How many pine trees to plant per acre

This is especially important when planting with assistance of cost-share programs. A good hand-planting crew can average up to 3, seedlings per man-day; inexperienced crews average far less. Most planters use a dibble bar that has a blade at least 4 inches wide and 10 inches long.

Seedlings can be carried in a bucket, but a planting bag is a more efficient for a planter to use. The planter removes one seedling at a time after the dibble has been used to open the planting slit. Do not allow planters to carry seedlings in hand while planting, as seedlings rapidly dry out.

Exposure to wind and sun can kill seedlings quickly. Always provide planting bags or buckets and insist that seedlings be kept moist at all times. Have a supervisor at the site to ensure that planting proceeds smoothly and properly. To ensure proper spacing, frequently check distances of planted seedlings within and between rows. Proper packing is necessary to eliminate air pockets around the roots.

Check by grasping several needles at the tip of the seedling between thumb and forefinger and gently trying to pull the seedling from the soil.

The needles should break if the seedling is firmly packed. A shovel can be used to dig around seedlings to check for J-rooting. Insert the dibble straight down into the soil to the full depth of the blade, and pull back on the handle to open the planting slit. DO NOT rock the dibble back and forth, as this causes soil in the planting slit to be compacted, hindering root growth. Remove the dibble and push the seedling roots deep into the planting slit.

Pull the seedling back up to the correct planting depth 1—3 inches above the roots to fall straight inside the planting slit. Place the dibble several inches in front of the seedling and push the blade halfway into the soil.

Twist and push the handle forward to close the top of the slit to hold the seedling in place. Push down to the full depth of the blade and pull back on the handle, closing the bottom of the planting slit, and then push forward to close the top, eliminating air pockets around the roots.

When machines are correctly matched to the site and operators are trained and supervised, 7,—9, or more seedlings can be planted per day. The condition of the planting site is important in selecting the proper size of machine. Old fields and cropland can be planted with light-duty planters pulled by wheeled tractors of 20— hp. Rough sites require the use of heavy-duty planters pulled by large farm tractors or crawler tractors of 50— hp.

Frequently check planting performance to ensure proper planting, particularly when soil type, texture, moisture, or amount of harvest debris changes on the site. Maintain proper adjustment by carefully checking planting performance under actual site conditions.

Adjust packing wheels to completely close the planting trench from top to bottom. Be sure seedlings are planted straight and at the proper depth. Follow the planter and use a shovel to open the planting trench to judge root placement.

L-rooting is a common problem with machine planting. Adjust the planter to open the trench to maximum depth, and make sure seedlings are placed at the proper depth and released quickly so roots are not dragged along the trench.

Carefully check the site and environmental conditions at planting time. Planting on bright, sunny, windy days in dry soil can result in increased seedling mortality. Dry soil is difficult to pack around seedling roots. When soils are too wet, especially clay soils, machine planting can result in soil compaction around seedlings, as well as other site damage. When air temperatures are in the 70s and low 80s with low humidity less than 40 percent and wind speeds of 10 mph or greater, plant cautiously, as seedlings can quickly dry out after planting.

If the situation allows, delay planting until conditions improve, or plant in afternoon hours when seedlings will face less environmental stress. If planting must continue under these conditions, have planters carry fewer seedlings and take extra precautions to prevent them from drying out. Seedlings produced in containers have become increasingly available in the South.

In fact, nearly all longleaf pine seedlings planted will be container-grown. Container-grown stock offers the advantage of extending the planting season compared to bareroot stock.

Using container-grown seedlings, early-season planting in the South can begin in October, allowing seedlings to become established before freezing weather occurs. Planting can extend into late spring and even summer on sites that may be too wet to plant during the fall or winter with bareroot seedlings.

The protected root systems of container-grown seedlings reduce the damage associated with lifting, storing, and planting bareroot seedlings. Seedlings are best stored in their containers where they are protected from root damage and drying out. Protect them from freezing, as root plugs can easily freeze. The limited soil volume of the container makes seedlings susceptible to drying out in sunny and windy conditions. Store in partial shade, and water frequently to maintain adequate moisture throughout storage and planting.

Container-grown seedlings may be machine- or hand-planted, but, in both methods, it is critical that the planting hole be deep enough to cover the top of the root plug completely with soil.

If the top of the root plug is not covered with soil, it will rapidly dry out, and the seedling will die. This also reduces the possibility of frost heaving of fall-planted seedlings. Take special care when planting container-grown longleaf pine seedlings. If planted too deeply, the bud will be covered; if planted too shallowly, the root plug will be exposed, which rapidly dries out the rooting media.

Typically, longleaf pine seedlings should be planted with approximately one half of an inch of the plug above the ground surface. Survival and stocking are two important factors in evaluating the success of your planting efforts. Survival is the number of planted seedlings alive at the time of your observations.

It is best estimated by establishing permanently marked plots soon after planting. Seedlings are then counted at the end of the first growing season and compared to the initial number of seedlings in plots. Ten to 20 well-distributed plots are usually sufficient for survival estimates. Stocking represents the number and distribution of living seedlings across the plantation. This information is used to determine whether replanting a portion or the entire stand is necessary. A systematic sampling system is the best way to sample stocking.

