Help planting trees

[ecofarmer]

Last year my wife got me a few different tree seeds mixes last year; ash, maples, cypress, willow, birch, elm, and oak’s. I followed the directions on the packages and planted them in my green house. Right now there in 4x4x3.5â€

[valleytreeman]

Ecofarmer... you are a bit late to set them out.... should have been done in March or even February in your locale. However the pots they are in are too small. If you still want to set them out, scalp a 2foot diameter circle to plant them in. Carefully plant themn disturbing the roots as little as possible. Mulch to discourage root competition for soil moisture. Finally use tree shelters to protect the trees during this first year out. In addition to protecting them from browsing animals, the tree shelters act as a mini green houses and actually help stimulate height growth. With bare root hard wood seedlings, many will extend out the top of a 4 foot tube after the first year. Check with your county VDOF forester for sources.

Finally... water if extended dry weather sets in.

[ecofarmer]

I think I'll put them into 5 gallon pots and put up a PVC pipe green house for the summer to keep them in. I'll put them in the shed this winter and will get them planted first thing this summer.


Thanks for the info. I didn't know they should go out in February and March. I'll have to plan out my late winter and spring next year.

[!potatoes!]

doesn't HAVE to be late winter/early spring, fall planting can work pretty well, too.

[ecofarmer]

I'm looking at this from the side of what is harder?
- Dig 300 holes and plant, stick, fence, mulch, and a tree tube for protection
- Set up a temp green house, toss in pot, and mass mulch the pots together with a few walk ways.

I'll have a lower death rate with option 2. I found some info says it I weight till year 2 that they will not need as much protection and will have a higher servile rate.



I have 2.5 miles of road way that I want to plant trees on, so this is not going to be a one year thing. I'll be getting more seeds and planting more next winter. I should need around 2000 trees to finish in 4 to 5 years.

[Gary350]

You have your trees in pots so the rules do not apply. If you plant seeds in rows then dig up the trees to be transplanted that must be done in cool weather, NOT warm weather because of root damage. Also small trees are much easier to plant than large trees because you only have to dig small holes. Small trees do better than large trees when transplanted you will have fewer trees die. If it were up to me I would go ahead and plant all those trees now. I have started a lot of trees in pots and transplanted them in the summer with no problem at all. I learned a neat trick 25 years ago, if you dig a 4 ft deep hole with a post hole digger then fill that hole full with sand then plant the potted tree on top of the sand the tree roots grow straight down into a tiny water well. The bottom of that sand hole fills with water just like a well. The trees grow much faster and you don't have to worry about watering in hot weather before the trees get large enough to have a good root system. You will have to water the new trees this year but not next year. One more thing, if you decided to dig sand holes throw a large hand full of fertilizer in the bottom of each hole before filling it with sand. The trees won't get to feed on that fertilizer for a while until the roots grow down to the bottom of the hole.

[ecofarmer]

I have heard about planting them in sand a few times but have always been told to mix some compost in with it. I have a 14â€

[Gary350]

I have never staked any of my trees but I also never let them grow very tall before I plant them in the ground. After 1 year in a pot I move them to their perment home. The smaller they are the less you have to worry about staking. If you pack the dirt very tight around the trees they can't blow over. Larger taller trees have a lot of wind resistance so they may tend to blow over more than smaller trees. I am all for doing as little work as possible small trees mean digging small holes and no staking.

[Gnome]

ecofarmer,

I don't have many answers for you but I do have some food for thought.
[quote]Right now there in 4x4x3.5â€

[ecofarmer]

The reason I was going with the 5 gallon pots is that I have about 500 of them have been use a time or two. But you are right about using a one or two gallon pot. For my potting soil I use 50% compost, 40% topsoil, and 10% coarse sand.

I set up the green house yesterday. I just got off the phone and I found a few cases of two gallon pots locally at a decent price. I'm going to start transplanting them latter today.

[ecofarmer]

I filled a 15 by 25 PVC green house with the 2 gallon pots. It ended up giving me 8 pots deep with a little over 2 foot walk way. I got them all transplanted and moved into the green house as the kids packed wood chips around them and tossed a few on top. I used 4 weeping hoses that run over the pots and set them up with a controller that has a few powered valves, I'll be playing with the controller for the next few weeks and I'm sure I'll have to hand water some pots.

It was not that bad of a job once we got going. If I would have used the 5 gallon buckets I would have needed to set up a second green house for them. I'm just glad we have the 2 kids for the cheap help.

My wife snapped some pics with her cell phone and they don't turn out good or I would post them. We have a trip planed into the city in a 2 weeks and I'll grab a new camera then.