By Dan Rahn
University of Georgia
If you’ve been thinking about planting some pines, don’t wait any
longer. Newly planted pine seedlings have the best survival
chances they’ve had in years, but the opportunity is fading
fast.
“In most cases the planting season continues through February,”
said David Moorhead, a professor of silviculture with the
University of Georgia Warnell School of Forest Resources.
“We like to wrap it up by the first of March,” he said. “This
year, for the first time in several years, we’ve got good soil
moisture through most of the state.”
More often than not, Moorhead said, people wanting to plant pines
over the past decade have had little soil-moisture reserves to
work with. That’s changed this year.
Soil moisture is key
“The key is good soil moisture,” he said. Most Georgia soils have
plenty of moisture available for pine seedlings to get off to a
strong start.
For pines to survive and grow well, he said, it’s vital that they
get over the shock of being transplanted and develop healthy root
systems before their first big stress test. They may look like
they’re just sitting there, but their roots are racing against
time.
“May and June are critical times,” Moorhead said. “If we stop
getting rain, pine seedlings are going to be severely stressed
through May and into mid-June. The key is getting seedlings
established and roots growing well before then.”
A tree race
The race to get the roots firmly established is why Moorhead
tells people to begin planting container-grown seedlings in
October and November. He recommends planting bare-root seedlings
in late December, January and early February.
“Planting in January does better than in February, and February
is better than March,” he said. “On seedlings planted in January,
the root tips are already growing.”
Most nurseries still have seedlings available, he said. Check
with the Georgia Forestry Commission office in your county.
Not too late
It’s not too late to get pine trees off to a good start.
Seedlings ordered now can usually be delivered within a week. For
field-size planting, GFC offices may even have mechanical tree
planters available.
A number of industry nurseries still have seedlings, too. You can
find out about them through the GFC office or the UGA Extension
Service office in your county.
In planting pines, Moorhead said, never strip off roots to make
the planting easier. The roots are just too critical to the
trees’ survival. When you plant a crop that takes years to
mature, if you mess up at planting, you’ll have to live with the
mistake a long time.
Best roots win
“The seedlings with the most lateral roots will get off to the
best start,” he said. “You want to select the seedlings with
really well-developed root systems.”
If you don’t cull out the spindly-rooted seedlings, he said, the
first soil-drying stresses of late spring and early summer
probably will.
After planting seedlings, successful large-scale planters apply
herbicide treatments, generally from mid-March to mid-April,
Moorhead said. Controlling the competing vegetation will help the
seedlings make it through that first stress test.
The bottom line, though, is that if you haven’t planted already,
plant now.
“I’d like to see planting wrapped up in the next couple of
weeks,” Moorhead said. “We’ve got the best planting conditions
we’ve had in years. In wet years we can plant on into April. But
we don’t know when the rains will stop coming. And the later you
plant, the greater the risk of failure.”
