare root conservation grade trees are available from soil and water conservation districts, and they may also be available to plant them. I work for an SCD in Eastern ND and more and more we are planting wildlife habitat, with high diversity of species. Realize planting trees isn't fast nor easy, but it is very rewarding. In the 7 years I've owned my property I completely converted nearly 3 acres of a previous farm field into wildlife habitat. It's fun walking through it knowing I planted every one of those trees by hand myself.
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By:
mgmicky
Date:05-Feb-25
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I have 35 years in the golf and landscape industry and won't claim to be a tree planting expert. But the #1 mistake I've seen is planting the tree too low. The root collar cannot be below grade if the tree is to survive long term. The prep is key--dig the hole about 3x wider than the root ball--there's a saying that goes "plant a $100 tree in a $300 hole."
https://ohiochapterisa.org/aws/OCISA/asset_manager/get_file/828638
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By:
SD
Date:05-Feb-25
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That looks great jmiller!
JSW nailed it on a lot of that! I sometimes think my planting create drought. Kansas Forest Service is a great place to order lots of seedlings from. I've also ordered from OSU for bulk quantities. When planting large numbers some Conservation offices have a tree planter you can borrow/rent. These help a ton for planting several thousand at a time.
I have to protect fruit trees or they get eaten. No way around it, waste of time trying to cut corners there. Cages are a must. A section of aluminum window screen around the trunk protects from girdling (mice/rabbits/voles). Some weed barrier is nice but not required.
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By:
Lewis
Date:05-Feb-25
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Pat will short leaf pine grow in your area. They are a native and a fire tree.Good luck Lewis
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By:
MQQSE
Date:05-Feb-25
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SD is on the money. I have to do the same here in MO or they will get eaten or rubbed or covered with weeds.
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By:
JSW
Date:05-Feb-25
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That is one thing I omitted. You do have to protect all fruit trees in some way. I've tried the tree tubes but deer get to pushing on them to try to get to the leaves. Like SD, I use 2" x 4" fencing, 5' high, staked down with 2 Tposts. I also use the 3' round or square landscape fabric as pictured above. All of this helps.
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By:
BrentC
Date:05-Feb-25
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Mgmicky is Roth about not planting too deep. Applies to most all plants.
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By:
Bow Crazy
Date:06-Feb-25
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I've planted a ton of trees over the years here in Wisconsin. The apple trees should be protected with wire cages and trunk wraps over the winter. Our main problem with applies and oaks is that the Meadow Voles girdle both every winter. Be sure to wrap the apples and you can wrap the oaks too. We plant ours oaks in rows and mowed the rows and around the trees. You can also put in owl/hawk perches to gain their assistance in MV control. Deer will eat your oaks too. We didn't have much issue with the deer though. At the time our population wasn't out of control, and they left our woods over the winter. Have fun! BC
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By:
Bow Crazy
Date:06-Feb-25
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In our area of Wisconsin the deer will leave the spruce trees alone, for the most part. We plant Norway and White Spruce. Norway like full sun, White will tolerate some shade. We also plant White Pine. The deer will nip the tops of the White Pine in the winter if we get a lot of snow. In areas of high deer numbers, they can ruin your White Pine planting. You can put bud caps on the tops of the WP to protect them over the winter. I have not had to do that yet but will if our deer numbers get much bigger. BC
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By:
DonVathome
Date:06-Feb-25
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Plant when dormant, water if needed. Most important IMO
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By:
duckhunterbrad
Date:06-Feb-25
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Thanks for the many recommendations! I have a few spots where planting a couple thousand trees is very likely. I spoke with my NRCS rep yesterday and he recommended a program with KDWP that will help offset the cost of tree plantings. I will let everyone know how that conversation goes!
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By:
SD
Date:06-Feb-25
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Make sure you understand the terms very well. Sometimes you are responsible for a lot of years of upkeep that may or may not end up being more work than it's worth.
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By:
DanaC
Date:06-Feb-25
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How many acres? Trees/acre?
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By:
duckhunterbrad
Date:06-Feb-25
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The main property would be about 3900ft of linear area that needs to be planted. That particular area could handle 3-4 rows of trees at a 10x10 or 15x15 spacing. KDWP will help cover the cost of the bareroot seedlings and even has a planter that can be used to speed up the process. The other areas I want to plant will be pockets of 25-30 trees in natural prairie grass fields.
