On small trees it will keep water from the roots when it rains. You'd have water them individually through the hole.

tj

Nice place for voles!

How are you going to mow around loose cardboard.

Mulch doesn't take very long and it will do a better job than cardboard.

Have you thought about weeding them first?

Gardening isn't just "set it and forget it".

Using old carpet is another way.

Remove grass before planting in a good circle and then mulch. Just cardboard or cardboard and mulch won't stop the grass. I often use cardboard under the mulch, but leave a space around the plant with only mulch to allow water in. If time is an issue, do your planting over time, leaving young trees in pots until you have time to remove grass before planting and mulch. You will be more successful in the long run if your young trees don't have to compete with established grass.

As someone who inherited a garden where carpet had been used as mulch, please don't use it. I am still (20 years on) finding small pieces of carpet in the soil and initially it was awful to remove, with roots growing into the carpeting and lots of mold and mildew.

Ditto what Wisconsin Tom said. I'm a big cardboard user, even the appliance boxes which are 1/4" thick. The dang Bermuda grass still manages to grow thru it but it does slow the process down so that weeding is less and less frequent

If anything, maybe go bigger. That looks "right" now, but in no time, it will be taken over by weeds/grass. A bigger circle or square, and better yet, some chips or bark over the top-now you've got something.

Like I said, this can work, but don't expect some miraculous thing to happen. Weeds will grow. Ken said it's not "set it and forget it" and this is quite the case.

I planted around 600 seedlings out in the field. I wont be able to mow around them or mulch any of them because they are to far from the house and that will take a lot of time. The trees that I plant closer to the house I do mulch. Used cardboard is easy to get from stores and it won't be difficult to drag it into the field if it will help the seedlings grow.

Given your constraints I think it's a good strategy and when they get out of hand you can plop more cardboard. People will frown upon this suggestion but you could also cover seedlings and carefully spray roundup around them once or twice a season. Big con; overspray. I do it with a couple of trees that are far from my everyday paths and it has been effective weed control.

when planting in that volume.. i just dont understand the need ...

they dont worry about this when they plant to reforest areas .. and that is closer to what you are doing.. than landscaping ... its like you doing the former.. but trying to apply the latters rules ...

i would think.. in my MI.. in full july august sun.. it would trap incredible heat.. making the soil hot ... plus interfere with any rain etc ... trees dont like hot roots ...

your title confused me.. and these arent really seedlings ... they are 2 to 3 years old plants ... but i cant come up with a better name ...

did you get them from your local soil conservation district????

ken

No, that stuff is going to get soaked in the next rain...or the one after...and from then on will quickly begin to rot. I've been involved in lots of large-scale composting systems, and carboard is easily broken down by soil microbes. In any but the most arid of locales, it won't last long enough to cause problems IMO.

I was thinking of somewhat helping them out. I am planting Norway spruce in missouri so I don't know how they will do if they have to compete with our native vegetation. Most nursery call two to three year old trees seedlings. I did buy them from missouri department of conservation.

They sell them for a good price and they should have the best genticis for my area. I wouldn't mind finding some seedlings from the hottest area where they grow in europe. I'm guessing that would be bulagria.

I planted

100 lobblolly pines

100 pitlolly pines

100 short leaf pine

200 white pine

100 norway spruce.

It depends how wet your land is. I had an area about 20'x75' feet that was solid honeysuckle (probably had never been cut for 40+ years, if ever). I hacked 98% of it out and planted new trees. In addition to carboard layers up to 5-6 layers thick I also laid down entire 4x8' s of particle board, plywood, etc (figured honeysuckle wouldnt grow thru 5/8" thick pressed wood, at least for a while. I laid it anywhere and everywhere my newly planted trees weren't and yes I put the (typically 4-5 layers of cardboard) close to my trees(I tried not to put the wood right up against the trees). .So far zero problems and it has been 2 years. Zero honeysuckle regrowth. It will probably start poking through the cardboard in the not so distant future. I know/read that the soil neds to be exposed to the air and read that this can not be a good idea. But all my trees are fine and I dont even water them. What is pictured would be totally fine on my property. Heck you could make that 100 times the surface area and 100 layers thick and I still believe the effect would be more than negligible (as far a water in the soil)on my trees. I think the soil would be 99.9% (or more, this will also hold water in longer) as wet as if the cardboard wasnt there. Im probably in a fairly unique situation as Ive got mole salamanders and leeches living in my "soil". As someone mentioned earlier, after a few rains water for all practical purposes goes thru it. One layer of cardboard? Thats nothing. Of course ymmv in drier areas(just keep it watered). Above everything are grass clippings, leaves and some mulch to make everything look natural (I also used all kinds of fabric scraps, newspapers, junk mail, whatever, even coca cola 12 pack or 24 pack colored packaging with the shiny ink full of chemicals..lots of shiny ink anything, I didnt care, nice to see all the junk mail get put to use (aaarggh...the horror, everythings gonna die, there are even nastier chemicals in the pressed wood :))

I need to chill out on here lol.

I could be wrong about this but I *think* most inks used in newspaper and the accompanying flyers is soy-based. Not like that's the last word on the subject-there's still pigments-but it may be that modern inks are less harmful than those used twenty years ago or more. anybody know anything more on this?

I think they don't use lead anymore in ink.

