Better Survival with Oversize Hole Digging

Another practice which I think accounts in large measure for the excellent survival in the plantations of Spain is one of digging holes several times larger and deeper than required to accommodate the little tree itself. Specifically, their technique is this - At some convenient time after the close of a field planting season a crew of laborers with mattocks digs holes for the trees to be planted the following spring. These holes are 12 to 16 inches cube in size, and are checked for adequacy by a foreman carrying a wire cube of the required dimensions. Another crew then follows as convenient and fills the holes, discarding the larger stones if enough soil can be found to nearly fill the hole, without them. During either this filling or the planting operation itself a basin, hereinafter called by its Spanish name of "casilla, " 39 inches or more in diameter and about 6 inches deep is dug around but 6 to 8 inches off center of the hole. On sloping sites the workmen dig into the hill and build up the downhill edge to form the casilla that will trap and hold water until it can be absorbed into j the subsoil (fig. 1).

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Author(s): Roland Rotty

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Issue 33 (1958)