Plate V · How-To

Planting day.

A practical guide to planting bare-root seedlings — handling, technique, protection, and the first season of aftercare. Most failures happen not from wrong species, but wrong technique.

When

Late March – early May, before bud break

Rule the First

Roots in water the entire time

Depth

Root collar at soil level — never deeper

After

1–2 gal/tree/week during dry spells

Ten to twenty percent mortality is normal.

Even with perfect technique, expect 10–20% of bare-root seedlings not to establish in the first year. This is why plans include an attrition buffer. Don't be discouraged — assess after the first full growing season and replant gaps in year two. PSU Extension →

Step I · Timing Earlier is almost always better than later. A dormant seedling planted in wet April soil has weeks of cool conditions to establish roots before summer arrives.

Step I

The right window.

The planting window for bare-root seedlings in northeastern Pennsylvania is late March through early May. Miss this window and you're fighting summer heat stress with newly disturbed roots.

Ideal conditions:

Ground fully thawed — frost out of the top 6–8 inches.
Soil moist — spring rains have saturated the ground.
Trees still dormant — buds not yet swelling or breaking.
Day calm, cool, overcast — minimizes root drying during planting.

Pocono Timing Ground thawed · late March
Ideal planting · late March – late April
Latest advisable · early May
Bud break (2,000 ft) · late April – early May
Order deadline · February – March

Step II

Receiving and storing your seedlings.

The most common cause of bare-root failure is root desiccation — roots that dry out before planting. This can happen in minutes in wind or direct sun. Everything about handling bare-root seedlings is designed around one principle: roots must stay moist at all times.

If planting within 24 hours

Keep bundled in original packaging.
Stand bundle in a bucket with a few inches of water.
Store in a cool, shaded location — a garage or barn, not a warm house.
Cover with wet burlap if possible.

If storing one to seven days

Keep in original sealed bags if possible.
Store at 34–40°F (refrigerator, cold garage, or root cellar).
Check roots daily; add a small amount of water if drying.
Do not freeze. Do not leave in a warm car.

On planting day — Fill a 5-gallon bucket with water and add a handful of native soil to make a thin muddy slurry. Keep all roots submerged as you work. Take out only the seedling you're about to plant. This one practice prevents the majority of first-season failures.

Never Leave roots exposed to wind or sun · Let the bundle sit in a warm trunk or shed · Store longer than a week · Dip roots in dry soil — the "mud slurry" is water with a small amount of soil, not dry mud.

Step III

What to bring on planting day.

Essential

5-gallon bucket with muddy water — roots live in here
Planting bar or dibble bar — fastest for forest soil
Or: spade/mattock — for rocky or root-heavy soil
Tree tubes or wire cages — one per tree, pre-counted
Stakes — one per tube or cage
Zip ties or wire — to attach cage to stake
Mallet or rubber hammer — to drive stakes
Flagging tape or stakes — to mark planted locations
Water — 1–2 gallons per tree for initial watering

Helpful additions

Pruning shears — to trim damaged or circling roots
Mulch or wood chips — 3–4 inches, 18″ diameter; GetChipDrop.com for free
Planting map or GPS app — record each location
Kneepads — you'll be down low a lot
Waterproof gloves — for wet soil work
Species tags — mark species while you remember

Common Pocono Plantings

What you'll be putting in the ground.

Eight of the most commonly planted species across both approaches.

Step IV · Technique

The hole and the depth matter most.

Everything else is secondary. Eight motions, in order — and a tug test at the end.

Clear the spot Four-foot radius, grass and ferns out.

Remove grass, ferns, and invasive shrubs from a 4-foot radius around your intended planting location. Competing vegetation within this radius is the primary cause of first-year seedling mortality — not deer, not disease.

Find the root collar Your depth reference.

Identify the root collar before planting — the slightly swollen zone where the root system transitions to the trunk. It may have a slight color change or a subtle flare. The root collar goes at ground level. Not below. Not above.

Dig the hole — wider than deep Wide enough that no root needs to bend.

Deep enough that the root collar sits at natural soil level. For a bare-root seedling, this is often 8–14 inches deep and 8–10 inches wide. A planting bar driven twice in an X-shape and levered open works well in most forest soils.

The J-root failure — Never bend the tap root into a J-shape to fit a too-shallow hole. This is a leading cause of slow death over 3–7 years. If your hole isn't deep enough, dig deeper.

