Diffrence between SEEDLINGS and TRANSPLANTS

[JUDGE1162]

OK as a follow up to an ealier post I am planting a windbreak of Norway Spruce (Picea abies) I found a supplier but now my question is what is the diffrence between SEEDLINGS and TRANSPLANTS?

I want bigger and heartier trees as I am planting this on a property where I am not there expect on weekends and watering will be limited.

They offer 4-YR. SEEDLINGS which are 15-30" and 5-YR. TRANSPLANTS which are 15-36" so over all simular in size but the transplants are 2.5 times more money

Are TRANSPLANTS worth all the extra money? What are their advantages?

Thanks

JUDGE

 

[Wismer]

A seedling is a young tree with bare roots, while a transplant will have a rootball..... i think

 

[treeseer]

A seedling is a young tree with bare roots, while a transplant will have a rootball..... i think

That's my guess too. Seedlings will be more prone to drying out but if they are packed well and carefully shipped and soaked for a day after you get them they may well be the way to go. Hard to imagine a ball of dirt making them grow 2.5 times better.

 

[antigrassguy]

A seedling is a plant that has been grown from seed and left alone to get to size for sale. A transplant has been moved. The big difference between the 2 is that you much larger root mass with transplants. Almost 2-3 times, or more, the amount of roots than seedlings. Trees of this size are usually shipped bare. You could get them B&B but you would pay alot more for the tree and shipping would be huge.
Picea abies are moderately drought tolerant and they dont like salt but they dont mind clay.
If you are planting a wind break I would suggest that you mix 5-6 different species so that you can avoid a mono culture. In other words if a bug of some sort takes a liking to your trees you wont lose them all.
Watering will be a huge concern on any new planting, but there are ways around this as well. Is there water available on site?

 

[JUDGE1162]

I do have water onsite at the house but it is around 700 to 800 feet away so firing up the garden hose will not help. I can bring pals of water down in the back of my truck but that is only on the weekend and not every weekend

Will the bigger root system help with drought? will it greatly increase the chance of the trees taking.

 

[Wismer]

Will the bigger root system help with drought? will it greatly increase the chance of the trees taking.

yes

 

[antigrassguy]

My next question would be how may are you thinking about planting? It is possible to run that much garden hose out to the trees and instead of watering each individual you could x feet of soaker hose(depends on # of trees) and cut it to 4' lengths and then get male and female replacement ends to make shorter hoses. Wrap the soakers around the tree, under the mulch and then connect regular hose in between the soakers to the next tree. No water will be wasted. Then you could hook up a timer to spigot and they would receive water all summer at a preprogrammed rate.
Now your going, "damn thats alot of hose", yup. If you buy it from any store its going to get expensive. So now you start to hit garage sales and auctions. People can hardly give away old hoses. .50 or a buck is usually the most you pay, around here anyway. At an auction you can usually get alot of hoses for under 2-3 bucks. At one auction I got 10 75'ers for $4. I then had to splice in connectors where the holes where and ended up having less than $10 into the 750'.
I did this when we moved 40 8' evergreens, to block out wind and on lookers, and had over 1300' of hose layed out and it cost about $125 for everything. Didnt lose any. If you lay out how much time you will be spending to truck water on weekends by time spent on laying hose early on you should be ahead in the long run. AND the odds of the transplants surviving goes way up.
Water will be the most important thing till they acclimate to their new home.
Just my 2 cents and how I did things here, that seemed to work. Good luck on things and take pics to share, will you?

 

[pinus]

In forests, picea abies is the second species next to pinus sylvestris as being leader here.
It is widely used as a wind-snowbreak and hedge tree here.
It is rather forest tree, but can grow in open site too, where in youth it is prone to cold (we have cold winters) damage and on dry soils, especially if the soil is rather sandy grows the first 10-15 years poorly. If it survives these times then norway spruce can reach large (huge) dimensions as a standalone tree.
Seedlings, with open root systems are more difficult to handle compared to closed root-ball plants, but I think, if to work with them carefully the result will be beter.

 

[surfcaster1866]

to the judge

Judge the NYS DEC offers seedlings and transplants for sale from there Saratoga Nursery. You pay by credit card and pick it up at a central drop off location. Go to the website and check it out. Where is your place? I have 154 acres up in Petersburg Rennselaer county. water is a problem for me too. Deer as well.

 

[Adkpk]

antigrassguy has the right idea about mixing. I would also consider mixing the transplants with the seedlings. I would plant the seedlings in pots until the start to revive themselves. Keep them close to the house so you can watch them closely. Rain barrels are an idea also. But I would work on getting a hose, new plants need to be watered in for more than one reason. You have to get the air out of the soil by saturating it with water. And the plant will benefit to have the mud packed around the roots to keep it stable. Very important. And then of course there is always July and August.

 

[Newt*]

With no disrespect to Adrpk, I wouldn't pack mud around the roots. The roots need oxygen and mud is like cement when it dries and won't allow for air to get to the roots.

Newt

 

[Adkpk]

With no disrespect to Adrpk, I wouldn't pack mud around the roots. The roots need oxygen and mud is like cement when it dries and won't allow for air to get to the roots.

Newt

Sorry, if I was misunderstood. Didn't mean to say, "pack mud around roots". What I meant was to turn the soil around the root ball into mud to get the air out of the hole. If you do that there is no need to pack the dirt to get the air pockets out. Air will seep back in as a displacement of the water as it dries. The important thing being the support you will give the roots by removing any room for them to move.

 

[Newt*]

I still don't agree with the 'mud' idea. It takes the oxygen out of the soil. Packing down wet soil will remove the oxygen and smother the plant's roots. I did it once a long time ago and learned a costly lesson.

I find it's best to put water in the bottom of the hole once the tree is placed. Fill the hole halfway and water again to help settle the soil. Fill the hole and water again to settle the soil again. Then mulch and moisten the mulch so it won't wick up the moisture from the soil.

Newt

 

[Adkpk]

I still don't agree with the 'mud' idea. It takes the oxygen out of the soil. Packing down wet soil will remove the oxygen and smother the plant's roots. I did it once a long time ago and learned a costly lesson.

I find it's best to put water in the bottom of the hole once the tree is placed. Fill the hole halfway and water again to help settle the soil. Fill the hole and water again to settle the soil again. Then mulch and moisten the mulch so it won't wick up the moisture from the soil.

Newt

Ok, Newt don't like me calling moistened soil "mud" fair enough. The term we use in the business is "watering in". Sounds to me like we are talking about the same thing. My advice to Judge being to try to get the hose because new plantings need lots of water.

 

[Newt*]

Ok, Newt don't like me calling moistened soil "mud" fair enough. The term we use in the business is "watering in". Sounds to me like we are talking about the same thing. My advice to Judge being to try to get the hose because new plantings need lots of water.

It's all a matter of semantics! I agree with "watering in" though.

Glad we got that straightened out.
Newt

 

[JUDGE1162]

I tried the NYDEC tree program but the plants were 2 or 3 year seedling and were only 6-8" tall I planted 250 plants (later I found out did not plant them the reccomended way) but I still lost all but 15 plants mostly due to lack of water.

The hose Idea I will look into but that is a lot of hose and a lot of pressure head to over come but I guess with soaker hose I really don't need a lot of pressure. but my road frontage is 700 feet so total would be close to 1,500 feet of house.