J. Herbert Stone Tree Nursery

[stikine]

Spending this week down in Medford, OR helping out at the tree nursery with a couple of other co workers from Alaska.
After much flight drama getting here, we showed up ready for what ever they wanted us to do. First thing they asked was have you driven a tractor? Uh, no. Can you use a clutch? Absolutely. You'll do fine.
They showed us the basics, gave us the keys and turned us loose to get the feel of each machine. Afterwards we helped the contract crews move seedlings from the fields to the processing area.
A few pictures:

 

[stikine]

Two year old Ponderosa pine was on the menu for today and it was a real chore for the contractors to bundle and load into the trailer bins. Each bundle is between 50-60 lbs. to load and the seedlings are all root bound so it's a tangled mess.

 

[stikine]

Seedlings are unrooted by a potato type of harvester prior to the hand crews. This photo shows the unrooted on the left vs. the normal on the right.

 

[vharrison]

Nice tractors! How did you hear about that opportunity?

 

[Treeaddict]

Those pines are literally planted like grass in a lawn. That’s wild.

 

[stikine]

Nice tractors! How did you hear about that opportunity?

They are understaffed so we are rotating crews from Alaska to help out during the winter.

 

[Altissimus]

Had no idea they planted like that

 

[Mrs.B]

You are in Willie's (SOTC) neck of the woods.

 

[Burnham]

It's been many a year since I was down to the JH Stone nursery. We had some stock grown there fairly often, although the Wind River nursery in Washington state was where most of the planting stock we used was grown. WR nursery has been closed for a long time now. Changed times.

 

[stikine]

We started the day off putting potting soil in conical seedling tubes that will be for a run of White bark pine seeds. It's a special run apparently and the seed costs $5000 per pound according to the staff here. Initially we were filling the tubes 2 at a time but quickly realized that if we put all 98 tubes in the tray we could fill them all and tap the whole tray several times to settle the soil properly... much faster and easier on the back. We got 24 trays done which made a nice pallet load before we headed out to the field.


Here's the machine that's used to loosen up the seedlings before the contractors bundle them up for transport.


When we bring a load back to the processing area we stop under a sprinkler set up to thoroughly wet the seedlings before they are sorted and boxed in the refrigeration bays.

 

[stikine]

Not totally sure, but these Ponderosa seedlings are supposedly heading to Roseburg, OR for some burned area planting.

 

[Marc-Antoine]

I'm surprised by the size of the seedlings after just two years.

 

[flushcut]

Ya farmer!

 

[stikine]

Ya farmer!

Just trying to be like @FireFighterZero 😉😉

 

[gf beranek]

Reminds me of grafting grapes and pruning vinyard rows from sun-up to sunset. Piece work and by the bushel. Worked the orchards: picking prunes, apples and peaches. By the bushel, bin and by the hour. On a good day in the late 50s early 60s I could make $20 bugs on a good day. Long before it all become mechanized.

Good honest hard work builds outstanding character in a human being.

Yes, Sir. I have the highest respect for the common worker.

 

[Cobleskill]

I used to pick also. Cherries and apples. Rode my bike a few miles after school to the orchard. Picking up drops for cider I could make $5 hour at 25 cents a bushel. Always tried to make $20 but my back would be killing me after 60 bushels. Had to go home and do chores after that. Mid 60s that was great money for a kid.

 

[stikine]

Here's a short video of today's operation, you can see the seedling lifters in action.

A bit easier for the crew because this was 1 year Ponderosa pine plug seedlings which don't get as root tangled.

This photo is the sorting and boxing line where seedlings are prepared and loaded into waxed cardboard boxes for refrigeration and eventual shipment to the planting destination.

This is one of the 5 seat plug planters (only 3 seats visible).

 

[Burnham]

Those pine seedlings are actually 2 years old...called a plug-1, meaning grown in a greenhouse (usually) for one season, then pulled from the tubes and outplanted to the field beds and grown a second season.

They look good.

 

[gf beranek]

It's a beautiful thing. Manage forests create jobs, habitat for wildlife and recreation for us all.

 

[stikine]

It's a beautiful thing. Manage forests create jobs, habitat for wildlife and recreation for us all.

Yup, lots of good benefits and I can't think of any downside... particularly since most of the seedlings will reforest the burned areas.

 

[stikine]

The refrigeration bays are enormous. When we bring a trailer load in from the field it's quickly off loaded by forklift and placed into one of the bays with a mister to keep everything moist. All bays are kept at 36 degrees.

After processing seedlings are boxed up and labeled for delivery.

 

[stikine]

The nursery will be transitioning to greenhouse seed planting in a week or two.

There are also shaded outdoor areas once the seedlings germinate.

 

[gf beranek]

Impressive facilities. Love it.

 

[Burnham]

Not inexpensive to operate a seedling nursery, for true. Lots of infrastructure, lots of equipment, and at times lots of hands.

 

[gf beranek]

Money well spent.