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By:
dizzydctr
Date:06-Feb-25
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I have planted thousands of trees on my place here in Alabama and have had pretty good success, likely over 90% survival rate. One year I planted over 5000 by myself, weekends and nights with a headlight. The first thing I would suggest is to look around you and see what God/nature planted in your area and follow that lead as far as types of trees to plant. I planted water oak, willow oak, nuttall oak, swamp chestnut oak, shumard oak and cherrybark oak. In some spots I planted cypress and persimmons. Most are doing very well, although I have some stunted trees here and there. I also planted some sawtooth oaks for quick mast/acorns but personally would not do it today as they tend to be invasive. I plant 12-18" bareroot seedlings that I purchased in bags of 100, 250 and 1000 trees. If you are planting open land or pasture, I would suggest using a subsoiler in late summer or early fall to break up the hard pan. For hardwood trees you can spray a herbicide{I used Oust} preplant or over the top of the oaks later if they are dormant to decrease the weed competition for a year or two. Then you get a dibble{or 2 or 3 if you can find friends to help} and go to it. You should plant the trees a few inches from, not in, the subsoiler rip if you so prepared the ground. I usually plant late winter. Take care not to " J root" the trees as you place the roots in the dibble hole. Also try to heel in the ground around the tree before you move on to the next. You will have loads of fun, mindless activity, especially when your boots load up with 2-3 inches of wet clay.
This process has worked well for me and it is rewarding when you finally find an acorn or two from trees you have planted{takes a good while}. We have a lot of deer here also but they don't seem to kill the trees eating a few leaves here and there, and when the trees get larger they can't rub them all to death. I haven't planted pines on my place as I have limestone and alkaline soil as well as pine beetles. If you plant pines, I don't believe you would use Oust herbicide. Fruit trees will produce fruit a lot sooner than oaks produce acorns but in my opinion require a lot more care initially. If you plan to plant oaks, do it now, hoping to live long enough to enjoy the fruits of your labors. Or, if this sounds like too much work, you can hire a professional crew of migrants that can do it in a fraction of the time it will take you. But, where's the fun in that.
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By:
B2K
Date:06-Feb-25
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Check with county, state and NRCS offices to see if there is any grant money available for planting. If planting seedlings, they are often cheapest from a state nursery. In terms of seedlings, I prefer 2 year old stock as 1 year old is too small, and 3 year olds have big enough root systems to make planting them a pain. Trim the roots of the seedlings using a machete on a wood block or stump. Cut the roots to about 6 inches in length. Soak the seedlings for a few hours prior to planting. Keep roots damp during the planting process by keeping them in water or placing wet burlap around the roots.
If in an area that you suspect good survival, I'd plant trees 10' apart with rows also 10' apart. If you suspect some loss you'll want to shrink the spacing between trees to 6' with 8' between rows. Google tree spacing calculator to determine how many trees per acre you'll need to plant based on spacing. You are going to want to be able to mow between them until established to keep the height of competing vegetation down. Straight rows are much easier to mow and marking the rows with painted or ribboned lathe helps a ton for mowing. If you stagger the lathe so that one row say, has lathe every 200 feet, offset the adjacent row so that every 100' that you are mowing you have a reference on one side of the tractor or the other. There are pre and post emergent herbicides available that are worth it on large scale plantings. Glyphosate can be used if careful or drill a hole through a bucket, thread a piece of rope through the hole and then use the bucket to cover the seedling and spray around it. The rope is for you to carry it to the next tree. Plant trees such as spruce or cedar on the outside of the plantings to provide an immediate and dense screening. Replant in spring for 2 years after the initial planting. Anything else, just ask.
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By:
SD
Date:06-Feb-25
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Sawtooths are know to be invasive in the southern and eastern states but not in KS. They do grow well here but not to the point of spreading. My dad has a grove of 20+ year old sawtooths that have been producing for a very long time. We've never found a single seedling that started that we didn't plant.
I'd like to suggest you look at Kansas Forestry Service's Quail and Pollinator bundles. They are good for deer too, but the birds really need help in our state also.
