Time of Planting
Historically, planting season has been restricted to the winter months with the majority of seedlings planted in December, January, or February. With the advent of container-grown seedlings, a longer planting season was advocated with some people delaying plantings until March. While little research has been conducted on time-of-planting with container grown seedlings, the majority of anecdotal evidence suggests that earlier plantings are much likelier to succeed as compared to later plantings. Given adequate soil moisture, the Longleaf Alliance recommends planting as early as October. In moist soils, longleaf seedlings frequently initiate root growth very quickly. Early planted container longleaf seedlings appear more tolerant of winter droughts than bareroot seedling stock. Seedlings planted early in the planting season have more developed root systems come spring, and thus appear more tolerant of spring droughts and herbaceous competition. Seedlings planted in later February or March appears much less hardy, and are more susceptible to injury or mortality from herbaceous release treatments, herbaceous competition, and spring or summer droughts. Based on plantings on or around the Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center in South Alabama, we've found that one good rain (>1") soon after planting is sufficient to insure a successfully establishment of container-grown longleaf seedlings on most sites.
Many people are unaware that summer planting is a viable option. The Longleaf Alliance has planted longleaf on several sites in May, June and July of 2001 and 2002. Overall survival rates have averaged approximately 80% at one year post-planting. With this limited experience, we only recommend summer planting in areas where seasonal rainfall is high during the summer months. June and July are typically wet months along much of the lower Coastal Plain. From our experience, summer planting is a good option for filling in mortality on winter plantings, as long as adequate soil moisture is present and competition has been controlled through an herbaceous release treatment.
Source: Hainds, M.J. (2003) Establishing Longleaf Pine Seedlings on Agricultural Fields and Pastures. In Proceedings of the Fourth Longleaf Alliance Regional Conference. Nov. 17 - 20, 2002, Southern Pines North Carolina, Longleaf Alliance Report No. 6 pp. 69 - 74.