Skip to content

FAB Planting

Author

Cathleen Lapadat

Objective

Detailed steps to trim and plant seedlings for Forest and Biodiversity experiment

Seedlings Storage

Keep seedlings in cold until planting. Reserve fridge space at Cedar Creek ahead of time.

Supplies

Supplies can be found in the FAB cage in the brown barn or the FAB office. If additional buckets are needed, these are stored in a cage in the brown barn. Inventory supplies before planting date as hatchet and gardening sheers wear quickly and need sharpening or replacement, respectively.

  • Water buckets
  • Dibble bars
  • Trees
  • Gardening sheers
  • Hatchet
  • Wood board
  • Planting sheets
  • FAB2 maps
  • Pens/Pencils
  • Fold up table
  • Plastic cups for watering

Steps

Set up
  1. Remove enough seedlings for half a day of planting from cold storage. Ideally only do one species at a time. If you must plant multiple species, ensure you label water buckets correctly.
  2. Set up table in FAB field.
  3. If water buckets are not already full with water, fill them prior to pulling seedlings out of box.
    1. It is important to always keep the seedlings from drying out. When not in use, ensure box is fully covered and under shade. If necessary, add water to roots of seedlings to keep wet; however, do not water log them as they can rot.
Root Trimming
  1. Measure the blade length (~11-12 inches) of the dibble bar. This should be the length of your roots.
  2. Using either a hatchet or a gardening sheer trim the roots to the correct length. Ensure the roots do no dry during this step. If it looks dry, dip the root in water.
    1. With a hatchet, you will need a wood board to protect the table. Depending on the thickness of the seedling, you can cut multiple seedlings simultaneously.
    2. With a gardening sheer, cut the roots of each seedling individually to the correct length.
  3. Immediately submerge roots of seedlings in water bucket. Ensure roots are fully covered with water.
Planting
  1. Travel to correct location of planting. Confirm that you are at the correct position.
    1. If tree is still alive, double check location. If correct, do not plant. Make note that it is alive.
    2. If dead tree is still in location, pull out prior to planting. Digging in the spot with the dibble bar should be sufficient.
  2. To plant, correctly align your dibble bar so the planting lines up with the trees surrounding it.
  3. To dig hole, step on the footstep of the dibble bar. If ground is tough, push and pull the dibble bar back and forth to dig through ground. The footstep should reach to the ground or past it.
    1. If roots run wide, you'll need to dig more than one hole to accommodate the roots.
  4. Confirm the hole lines up with the trees surrounding it.
  5. Take a seedling from water bucket and carefully put roots in hole with the root collar lined up with the soil.
    1. Root collar is the division of the tree where it transitions from trunk to root. Typically you will see a rugged increase in diameter at the root collar into the roots.
    2. If there are fine roots, ensure the roots are facing downward. If roots are facing upward, this will create a j-root causing the j-root to grow upwards and end up suffocating itself to death. To avoid planting with j-roots, move root collar deeper in the hole and lift the seedling with the root collar lined up with the top of the soil.
    3. It is important to properly plant the tree at the root collar. If planted below, the exposed root will dry out and if planted above, the stem planted into the ground will rot. Both will result in the seedlings death.
  6. Hold tree with the root collar at the soil level. About 2 inches away from the whole, dig the dibble bar into the ground. This should tighten the tree in its place.
    1. First, pull the dibble bar away from the seedling. This will close the hole at the bottom.
    2. Second, push the dibble bar towards the seedling. This will close the hole at the top.
    3. Press the soil in the ground if there are still any gaping cracks around the tree.
    4. Slightly tug the tree up. The tree was planted successfully if there is no movement.
  7. Water the tree with 2 cups.
Last update: December 29, 2022