The number of live trees is counted in fixed-area plots, usually circular plots. These plots are uniformly spaced across the plantation. You need 40—60 plots to get accurate estimates of first-year stocking, regardless of plantation size. Orient sample plots on lines that cross the planting rows throughout the entire plantation. If the survey reveals that at least seedlings per acre are evenly distributed over the plantation at the end of the first growing season, replanting or interplanting will not be necessary.

If there are large areas with poor stocking, these areas can be replanted. Some additional site preparation may be required. Avoid interplanting skips within rows. Newly planted seedlings do not compete favorably with established older seedlings. Interplants seldom add to the volume production at harvest, and the added investment cost for seedlings and planting will not be recovered.

If you attempt interplanting, plant no closer than 20 feet to an established seedling. Interplanting may be required in stands established under federal incentive programs to meet minimum stocking requirements.

If so, spot herbicide treatments for weed control around interplants may aid their survival and growth. Balmer, W. Guide for Planting the Southern Pines. USDA For. Fisher, R. GTR SO Jefferies, K. May, J. Southern Region Cooperative Forestry Publ. South, D. Forestry Dept. Series No. Xydias, G. Sage, J. Hodges, and D. School of Forest Resources and Conservation, Univ.

Gainesville, FL. The information given here is for educational purposes only. References to commercial products, trade names, or suppliers are made with the understanding that no endorsement is implied and that no discrimination against other products or suppliers is intended. Copyright by Mississippi State University. All rights reserved. This publication may be copied and distributed without alteration for nonprofit educational purposes provided that credit is given to the Mississippi State University Extension Service.

Mississippi State University is an equal opportunity institution. Discrimination in university employment, programs, or activities based on race, color, ethnicity, sex, pregnancy, religion, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation, genetic information, status as a U.

Questions about equal opportunity programs or compliance should be directed to the Office of Compliance and Integrity, 56 Morgan Avenue, P. Department of Agriculture. Published in furtherance of Acts of Congress, May 8 and June 30, GARY B. Evergreens, like pines are spaced closer together than deciduous trees like oaks due to their large spreading leaf canopies. Typically, a high-density softwood tree plantation uses 6 foot spacing between trees and 20 feet between tree rows and a high-density hardwood tree plantation uses 10 foot spacing between trees and 30 feet between rows.

To calculate the number of trees per acre and spacing between trees first choose the distance between rows then choose the distance between trees before pressing the compute button to get the total number of trees per acre. You will need approximately trees per acre.

Hire us to build a turnkey Crop Circle Tree Plantation on your land anywhere in the world. Our specialists will travel to your location and layout the Crop Circle tree plantation, marking the spots where trees are planted to make a perfect spiral, which is essential to promote fast tree growth. You can plant the trees yourself or hire us to do the planting.

Contact Us For Pricing. When combining all of the above factors, it is evident that many influences contribute to the overall volume of wood on any given stand of timber in the US South. Clearcut harvests will remove trees in all three categories noted above, whereas thinnings will remove only pulpwood and smaller logs that fall into the chip-n-saw category.

Detailed data by harvest type, predominately from pine stands, demonstrate that:. Timberland type also plays a significant role in the total tons per acre at harvest. On stands that are thinned and harvested at a younger age, there is less mortality because they experience less hardwood competition due to silvicultural prescriptions.

Forest2Market data from timberland type demonstrate that:. A trained forester is essential to help determine an accurate amount of wood on an acre of timberland. In the follow-up installment to this blog post, I will dig deeper into this common question and analyze actual timber prices in conjunction with tons of wood per acre. What we can offer you. We provide detailed transactional data, cost benchmarks and in-depth analytics for participants in the wood raw materials supply chain.

SilvaStat Platform. The estimates which I am going to show to you is what you can save if you decided to do it yourself. Keep in mind that this amount also includes any of the transportation involved and the tree itself would be about 4 to 6 ft tall. This cost also covers the soil preparation and equipment needed. Note here that this cost represents one tree and other associated costs.

But if you decide to buy in bulk which I am assuming you would, the overall costs come down significantly. Think about it, your equipment costs and soil preparation costs will be largely constant. The tree themselves vary a lot in costs. When buying in bulk the overall cost will be even lower. A medium tree that is about 8 to 10 feet will cost a bit more. A large tree that is about 15 to 20 feet tall can cost even more.

I am assuming that if you are going to plant an acre of trees, you likely go for saplings. At least I would. It does not make any sense to plant a whole acre of 6 ft long trees. That would be the most cost-efficient way, but it also takes the longest to grow a forest.

So if you are planting with 6 feet of space between saplings, it would take roughly two and a half days to get them all down. In short, the trees would cost to dollars and the labor cost would be your time or an average daily salary in your area multiplied by tree. This figure will depend on the type of forest you are considering. Evergreen forests in the tropics are very dense. The reason for this is the presence of very high levels of nutrients and ample sunlight.

Coniferous trees which are another type of evergreens are also pretty dense. On the other hand, forests in drier regions will be much more spacious.

In these regions, there are anywhere from 30 to 50 trees per acre. In tropical rainforests, it is a different story altogether. You can expect anywhere from to trees per acre. This is not taking into account the shrubs and small plants.

If you are unsure about the number of trees you will need to order, there is a formula you can use. The previous calculation will be helpful when you have to determine the number of trees you can plant in an area.