Container seedling planting with manual microsite preparation for species restoration

Difficulties in achieving good soil-root contact when planting container seedlings in undisturbed forest soils containing living roots resulted in the adaption of a manual microsite preparation technique using heavy tree-planting spades. Microsites that were an admixture of mineral and organic soils, were produced on boot-screefed spots by repeated vertical insertion of the spade at various angles. Short-rooted container seedlings planted in these microsites on hardwood strip cuts resulted in good survival and growth