Let’s plant birch trees!

During transportation prevent: ​

• Root desiccation
• Mechanical damage to seedlings ​
• Compaction of seedlings during stacking
• Use of open transport

Choose an appropriate vehicle for the intended amount of seedlings!

Temporary storage:

• Place seedlings in a shady area
• Do not stack bags on top of each other
• Water once a week if storage is prolonged ​

Seedlings should be planted as soon as possible. If the roots dry out, the plant will die!

Soil preparation in strips (with
an agricultural plough or a forest tiller):

• Suitable for less overgrown soils with normal moisture conditions
• Facilitates the selection of planting sites; easier to adjust the number of seedlings
• Facilitates movement in the area; easier management
• Cheaper than mounding
• Fertile soils and coppices require more frequent and timely management

Soil preparation by mounding (with
an excavator):

• Suitable for more overgrown and wetter soils
• Work may be combined with ditch digging/cleaning
• Easier to prepare smaller areas and areas of irregular shape
• Provides clearly visible planting/management sites
• Potentially less frequent management needed
• Seedlings survive better in fertile soils and in coppices
• Costs are higher than for the preparation of strips
• Difficult movement in the area

Soil preparation should be carried out the year before planting to allow the soil to settle and compact over the winter.

Suitable soils:

• Rich, well-aerated mineral soils
• Drained peat soils

Unsuitable soils:

• Heavy clay soils
• Waterlogged soils
• Poor sandy soil
• Flood-lands

In the case of waterlogged soils, water must be diverted first by digging or cleaning ditches!

Number of seedlings per hectare:

• In a felled area 2000 (2 x 2.5 m)
• On agricultural land 1600 (2 x 3 m)

Planting of container plants and bare root plants is different

• Bare root plants

Planted with a shovel. Ensure that the roots are in the right direction (downwards) and that the hole is large enough for the seedling to fit and that all the roots are below the ground.

• Container plants

Use a planting tube. Its diameter must be larger than the diameter of the soil substrate of the container plant. The tubes used for the seedlings purchased from us are 65–75 mm in diameter.

Be careful when planting in late autumn, as frost can cause the seedlings to heave!

Sapling management:

• It is especially important in the first year, don’t miss it!
• The first management should be carried out around mid-June to prevent the young tree from disappearing into the grass. In the following 2–3 years – as needed.

In the middle of the summer, it is recommended to treat seedlings with repellent to prevent damage caused by biungulates!

What happens if you don’t manage the young stand?

With a lack of sapling management, the grass growing around the sapling will smother it in autumn and later the snow will push the sapling down and cause it to die.