Petrol Earth Auger

[trapperman 474]

I'm planting lots of trees soon and was thinking of getting one to make it quicker, my ground is slightly stoney, sthil ones are expensive but I'm sure very good

Has anyone tried the ones you can get around the £150-£200 mark on eBay/Amazon etc the reviews look ok for them

Will they cope with a few stones?

[max_wood 161]

If you get one mate try use it with 2 people.if you use it alone and it stops on stones it will spin you round and break your arm!!

[Qbgrey 4,170]

they are a pain,i hired one it wounld nt dig in,if you get any roots they jam up.id hire 1.5 ton digger with auger,much quicker and a one man job

[nans pat 2,575]

get a couple a spades on the go,................plenty of them round brixton.lol

[gnipper 6,564]

What size trees are you planting?

[trapperman 474]

I'm planning on starting a choose and cut Christmas tree farm from the smallholding seedlings 20-30 cm and undercut so an 6"-8" hole and same deep should do, I will be doing 500 a year so could dig but I do suffer with my back when digging!

[gnipper 6,564]

I'd imagine planting 30cm trees and heeling them in would be a worse for your back than scooping out a ferreting spades worth of soil would? We plant thousands of trees (not pines) every year and the little trees are the hardest on the back. Budding cripples me too.

[trapperman 474]

Yeah I'm just throwing ideas around to try and make it a bit easyier if I can just zip from hole to hole with the auger (if it's up to stoney compact ground) I thought it could be a good idea

To plant when all holes are dug I use knee pads and kneel swapping knees each tree

There's something about the angle of my back when digging that just hits it bad, it's slightly better with long handled spades

What does your work with trees involve? Forestry?

[TOM TERRIER 173]

Get some bear root ones(60cm ish?) and just put a slice in with a spade and heel them in, You can do 1000 in a day easily

Going rate around here for someone to plant them for you is around 9p a tree

[leegreen 2,221]

I've got one from Machinemart. Use it mainly from posts and piles, saves of concrete big time.

If you're using 6"-8" holes you won't be able to use them on your own, unless these have a brake? like the Stihl ones.

[gnipper 6,564]

Yeah I'm just throwing ideas around to try and make it a bit easyier if I can just zip from hole to hole with the auger (if it's up to stoney compact ground) I thought it could be a good idea

To plant when all holes are dug I use knee pads and kneel swapping knees each tree

There's something about the angle of my back when digging that just hits it bad, it's slightly better with long handled spades

What does your work with trees involve? Forestry?

We grow and supply trees, I run the root balling side of it during the season.

[socks 32,253]

Get a mini digger and dig a long trench to the required depth and space the trees out correctly then fill the trench in ... easy .....