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By:
Cotton
Date:08-Feb-25
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I live in Northern Minnesota on 20 acres and purchase trees from the DNR about 25-50 yearly. The trees are small bare root in a variety of types from White Pine to Cranberry Shrub's. I made a tool out of 3” angle iron 0” long cut to a point welded to a 1” steel bar with a crosspiece welded just above the angle iron. For planting I just drive the angle iron point into the ground and move it back and forth to create a pocket, put the seedling in and step on each side to secure it then water it with a gallon or so of water. After that they are on their own and the vast majority do survive.
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By:
Buckdeer
Date:10-Feb-25
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If planting in rows get the pull behind planter.I have planted thousands of trees and shrubs on my place and most by pull behind but a bunch by dibble bar. I also use the moisture dip and it helps especially when carrying seedlings in bucket to plant. Never J root,Always trim to fit the hole. If you are talking about planting hardwoods at 10X10 you might be fine if not using tubes. If using tubes plan on cutting some down or moving them.I tested tubes for the state here before they cost shared them and had 74% success after 2 years. I had planted at specified distance and had to cut or move alot of trees.Another forestry that has good seedlings is MO.
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By:
CAS_HNTR
Date:10-Feb-25
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Success depends on what you plant, as in suitability to the environment, competition for sunlight/nutrients, and protection from damage.
Consider climate and plant type first. Alot of plant just won't thrive in the wrong climate no matter what you do.
Site prep is real important too....best to spray the fall before to kill off anything that in in the area you want to plant. Makes planting way easier and also limits competition day 1.
Maintenance and protection from damage are tied together. We have a lot of trees planted in cages, tubes, etc that are all mowed around relatively frequently and have done well. We have others that were planted and we just left alone with no maintenance. The ones with no maintenance look good as well but are stunted due to the competition (other trees, vines, etc) growing up around them. With that said animals, especially deer, will hunt out the trees that are easy to see and protected and still try to eat them - deer rub the tubes, destroy the cages, and stand up on hind legs to eat anything they can reach. They learn fast that what is protected tastes good. On the flip side - if you plant and let it go they really can't find them and tend to leave them alone. We plan to go in at year 8-10 and cut out all the junk from the unmaintained areas and leave the good trees.
For planting methods, if you are planting a lot of trees I would plan on getting small trees in the form of bare root (using a dibble bar) or plugged trees (and a plug tool). You can plant a lot trees with either method but note that hardwoods and fruit trees are typically bare root not in plugs.
For nutrients, do a soil test and amend - this typically means getting pH in check. Two shots of fertilizer in the growing season at the trees really jump starts them as well and I would recommend for trees you want to grow more quickly. Also keep an eye out for insects or other issues - especially fruit trees. Bag worm can cause ALOT of damage, so can cicadas, Japanese Bettles, etc. Our worst summer was when we had wasps inside tree tubes and the racoons figured out they could just rip apart the tubes to eat the wasp nest. Lost dozens of trees due to collateral damage from the racoons that summer.
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By:
Two Beers
Date:10-Feb-25
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Here's my two cents. We are in upstate NY on the edge of zones 4 and 5 in the Adirondacks.
We have planted every tree and shrub known to man in the last 10 years; over 5,000. Here are the bullet points:
Deer will eat everything except Spruce and Beech. Beech is a weed tree and usually dies of beech bark disease before it reaches 40. Only produces nuts every 3 or 4 years. However, if you cut a beech tree without poisoning the stump, you will get 20 more beech trees.
All oak plantings need grow tubes to protect from the deer. Oaks are very slow growers. If you are over 40 years old, you may never see an acorn. Your children might.
Chestnuts are the way we go. Chestnuts in less than 10 years, but labor intensive to plant. Generally buy 3 to 5 year old trees and cage them to keep deer away. Cage should be 5 x 5 and 6 ft. high and a weed matt to start. We buy Dunstan's, Chinese, and Hybrid Chestnuts. We have about a 10% casualty rate. Snow loads and deer can beat them up but they just keep growing back. Science has it, if you pick the green nuts off young trees early, you will get more growth in the tree but do not grab the green fuzzy shell with your bare hand.
Norway Spruce is the bulk of our plantings for cover and bedding. After first year, they will grow 1 to 2 ft. per season. Fastest growing spruce. Second in line is the White spruce but slower growth. If you plant firs, any kind, Canaan, Fraser, Balsam, all will be eaten in winter. Don't even consider white cedar. Its deer candy.
