The Ultimate Checklist for Planting Trees that Thrive for Centuries (From seed to Legacy) - Part 1
You can hinder the tree’s development by half and cut its lifespan by a hundred years if you plant a tree incorrectly.
Planting trees and relying on them for the stability of our planet and culture is the most rational and pragmatic thing to do. No other action yields greater results for the effort involved. They produce soil, create a niche for many animal and insect species to live, and also form a virtuous cycle with fungi. They self-manage and create valuable products for decades.
We spend only 20 minutes planting a tree that will live and produce for 200 years.
In this edition, in 8,8 minutes or less:
#1 The secret to tree planting that nobody talks about.
#2 How to plant a tree in the hardest place on earth (and anywhere else) with 99% success rate.
#3 Checklist to start
The secret to tree planting that nobody talks about.
The most challenging environment to plant a tree is in an arid region or desert. Since desertification is common today due to plowing, deforestation, and pollution, knowing how to plant a tree in such conditions is vital—even if you don’t live in an arid place, you may encounter such areas anywhere in the world.
The “perfect” tree planting is depicted in figure 6.6 from Bill Mollison’s book Introduction to Permaculture, located on page 131. Before you decide to plant a tree, you should understand the water situation on the site and try to set up a rainwater catchment based on rainfall and the site’s topography (use the contour to your advantage), as we discussed in a previous letter. Next, be aware that planting a tree is a medium- to long-term project for long-term players, and that It is not an isolated action, but part of a larger flywheel, which can have global impact. Planting trees today is not like planting wheat, which you sow now and harvest in six months; when you plant a tree, you will only begin to reap its yields after several years, but you can continue harvesting from it for decades — even centuries. Even that is a shallow understanding, because trees are the most important species on the planet for creating and maintaining our biosphere, which is also part of their yield, which you start to see when you assume a holistic view about yield (it is not only the products you can sell, but also the systemic effect, like fixing carbon, or seeding clouds to make it rain).
Before all that, though, the tree must sprout from a seed or grow from cuttings. These processes must be done very carefully for success in a tree nursery where you can create the necessary conditions by design (don't leave this crucial step to chance). Each species has its own requirement to sprout, its particular way to behave, and its niche ( for example, there are long-lived-slow-growing trees, short-lived-fast-growing trees, high-quality-product-species, support species, nitrogen-fixing species, pioneer species, and end-stage species.
For this reason, you should never plant a tree alone (without companions) or outside of a plan; otherwise, you risk losing up to 50% of its growth and productivity—or even losing the tree altogether.
How to plant a tree in the hardest place on earth (and anywhere else) with 99% success rate.
It may seem like a lot of work to set up everything shown in figure 6.6, but in reality you are spending just 20 minutes to plant a tree that could live 200 years and feed your grandchildren.
The key factors affecting success are:
- Select species appropriate to your climate (hardiness zones) and local conditions (aggravating or soothing local climate).
- Plant well-developed trees.
- Time the transplant for when precipitation exceeds evaporation (rainy season).
- Preserve the root system.
- Plant the tree together with supportive species in a group (creating a tree nucleus or guild), but not so close that they will compete as they grow. Don’t space your trees out too far or plant them in isolation—you lose the group effect. If you can’t plant an entire area at once, just thoroughly plant a smaller section and expand later.
- Paul Stamets, the fungi researcher, has shown that the growth and health of a tree are greatly enhanced when certain fungi are inoculated with the tree. This research has led to reforestation methods using fungi. Animals can sometimes damage trees, but they can also improve tree development and life, such as allowing chickens to browse in an orchard (a theme for a future newsletter).
- Plant trees in advantageous sites (like on swales) where you can hold water nearby. Install drip irrigation if necessary.
- Suppress all grass from around the tree with mulch, as wide as the canopy. The root system usually matches the canopy size. Start with at least a 1-meter width if the tree is small. Mulch is a secret weapon.
- Protect the tree from sun, wind, and animal damage.
