Planting Tubed seedlings
The photograph is courtesy of the family of George Dey. George took many forestry photographs in his forestry career and many are now shown on this web site. Check under ‘Groups’ and George Dey Collection.
This photograph and the other two in the PDF show a process of planting tubed seedlings into ploughing in an unknown location. Note that the horticultural tray full of tubes with seedlings is set in a specially made carrier. From memory a tray would hold about 300 seedlings. The individual tube was picked from the tray, inserted into a shaped pipe planting tool and pressed into the peat where the tubed seedling remained as the pipe tool was pulled out again.
The planting tool was actually 15mm stainless steel plumber’s piping. On the bottom a vertical section of the pipe about the length of the tube plus seedling was cut away but leaving enough of the circumference to just comfortably grip and hold the plastic tube. A small metal stop was braised inside near the top of the cut away section against which the top edge of the tube rested and would stay when the tool and the tube was pressed into the peat. The only other refinements were the bending of the tube to form a convenient handle like a walking stick, sometimes a bit of tape added for grip and comfort and a piece braised outside the tube above the cut section to act as a depth stop to prevent planting the seedling and tube too deeply.
Note that the tubes are being planted in a long continuous side step in the single furrow ploughing. This was brought about by the attachment of a special sock (Logan stepping sock named after Kenny Logan, Longman Workshop Manager who engineered and developed the attachment). The step did away with the arduous task of manually cutting out a step in the high plough furrow with a spade every time a plant went in. The aim was to plant the tree with its roots fairly close to the vegetation layer beneath the plough furrow where it would gain some nutrients.
Can anyone name the planters and the location?
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Groups: Forestry in Action, George Dey Forestry Collection, Tools, equipment and clothing