The only shrub to plant in deer country is Ninebark unless you put up a fence or slash walls. Ninebark will withstand a nuclear attack.
Fruit trees - Don't waste time with Crab apples. Plant full size apples for your area but again they are labor intensive. Spruce go in the ground with a dibble bar.
For fruit trees - Pears will grow anywhere with little to no maintenance. You can cage Apples and Pears but you will have to hunt the bears.
Morse Nursey provides very good quality Trees, check them out. Also had very good success with Dunstan Chestnuts from Georgia.
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By:
Buckdeer
Date:10-Feb-25
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I notice alot of weed mats, I tried them on some and had issues with voles and mice. I sprayed around alot of them. If they have tubes not an issue spraying if you turn your ventilated tube right side up. The ones that wern't tubed I tied a handle wire to one end of a piece of 3ft sewer pipe and would just drop over seedling and spray. What I like to do if planting a new area with large amount of trees or shrubs is to go in fall before and work ground plant wheat. Then in spring spray wheat and you have nice soft area to plant that hopefully the dead wheat will be thick enough to suppress some of new growth. You will want to plant this wheat earlier than in ag or food plot.The change in rain patterns can change what will grow also.My farm was hackberries,cottonwood,walnut and for last several years You can't get these to grow and even though theres still some old adult trees there very few newer sprouts.
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By:
Cheesehead Mike
Date:11-Feb-25
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I'm looking at planting some apple trees and trees for bedding cover in/around a clear-cut in my woods in Wisconsin after recent logging. My Forester said that deer won't eat Balsam Fir.
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By:
t-roy
Date:11-Feb-25
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It’s said that deer won’t browse on spruce trees. I know for a fact that is not true. I planted a couple dozen 4’ blue spruce along the perimeter of my front yard. I also put 5’ diameter cages around them to keep them from getting rubbed. They did very well for several years and got 8’-10 feet tall. I figured they would now be safe from the deer bothering them, other than a rubbed branch or two. We had a very harsh winter (for our area) and the deer browsed off every needle on every tree, as high as they could reach. It caused several of the trees to die the following year
Another problem that I ran into was putting a weed barrier around some caged chestnut trees, then covering it with mulch. The coons crawled into the cages and tore up all of mulch, including the weed barrier, searching for grubs. Next time, I’d probably cover the weed barrier with rock instead of the mulch.
Also saw where a guy was using a FlexSeal type spray on the trunks of his trees, instead of hardware cloth, wraps, etc.
He would spray the trunk, then throw some sand onto the spray while it was still wet. Would put a couple of coats on. He said it lasted for several years, and he had zero issues with rabbits, voles, etc. He said to use white, not black or a dark color. Dark color can potentially cause sun scald on the trunk.
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By:
wisconsinteacher
Date:11-Feb-25
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This thread has inspired me to go on a shopping spree. I just ordered 50 ROD, 25 Grey, 25 silky, 10 high bush cranberry, 30 black spruce and 20 Norway spruce.
The plan is to take an area that is .1-.2 acres in size and plant all the 100 dogwood and 10 high bush in my swamp area that is currently canary grass. I plan on putting a 5 foot fence around the area to keep deer out. I also plan on cutting the grass to help the dogwood get established. When I talked to the DNR, she said 1400 shrubs per acres was what they said for the max, so I will be close with 110 in .1-.2 acres. The 30 black spruce will be planted in the swamp area in clumps of 10 for bedding areas and the 20 Norway will be planted along existing food plots for future screening.
Everything is rooted stock 6-12" and will be shipped over a few weeks to give me time to plant things.
Other than a dibble bar or spade shovel, what else to I need for this new adventure? Do auger bits for cordless drills work? The soil is clay and not too rocky.
These are the first plantings I'll attempt on my property. Thanks again Bowsite for spending my money!!!
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By:
duckhunterbrad
Date:11-Feb-25
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I had a great meeting with a KDWP rep and NRCS offical on a site visit this morning. Waiting on the contract from KDWP, but they will be covering the cost of the trees and also additional native grass seed as well. Unfortunately do to time constraints, im going to go with a little higher rate of trees and pray for the best on this property. I will be doing several trees on my home property that I will be able to give some additional care to.
In all of this, I was able to convince the wife that I would need a new skid steer with mover attachment to help manage the plantings. So new bobcat T770 is coming soon!
