Planting Hedgerows

[Farmer-George]

Anyone with experience of planting hedges? Looking at ELMS and thinking about planting a few kilometres of hedges along roadside boundaries.
Realistically how many meters can 2 people plant in a day?

 

[nick...]

I’ve done a lot in the past.allways remove the turf and rubbish with a digger and loosen the ground to about a foot.allways mix the whips up on a trailer and put the spirals on first then just grab at random and poke in a hole made by wiggling a spade side to side and then compressing soil with my foot.far easier than making individual holes in virgin ground.I had a gang of 4 and done a good bit in a day but was nearly 20 years ago so can’t remember
nick...

 

[Orchard Farm beef]

Hello Farmer George, we have recently been repairing an old hedge which had a few big gaps. We have also planted new hedges in the past. Planting bare root hawthorn quicks in two staggered rows with 5 to the metre, two people, one digging the slot the other stuffing the plant in, a metre a minute is easy. Add a bit for putting in the guards and 50 metres an hour is doable. My wife and I put 250 quicks in, in a morning and we are not in the first flush of youth so a couple of young uns could do way better.
If you are on arable ground then your done. If livestock are about you’re going to have to back fence. Two people, 5 metres between posts, two rows of wire, telehandler to push posts in. 1000m a day?
Any help? John

 

[Frank-the-Wool]

Two and a half people a day we can do just over a thousand with canes and spirals around 100 an hour each planter in mid winter. 50% Hawthorn and then 5 other varieties in equal quantities. I like to put the other varieties in small groups so lay out the plants ahead of the two planters with the canes already spaced. 5 plants to the metre in a double line V spaced. Planters position the canes when they place the plant. Stony ground can slow you down.

The half person (me) comes back and puts on the spirals. Only use small plants of 40 - 50 cm which seem to survive the best.

 

[HarryB97]

If it's nice stone free soil then 75-100 an hour per person is a good number to work on. If you can run a subsoiler where you want to plant the hedge, it makes the planting even quicker as you can plant in the leg slits and gets the plants going better.

 

[Farmer-George]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds an ok job.

On Elms it looks like spirals are not allowed as they say it limits the amount of dense growth at the base of each plant.
We don’t have much of a rabbit problem so it’s probably a good way of saving on plastic.

 

[Exfarmer]

Thanks for the replies. Sounds an ok job.

On Elms it looks like spirals are not allowed as they say it limits the amount of dense growth at the base of each plant.
We don’t have much of a rabbit problem so it’s probably a good way of saving on plastic.

I hate guards, but vermin, be they rabbits deer or other will massacre young hedge plants and so will competition from weeds

 

[upnortheast]

The lads said the first 50 metres were the worst till they got the technique worked out. Grandkids were following with canes and tubes. One day the kids had to go early so 50 m were not tubed. Next morning about a third had been nibbled by hares.

 

[Bushcraft Paddler]

Good friend just lost around 500 saplings to Roe he didn’t know he had. Seems they moved in for the occasion