Inspect the roots Trim damaged, dead, or circling.

A clean 45° cut with sharp shears is better than a frayed root tip. Trim long lateral roots only if they won't fit without bending — a few inches of trim is fine.

Place the tree Roots hanging straight.

Take the seedling directly from your water bucket. Place it in the hole with the root collar at soil level and all roots hanging naturally — spread outward and downward, not bent or circled. Hold the trunk with one hand to keep it straight and vertical.

Backfill with native soil No amendments.

Backfill with the soil you dug out. No amendments, no compost, no fertilizer in the hole. Research confirms no survival or growth benefit from soil amendments — and amended soil can actually cause roots to circle within the enriched zone rather than explore native soil. Firm the soil in layers with your hands, eliminating air pockets as you go. Smiley et al. · 2004 · Arboriculture & Urban Forestry

The tug test Light upward pull at the trunk.

Gently grasp the base of the trunk and give a light upward tug. The tree should feel firmly anchored. If it pulls up easily, there are air pockets — firm the soil more and try again. This simple test catches most planting failures before you walk away.

Water immediately One to two gallons, slowly.

Pour 1–2 gallons of water slowly around the base to settle the soil and eliminate any remaining air pockets. The water should soak in, not pool. Especially important if the soil is dry or it hasn't rained recently.

Step V · Mulching A mulch ring is one of the highest-return steps in tree planting. It retains moisture, suppresses competing vegetation, moderates soil temperature, and builds organic matter over time.

Step V

The mulch ring.

A donut — never a cone. Three to four inches deep, eighteen to twenty-four inch diameter, with two to three inches of clear space around the trunk.

Material: fresh arborist wood chips (preferred — see below), shredded bark, or leaf litter. Avoid bare grass clippings (matting) or pine straw (acidifying).

Never volcano-mulch — mulch piled against the trunk creates a moist environment that promotes rot, disease, and rodent activity at the base of the tree. The center of the mulch ring should always be clear.

Don't import jumping worms.

Asian jumping worms (Amynthas spp.) are spreading rapidly across PA, primarily through mulch, compost, and potted plants from infested sites. They consume the entire duff layer in a single season — converting it into nutrient-poor castings that small seedlings and herbaceous understory cannot establish in. Prevention is the only effective control.

Prefer fresh arborist chip drops (low worm survival) over aged composted leaf mulch. Avoid mulch from unknown sources or any showing a granular "coffee grounds" texture. Inspect bare-root seedling roots before planting. PSU Extension →

In Practice Depth · 3–4 inches
Radius · 18–24 inches from trunk
Trunk gap · 2–3 inches clear
Shape · flat donut, not a cone
Material · wood chips, shredded bark, leaf litter

Step VI · Protection

Two types of deer protection — not interchangeable.

2024 Penn State research found plastic tube interiors reached 30°F above ambient on sunny days. Sugar maple, eastern hemlock, yellow birch, red spruce, and eastern white pine showed measurably negative responses when grown in plastic tubes. Use open wire cages for cool-adapted species. PSU Extension 2024 →

Type I

4–5 ft tall · translucent

Plastic Tubes

Greenhouse effect — for heat-tolerant species. Drive your stake firmly into the ground on the downhill side, slide the tube over the seedling, push the base 2–4 inches into the soil to seal against rodents and wind, attach the tube with the clip or a zip tie.

Use for

Northern red oak · White oak · Chestnut oak · Black oak · All hickories · Black cherry · Black walnut · Black gum · Native crabapple · Hawthorn · Bigtooth aspen · Tulip poplar

Type II

18″ diameter · 4–5 ft tall

Open Wire Cages

Avoids heat buildup. Cut a section of ½″ galvanized hardware cloth ~56″ long × 48″ tall (makes 18″ diameter). Form a cylinder, fasten with hog rings or zip ties, place over seedling, drive a stake through to secure.

Use for

Sugar maple · Yellow birch · Sweet/black birch · Red spruce · Eastern hemlock · Eastern white pine · Allegheny serviceberry · Pagoda dogwood · Balsam fir · All shrubs

When to remove protection — Tubes can come off once the tree's trunk has lignified above the tube top and the tree is tall enough that deer can't reach the leader — typically 3–5 years for oaks. Wire cages can be loosened or removed once the tree exceeds browse height. Keep all protection on for at least two full growing seasons regardless of size.