One of the most important things in all this is ensuring the tree has enough water. The second is to protect the roots from intense heat, animal damage, or erosion. With these in place, short-lived nitrogen-fixing trees (which have fungi in their roots!) will enrich the soil and support slow-growing, high-value trees until these are mature enough to thrive on their own.
The pioneer trees will die off while the long-lived, desired, high-value trees will endure.
Checklist to start
I hope that at this point some key ideas are clear:
- Planting trees are the most rational and pragmatic thing to do.
- It is long-term game.
- It is a flywheel. I involves a system with many elements working with one another.
- You must provide enough water.
- You must protect trees from sun, wind, and animal damage.
- You have to plant your desired species together with a hardy legume species, which will support the valuable tree until it is strong enough to thrive. This ends up being a polyculture strategy (Check out this previous newsletter about 8 reasons to plant your garden bed with polyculture).
- Forests are not grassland. Mulch heavily around the trees to suppress grass in the root zone.
Sourcing the trees:
- You can buy your young trees from a commercial nursery or grow them in your own nursery.
- Buying from a commercial nursery allows you to plant right away, but it may be expensive and you may have bigger death rates, even with quality trees, because some may not adapt to the new site.
- Growing them yourself takes time, and effort. There is a learning curve before you really dominate the skill. Nevertheless, if your nursery is on site, your young trees will be more adapted for your specific site.
- Local commercial nurseries are an awesome source of local knowledge, like which species do well, and the region's particularities.
- If you have a big design, you may need to source trees from many places.
Niched considerations:
- I believe that raising young trees should be a collective effort, because it takes time for them to reach the point of planting, and the supply and demand may not match, since it is somewhat specific, specially if someone wants to plant useful trees that are not mainstream. Seed saving, trees propagation and planting is part of a bigger picture of designing and implementing eatable sensible perennial landscapes (food forests).
- You have to be a long term player who thinks in systems, recognize leverage points, and value holistic management.
- I hypothesize that tree cultivation would benefit greatly from decentralization, like blockchain systems. Forests are a more valuable asset if ownership is shared, because more people have a personal stake in them as productive systems, not just as consumable products. This strengthens the system, multiplying its impact and yield.
- If you want to know if you can afford to plant a tree, estimate how much water it will need when young and mature, and the width and height it will reach. Don’t plant a tree where it might endanger buildings or people in the future, or where its adult water needs are too high for the site. Choose the right species for the right place, design a water catchment system, and think ahead.
Practical first steps:
- Find a local tree nursery with an owner who loves trees.
- Make a list of your favorite trees. Research which ones thrive at your location.
- Expand your horizon by searching for useful trees (the next newsletter will cover useful tree species for different climates).
- Go talk to the people at the nursery and see what is possible.
- Identify an advantageous site to plant.
- Optional: Install a rainwater catchment system to water your tree passively. This could be a water tank collecting runoff from the roof, or a swale.
- Check with your new tree friend at the nursery if the tree you are interested in planting will not become a problem in the future due to space or water consumption.
- Tip: There are dwarf varieties that fit perfectly in a backyard.
- Select a support legume specie to team up with your desired tree. You can also plant herbs or other annuals under the tree (a list of interesting species will be included in the next newsletter as well).
- Plant the trees according to Bill Mollison scheme at figure 6.6. Note that it may not make sense to apply all strategies, because you may live in a place that is not so challenging a a desert - use discretion.
- After planting, observe and make changes if necessary. The people from the nursery may help you. Consider keeping notes.
Is there any downside to planting a tree with these methods?
Since planting trees may be the most important thing for the future, we should equip ourselves with the best technique.
In nature, trees propagation happens orchestrated by nature itself at its own time, but when we garden, we must design the tree's implementation and care to match our schedule and objectives. Soil conditioning, mulching, protection, irrigation, a guild of cooperative species (other trees, shrubs, fungi), and creating a micro climate are all strategies for optimum tree implementation. Be sure to assess your water situation and create water catchment systems ahead of time.
The best time to plant trees is today.
