How to Plant and Care for your Treelings

Download the simple pdf version here to print out for your guests or recipients.

Below, in more detail, we're using White Pine as an example of how to care for your tree seedlings; how and where to plant them, especially for reforestation. However, follow this general guideline for all your baby trees.

How to Plant
Spring and fall are the best times to plant tree seedlings because the soil moisture is usually good and cooler conditions help prevent drying of young seedlings. However, evergreens can be planted anytime as long as they are kept cool and moist both before and after they're planted (see 'shade').

Handling and Storage

When you receive your tree seedlings check to make sure the roots and/or root plug are moist. If they are somewhat dry, water (don't drown), and try to plant them as soon as possible. If you need to store them before planting, place in a cool, well shaded spot that allows for some air circulation. Keep away from heat sources and hot sunny windows.

Planting

During the planting process, make sure the tree roots are kept moist, and are not exposed to periods of sunlight and drying. Even a few minutes of having a seedling's roots exposed to a light breeze on a sunny day can kill the roots (and the seedling). Seedlings can be easily planted using a spade, shovel, or planting bar. Make sure the hole is deep and wide enough to cover the plug, and allowing the roots to spread out from the plug and fully extend downward. Avoid shallow or small holes. As you are planting, make sure the trees are planted at the proper depth to cover the root plug well. Planting a bit of the stem/trunk won't hurt the seedlings. Once a tree is properly positioned in the hole, pack the soil in gently but snugly around it. Water the tree to settle and moisten the soil.

Where to Plant

Evergreens occur and grow well on a wide range of soil types and textures. White pine is more tolerant of wetter conditions than red or jack pine, but less tolerant of dry conditions. Blace Spruce is salt-tolerant and will grow well near salt water. Best growth occurs on sites with medium to fine soil texture, medium to high soil fertility, a soil layer that is moist most of the time, and deeper than 7 inches. Avoid the extremes of heavy, continually wet soils (clay), and gravelly, drought-prone soils when selecting planting areas.

Topography

Plant seedlings on slopes, hilltops, or shoulders of hills for less stress from frost but level ground will do nicely. To discourage blistering and pests, avoid planting in potholes, bases of slopes, v-shaped valleys, or small openings in dense forest that favor the collection of cool, moist air.

Shade

Unlike red or jack pine, white pine and hemlock can tolerate growing under a canopy of other trees but they do like the open areas as well. White pines survive best and have better form when grown under taller trees because they are less susceptible to attack from white pine weevil and blister rust infection However, if seedlings are planted under a thick stand that allows very little light to reach the ground, they may grow very slowly, or die. As a general rule, plant in areas that are 40-60% shaded from high shade (shade from low shrubs is not beneficial). Aspen, birch, and oak provide good canopies for young trees, especially if the canopy trees are old and starting to die.

No Shade

Most evergreens will grow fastest in the open in filtered sunlight. However, in open areas, they are more susceptible to insect and disease problems and may require extra care.

In general, tree seedlings are happy with what Mother Nature provides for them, but in dry periods or if planting in July/August, keep an eye on them and water well if there is no rain.

Treelings Green Gifts & Nursery has been shipping tree seedlings across Canada since 2004 for weddings, corporate events and other 'earth-approved' occasions. We also sell seedlings and small trees for landscaping and forest remediation and like to work with the land owners to insure healthy reforestation. Our NGO tree planting projects are for very special trees and very special people.

Planting trees for any occasion just makes us feel better about our place in the scheme of things. We know we did do something, in our own small way to help heal the planet. When we plant a tree, we leave a legacy for future generations. Plant a tree and you plant a memory that lives on into perpetuity. Trees can live hundreds, even a thousand years into the future. Trees can bear fruit or nuts, provide shade from the heat of summer and shelter from the winter's blast. Trees offer fuel and lumber and many by-products used in the building trade.

Beautifully wrapped Evergreen Tree Seedlings carry the right message
for your family, friends and customers.

"I am thankful "for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky
and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes"
- e. e. cummings