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Tree planting prices?

So I have been asked to plant around 200, 1 year old birches and it isn't  something I have ever done in such large quantities before and have no idea how to price  it up. Anybody have a better idea of what I should charge? 

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  • PRO

    Raises a number of questions;

    • Are you under B.S. in the specification for planting?
    • Access - easy/hard ?
    • Are they rootballs or containerised ?
    • What's the lie of the land - can you use an auger or planning to manually dig ?
    • OM/Mulch/Feed included ?
    • Do they need stakes and/or guards ?
    • Water feed available?
    • Guarantee / Tree loss

    All have a massive impact on pricing....

    • PRO

      would like to think they bare root -- which would make a huge difference -- with this cold and expected more cold - bare root should be available another month maybe 

      you could plant bare root very fast depending on the situ but might have an expected failure rate to consider late in the season-- it can be worth buying 10-20 % extra and pot up to replace or sell on.

    • I reckon that just about covers it Gary!

  • I've planted lots of trees and genrally bare root whips are easy to plant in good conditions.  However, I have always experinced a high loss rate with Birch which doesn't make a lot of sense as Birch is one of the pioneer speices.  This could be down to poor quality stock its unlikely to be anything i'm doings as others species seem to thrive.  So like Gary says make sure you and your client have clear expections on Guarantee.

    You should be able to Notch plant (if bare rooted) and putting a spiral guard on takes seconds.  I prefer using clear guards rather than the brown or black ones this I think impoves the trees chances, this is my own experience and not from any reseach.  If its a woodland setting I always spray off a circle around the tree for ease of maintenace for the first couple of years.  

    • Birch just seem to take exception to being dug up and moved. 

      Mind you, we had to move a beautiful 20 years old specimen from an enclosed garden quadrangle which was being redeveloped.  When access was available, we called in Ruskins who soon had it in it's new home using their massive tree spade machine. That was 15 years ago and the tree is thriving. A fascinating watch!

       

      • Its funny that any rootballed stock that i have planted have done Ok its just the bare root stuff! glad its not just me!

         

  • Years ago, I had to plant a load of 1 year old, bare-rooted saplings.  I remember digging a hole, carefully placing it in the hole etc. The old boy I was with just made a slit in the ground with the spade, dropped the roots in and closed the slit up with his boot.............. took about 20 seconds compared to my 2 minutes and they all grew ok. One of many lessons learnt on the council along with teamaking skills and how to make an hours work take all day!!! (I hasten to add that I didn't utilize that skill lol)

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