Planting Hardwoods

Machine Planting

Machine planting involves the same basic steps as hand planting, but a machine opens and closes the planting hole. Most mechanical seedling planters have a coulter disk that slices the soil surface and a single narrow plow that opens a deep slit in the soil.

Continuous-furrow planting machines should have a cage to protect workers from injury and debris, as well as covered trays or storage bins where the seedlings are carried. A regular farm tractor can pull the planter. The operator sits on a seat mounted over the plow. A colter and furrow widener create a furrow and hold it open while the operator reaches down to insert a tree seedling, allowing the roots to hang freely. The seedling is held upright until the packing wheels pass by the seedling. Packing wheels, at the rear of the plow, compress the soil back into place around the roots as the planter moves along.

Some types of semiautomatic planters move the seedling into position between the packing wheels, eliminating the need for an operator to insert a seedling directly into the furrow.

Site conditions must be favorable if a machine planter is used. Planting machines may not operate properly at sites with heavy debris, stumps, heavy clay soil, steep or gullied slopes, rocks, and logging slash. Machine planting requires less labor, permits precise spacing and planting depths, allows more seedlings to be planted, and may result in higher survival than hand planting.