Jan Flora wrote:
In article ,
(John Ponder) wrote:
Hey Jan,
I planted 5 acres of Long leaf containerized seedling and it took
3 people 2 days. They were at a density of 400 /acre and so that comes
out to be 333/man*day. These were just people I suckered into helping
me. I think our Mexican crews that planted 800/acre could do about
1500/ person per Day with hoedads. They are getting payed per tree.
When we did 333 per day I told my buddy my back was real sore and he
said he was glad I said it first cause his was too. We are 39 and 34
yrs old. My son didnt complain because he is 19 yrs old and we would
have started heaping BS stories on him of how hard we could work at
19, he was smart enough to stay quiet. We used 3 plug planters and
they worked great, did yall use homemade stuff. I thought you said
that but I might have read it wrong. It sure if fun after you get it
done. Now you can start watching them GROW! 
Yep, we're using a homemade planting bar. My SO is a cowboy/blacksmith,
so he makes his own tools.
We're planting 300/acre, with 7 acres total. But our forester never walked
the land after we logged, so he didn't see that we had well over 100 trees
per acre left after logging. Big trees. So we're having to plant a little tight,
to fit these goddammits all in. We aren't allowed to have any left over, when
we're done. (Forest Circus bullshit.)
The SO and I are both 47 years old. We've been doing 600/day without too
much trouble, except for the foot race to the pain pills, when we get home
at night.
The truth be told, the SO and I have a pretty good time working out there
in the woods, planting the little goddammits. It sure beats a lot of other
things we could be doing : )
Jan
Like they say, that which doesn't kill us makes us stronger. There are
limits though! (Think of cheese) Sorry - I'm an old tree planter myself.
Paid my way through forest engineering school many years ago. Our group
worked the Northern California and Oregon coast in the 70's. Our
mexicans were by far the best planters, often hitting 2000 on good days.
Us gringos could hit 1500 consistently after we had been in practice for
several weeks and occasionally went above that. Fresh guys in off the
street were dying at 600. These were containerized DF and RW plugs, and
we planted with either dbibbles or hoedads depending on the contract.
The ground varied from "cat ground" to steep high leads. The worst was
going into units which had lots of naturals left and deep slash - you'd
carry your trees forever hunting planting spots. Those were always a
mistake of the planting forester.
Why are you planting to FS specs on your own land? Accounting for
naturals is part of the job. Unless they're damaged, that's where your
genetic diversity is retained.