Hi Greg,

I've used one. The planting bar is faster than a shovel. Some people use the word dibble interchangeably with planting bar. I believe they are actually two separate entities. Either way, I used the one that was heavier with the tapered end. The other one I originally bought did not work as well and it had more of a squared off end. I gave you a link below. Buy the style on the right if you are going to go this route.

Was the person who got 500 in the ground in one day Paul Bunyon accompanied by Babe per chance?

I bought both of my planting bars from Foresters. I weigh almost 120 lbs and I was able to get just over a hundred seedlings in the ground in one day when I volunteered at the forest preserve. People who weigh more do much better but I don't know anyone who did more than 200 and these seedlings were not more than 6-8" tall. Our ground out here is a heavier clay and jumping on that thing and wriggling it back and forth to create a space to insert the seedling gets old real quick. So does bending over to put the seedling in the crack without damaging its roots. I don't see any way to avoid spending time with each seedling. When I was working with bareroots on my own property, I'd say I could get almost a 50 in the ground in one day but that was sun up to sun down and those bareroots were only in the 3' range. You can kick the ground to try to close off the hole but it never worked quite like they tell you it will so I found that dragging a pale of heavy top soil was a bigger help. I kicked the hole closed as best as I could and added heavy top soil around the base. I planted seedlings about an inch above grade and I planted bareroot saplings about 2" above grade and then added more heavy top soil around the base. The other thing I did was to spread corn glutten meal around the bases of my bare roots to help stop weeds from germinating. I later added mulch and tree tubes. Don't forget tree tubes if you have deer in the area or they will have a field day chowing down your seedlings this coming spring.

I'd count on 5-7 days to do it right to get 500 in the ground and that is without adding tubes and staking the tubes with bamboo. Ben Gay will be your friend when you are finished.

Here is a link that might be useful: Planting Bar

I have planted thousands of bare root seedlings over the past few years. Of all the different types of shovels that I have used what has worked the best has been a very sturdy flat shovel. I have found that the seedling ends up in a more upright position. Planting when there is a good amount of moisture in the soil makes it easier on the seedling and also makes it easier to push the soil back in place creating good root and soil contact. I have used planting bars but I feel that it can damage the soil texture as you make the hole for the seedling. This might depend on your soil type, my experience is with heavy clay soil.

The last time that I counted the number of seedlings planted during one day was 200. These were white pines that were relatively large and had an extensive root system. Usually I only do a half a day of planting and it has been easy to do over a 100. I frequently end up planting on a spring day with a light drizzle and it would be good if it was overcast so that the roots don't dry out. If it is sunny I use burlap which is well soaked to protect the roots from the sun.

Have fun planting!

David

The burlap is a nice idea. I'll have to remember that. I was carting what I was going to plant around in a bucket filled with wet sphagnum and that is a heavy mix.

I mostly use a planting bar that i bought on-line it is thick and rigid and pointed on the business end. it works best when the ground is saturated and soft. I also have a hard time closing the hole around the roots, if you leave an air space they can dry up and die. If you have a way of hauling a slurry of mud with you, a shovel full of it in the planting hole is great.
It also goes easier if you have more than one person working as a team.
Depending on terrain, soil, sapling type and size,spacing, etc, if I plant over 100 in a day well, by myself, I have done enough.
If you use a shovel type tool make sure it is very sturdy and stiff and long enough to get your seedling planted deep.

Here at work (County Forestry Dept) we use the pointy type (the one on the right on the link above) and call it a 'tree spud'. Don't know why; that's just the way it is--good luck planting--it's hard work!

Thanks for all your useful responses. I'm going to order a
pointy style "tree spud" and give it a whirl. Last year I planted 75 transplants as a future windbreak. That was a lot of work. Dug holes and mixed in peat. I'll start out with 200 seedlings this year so I don't get too far over my head. Hopefully put in more next year.

when we plant pine saplings we dont "dig a hole". the way to do 500 saplings in one day is something like this: make a slit in the ground by tamping in the tree spud (or small flat spade) and pry spade to one side to open a slit in the ground, insert the sapling. close the slit and tamp with foot. very little dirt is actually removed if any. move to next sapling... this may not sound very promising but you want the roots of the sapling to take hold in the existing soil rather than dressing it up, loosening it up, or amending too much. a good splash of water on a new sapling is good idea, but not necessarily required if the weather cooperates.