392 SEEDING AND PLANTING 



35. Conditions Under which More than One Plant May be 

 Set in a Planting Hole 



It is the common practice in the United States in all methods 

 of planting to place but one plant in a planting hole. Under 

 conditions where little loss is apprehended, one plant is preferable 

 because the excess plants must later be removed. Under certain 

 conditions in European practice, two or more plants are set to- 

 gether in a single hole. On poor soils that require enriched soil 

 or fertilizers in the planting hole, the openings are often made 

 large and two or more plants set in different places in the opening. 



Block and bunch planting are practiced only with very small 

 plants, usually conifers. In the former method l from 10 to 20 

 small plants, usually 1 year old, are removed from the seedbed 

 in a compact bit of soil in the form of an inverted pyramid from 

 6 to 9 inches square. In planting, an opening of the same form 

 as the earth carrying the seedlings is made in the soil. This 

 method is practicable only when the seedlings are grown near the 

 planting site and on soil sufficiently tenacious to hold together. 

 Bunch planting 2 is sometimes practiced in wild stands that are 

 overdense in some places and open and bare in others. Plants 

 in the overdense places are lifted with balls of earth and reset in 

 the open places. The balls usually contain more than one plant, 

 hence the method is termed bunch planting. 



36. Erect Planting and the Necessity for Firming the Soil 

 about the Roots 



Oblique planting is not practiced in the United States. In this 

 method a slanting opening is made in the soil with a special plant- 

 ing iron or long-handled dibble. The plant is inserted and the 

 opening closed by pressure of the foot. Only very small trees can 

 be planted by this method, and it should be practiced only under 

 special conditions. The plants are necessarily set very shallow 

 and the young trees have a sloping position, both of which are 

 objectionable under most conditions. The method is useful chiefly 



1 Heyer, Carl: Der Waldbau oder die Forstproduktenzucht. 5. Aufl, 

 1. Bd., S. 322. Leipzig, 1906. 



2 Mayr, Heinrich: Waldbau auf naturgesetzlicher Grundlage. S. 420. 

 Berlin, 1909. 