Step VII · Aftercare

The first season.

Three habits to keep this summer; one walk-through every month to catch failures before they cascade.

Watering First summer only — then self-sufficient.

Established native trees rarely need watering. Newly planted ones do — for the first summer only. During dry spells (no meaningful rain for 10+ days): 1–2 gallons per tree per week. Pour slowly at the base — don't spray. Water in the morning or evening, not midday.

II.

Vegetation control The four-foot radius, kept clear for 3–5 years.

Competing grasses and ferns are more damaging to young seedlings than deer browse in many cases. Revisit each tree twice during the growing season — once in late May and once in August. Pull or cut any vegetation growing into the cleared zone. This single maintenance step doubles long-term survival rates.

Japanese stiltgrass deserves special attention. Microstegium vimineum — pale-green annual with a silvery midrib stripe — establishes inside the cleared radius and grows up around tubes. Pull or treat with a grass-specific herbicide (fluazifop or sethoxydim, which spare native broadleaves) by mid-August at the latest — before seed set. One missed year restores a 3–5 year seed bank. PSU Extension →

III.

Monthly walks First summer only.

Look for: tubes blown over (restake immediately) · deer browse above tube tops (extend protection) · rodent damage at tube base (check seal to soil) · dead leaves without wilting (root failure — replant) · wilted leaves (water stress — check moisture).

The dead-stick test — In June, a dormant bare-root tree should be leafing out. If yours still looks like a dead stick, gently scratch the bark with your thumbnail. Green and moist underneath = alive, just slow. Brown and dry = it didn't make it.

Common Mistakes

What goes wrong, and why.

Mistake	What happens	How to avoid it
Roots dry between bucket and hole	Seedling appears to establish, then dies quietly by August	Keep roots submerged until the moment you place the tree
J-rooted tap root	Tree grows slowly for 3–5 years then fails	Dig the hole deep enough. No exceptions.
Planted too deep	Root collar rots; tree declines over 2–3 years	Root collar at soil level — every time
Air pockets in backfill	Roots dry in the voids; sudden death in summer	Firm soil in layers; do the tug test before walking away
Tube not sealed at base	Rodents enter from below; wind funnels through and desiccates	Push tube 2–4 inches into the soil
Plastic tube on cold-climate species	Sugar maple, hemlock, yellow birch show dieback and reduced growth	Wire cage for all cool-adapted species
Soil amendments in the hole	Roots circle within the enriched zone; long-term weakness	Native soil only. No compost, fertilizer, or potting mix.
Volcano mulch	Trunk rot, disease, rodent activity at base	Donut shape — clear of the trunk by 2–3 inches
Planting after bud break	Seedling must push leaves while re-establishing roots; high mortality	Plant while dormant — before the buds open

Sources & Further Reading

Where this comes from.

Planting Bare-Root Tree Seedlings in Spring

Penn State Extension

"The best time to plant is between early March and early May, once frost leaves the ground and before bud break. Keep roots moist at all times — root desiccation is the number one cause of bare-root seedling failure."

extension.psu.edu →

Forest Landowners Guide to Tree Planting Success

Penn State Extension

"Site preparation is critical — poor preparation is a leading cause of seedling failure. Competing vegetation control must continue for up to 5 years after planting."

extension.psu.edu →

Plastic Tubes or Metal Cages? Rethinking How We Protect Young Trees

Penn State Extension · 2024

"Daytime temperatures inside plastic tubes reached 30°F above ambient. Species showing negative responses: sugar maple, eastern hemlock, yellow birch, red spruce, eastern white pine."

PSU Extension 2024 →

Effects of Amendments, Soil Additives, and Irrigation on Tree Survival and Growth

Smiley et al. · Arboriculture & Urban Forestry 30(5):301 · 2004

"No survival or growth benefit from soil amendments in the backfill hole during years 1–2 after transplanting. Amended backfill creates a pocket that roots circle rather than exploring native soil."

ISA Arboriculture & Urban Forestry →

Tamm Review: Direct Seeding to Restore Oak Forests

Löf et al. · Forest Ecology and Management 448:474–489 · 2019

"Direct seeding costs about a third of planting oak seedlings per established tree. Expect ~35% germination rate; plant at 2–3× target density to compensate for rodent predation."

doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2019.06.032 →