a norway spruce 

     after completing planting of all the trees we received in our order and coming closer to 660 trees as we added some from the yard . we have volunteer locust and  hawthorne growing  in our yard and they were close to the whip size of these trees and decided to go ahead and plant these trees also. and i had some blue spruce that we received from somewhere else and was part of the impetus to get us into this tree thing after i received some whips from the soil conservation office . the problem with free trees you might receive that are bare rooted is you need to plant right away and it is hard for a pine to not get mowed off in his first year. i could have stuck directly into ground but doubt if as many will survive, so as now i potted those trees and now repotted them to allow to grow again as they were in small pots. . 

     but by potting the bare rooted trees , i have allowed myself some leeway and have greater chance of survival to the young sapling as i am able to water and fertilize as is necessary.the following pictures are of james planting trees for me. he had become some what of an expert after a couple of hundred trees. and i was just wondering what took him so long. none the less he was really good help to jump in and plant trees. the last 200 trees really went much faster as we had a good system down by then . basically we shared the peat moss and the tree bucket and would sit at my raised bed garden and dump a tractor load of my highly organic topsoil and then place the peat between us. pots on my left and on his right as we would take a pot and first add peat to above the drainage  holes and then add a handful of topsoil. this could have some lumps but large rocks and debris were removed to give you a good friable topsoil .

     a tree was selected and roots are cut to about a third of the total length . deadened roots were trimmed and leaders might be shortened(horizontal) , this was easily done with scissors. the tree is held in pot with the crown slightly below the top rim of the pot with your left hand. with a shovel or your right  hand spread roots out assuring no j hook of roots where roots will turn up side of pot . then start swirling the dirt in contact with the roots and compacting the soil assuring no dry spots or air spots , that will destroy your root systems. firming the soil 1 inch below top rim of pot and swirl in one handful of peat moss to hold moisture in soil. then stack in area to be watered and watered as soon as possible. extra care needs to be taken to assure your seedlings are damp but not soaked when planting. to much water will suffocate roots also. you need to water often until you feel moisture has thoroughly soaked pots and then only after drying has occurred . to much water is like drowning your plants, they need time to breathe. 

     efforts are being made to distinguish between the tree species . with this many trees and how close in appearances  they look it would be easy to miss represent some of them . these trees will remain in these pots till they root bound and then will transplant either to larger pots or will plant directly. how would i do it differently ? i would  add a canopy to shield one from the sun. and a heavy table you could dump a bucket of soil on and a chute to sit the potted plants on . we both worked on 25 tree lots of whips so that we could maintain the moisture on the root ends as much as possible. james is shown adding soil with a garden shovel , and in last picture he is tamping the soil in the pot. speeds of 40 per hour and more could be achieved easily. better chairs , and bench at right level would make a world of difference . i am just telling you this some times to make sense of it myself . it also helps me remember and now i have a reference in case i want to go through this again. 

     i thoroughly soaked the pots and then added water soluble fertilizer in the form of a water solution to each new pot. this will aid in root growth. so far trees seem to be doing well at 100 percent surviving. i will keep you appraised of their growth and maintenance as we go along . 

     i think i also have the incubator ready to go as i am getting constant temp readings at around 100 degrees. this is necessary to have constant temperature for the entire 28 days. and i think i am on to the ducks for yet another nest they are using. if i was able to hatch all eggs i would have around 36 ducks i believe . or a box of quackers. i kill me.