I assume the shine comes from the clay used in the production of the paper.

I have not been concerned whatsoever with ink, staples or tape,. The worst thing that happens with tape us that it comes loose and might peek our from the mulch, in which case I grab and pull and throw in trash. If i feel energetic enough I pull tape prior to using box but not a must do.

I use cardboard but I mulch over it.This works effectively to smother the weeds and amend to soil for two years. Then I learned from Ken to use Roundup on the edges as a weed preventer. However this is for the conifers by the house. I have reforested two properties and planted 950 seedlings last year. I just pink tape them so they won't have grisly lawnmower accidents.I mow along side the rows. My theory is that the seedlings grow faster reaching for the sun when surrounded by grass.This could be completely off base but my seedlings have done quite well with almost zero intervention.I planted last year Quaking aspens, sequoia, red, sugar and norway maple, bald cypress and a stand of river birch.Then I planted 500 white pines.

123, I have planted many seedlings as well-probably right around 10,000 at this point. In our case, our rows were not dead-straight, the annual weeds-nearly all of which was ragweed, lol-was thick and tall and we couldn't find our trees for the first season. Mowing was out of the question. So what did I decide to do? Nothing. And man I got to tell you, it has worked out well. Within one year, that entire field went from annual junk weeds to perennial semi-junk stuff. And the trees? They're coming through with vigor. Many are already taller than I am, at the two year mark.

I agree totally.Let nature do its thing. It knows what its doing.

The DNR forester with whom I worked urged me to apply herbicide that first year. But again, because our rows had sweeping curves in them, and because the seedlings were totally invisible under all that ragweed, I couldn't do it. As it turned out, that was a good choice! One thing about that first year-we got lots of rain. Good right? Well, yes and no. The trees needed it for sure, but the ragweed just went crazy. This was not giant ragweed-just the annual type-but it got tall! I remember one day late that summer, driving my car down through our lane, the clouds of pollen coming out of that ragweed was thick so I could hardly see in front of me! Good thing I don't tend to get allergies. Man, that would have killed some people I know. But again, the most amazing thing was to see all of that ragweed-and I do mean all of it-gone by just one summer later. That was weird. Now, like I say, it's all goldenrod and asters and whatnot. I'll take that! What's more, at the rate these young trees are growing-barring disaster-they will very soon be up and over the "weed layer" and at that point, the race is won. In fact, many of the trees are already at that point.

That is very good to know because I want privacy and woods. I hope mine grow that fast.

Roughly speaking, where are you at, 123? One has to have a bit of luck when planting thousands of seedlings out in the field, which plants are "free-range" from the get-go. No care of any kind ever, save for maybe a few years hence removing a competing leader or two in insect-damaged specimens. But for the most part, amount and frequency of rainfall is going to be the single largest determinant of your success. Too dry is trouble. It's almost impossible for it to be too wet at this point, unless you're looking at Houston-like conditions. Man, I'll bet lots of landscape plants are or soon will be losing their root systems to rot down thataway!

I'm in Tennessee but close to Ky line so getting much more rain fall then when I lived in West Tennessee. I actually now have real soil as well instead of rock and red clay.My conifers are smiling with incredible color this year. I am going to try to figure out how to post some photos this weekend.I used a dibber all fall and into the early winter to plant these seedlings and they are doing great. Since they made it through the winter I am thinking they are good to go.

Yes, the very first year is critical. Of course, depending on what species they are, deer or other vermin could still deal you a blow. But in the main, I'll bet you're off to a great start. Deep soils are probably as critical as any other factor for good growth (not mere survival) of many species. I forgot-what species are you working with?

Sugar, red, Norway maple.Quaking aspens.Sequoia, river birch, bald cypress, tulip popular, redbuds, pin oaks and white pine.

If I may, I would urge you to reconsider Norway maple. A bad invasive thug in N. America, I'm afraid. One or two of your other ideas may be less winter-hardy than your locale requires, but no harm in trying. But Norway maple escapes from cultivation via seeds, and into the woods it goes, crowding out native tree types. That's not hypothesis....this is really happening in places like New England, Wisconsin, Michigan, etc. No reason why the same would not happen down by you.

Thank you for letting me know that. They are only seedlings so will take them out.I guess the only potential positive is if they killed the invasive Bradford pears.

Haha, I like that. A war of competing invasive species. This could in fact be our reality some day. Thanks for reading and taking to heart.

I am going to mow them down this weekend.I looked it up.Glad you said something.Who would have thought a maple as invasive.when are nurseries going to stop selling this stuff.At least give warning labels.

You aren't kidding. Hell, you can still purchase buckthorn up here in Wisconsin, which is just madness.

Just wet down the cardboard first before you put it around a lot of seedlings. My cardboard takes a long time to disintegrate, even when I wet it down first. I noticed a weird thing though. Weird to me. When I was digging up the dirt to plant my garden, underneath the dirt, there were already green weeds growing. Strange because I thought all plants had to have sun to grow. Oh well, not a problem anymore.

why are you answering 5 yr. old posts ?

Here is a current project of mine. There is nothing more aggravating than stopping the mower, lifting it up, putting inside the rails and starting it again. My brilliant idea was to make this a no-mow lot. Low, creeping type of plants planted in the holes then cover with gravel. So far so good. Still has to be monitored now and then for blow-in weeds.