6 Shovels For Planting Trees That Old Foresters Swear By

You’ve got a dozen bare-root saplings sitting in a bucket of water, and a long afternoon ahead of you. The difference between a satisfying day of planting and a back-breaking ordeal often comes down to the piece of steel in your hands. A cheap, flimsy shovel from a big-box store isn’t just frustrating to use; it can set your new trees up for failure.

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Why Your Shovel Choice Matters for Tree Health

The hole you dig is the home your tree will live in for the rest of its life. A poorly chosen shovel can create problems that haunt a tree for years. The biggest issue is creating a hole with slick, compacted sides, especially in clay soil. This essentially turns the planting hole into a clay pot, encouraging the roots to circle around instead of spreading out into the native soil.

Root circling is a silent killer. The tree might look fine for a few years, but as the roots thicken and girdle the trunk, they choke off the flow of water and nutrients. A sharp, well-designed spade slices through the soil, leaving a rougher texture that gives roots a better chance to penetrate and establish themselves properly.

Furthermore, the right tool helps you dig the right shape of hole. The common advice to dig a hole "twice as wide as the root ball" is crucial, and a wider spade makes this easier. More importantly, it allows you to properly gauge and set the planting depth, ensuring the root flare—where the trunk widens to meet the roots—sits just above the soil line. Planting too deep is one of the most common and fatal mistakes for young trees.

King of Spades All-Steel Spade for Tough Roots

When you’re dealing with rocky ground or planting near existing trees, you need a tool that won’t bend or break. The King of Spades is exactly that—a brute. It’s made entirely of aircraft-alloy steel, from the blade to the handle, which means you can jump on it, pry with it, and slam it against buried rocks without a second thought.

This spade’s primary job is cutting. Its sharpened edges and pointed tip are designed to slice through stubborn roots and compacted earth, not just scoop loose dirt. If you’re establishing a food forest in an old pasture or planting a windbreak along a fenceline where other roots have encroached, this is your tool. It turns a frustrating, jarring task into a manageable one.

The trade-off is weight and vibration. An all-steel tool is heavy, and every impact with a rock travels right up the handle into your arms. It’s not the shovel you want for digging in soft, loamy soil all day, but for the ten toughest holes on your property, it’s the one that will get the job done without failing you.

Bully Tools Drain Spade for Compacted Soil

Don’t let the name fool you; a drain spade is a secret weapon for planting in heavy clay. Its long, narrow blade is designed to penetrate dense, compacted soil with minimal effort. Instead of trying to fight a wide swath of sticky earth, you can make several precise, deep cuts to outline your hole and then lever the soil out in manageable chunks.

The beauty of this tool is the clean hole it creates with less soil disturbance. For planting smaller saplings or container-grown trees, it allows you to create a perfect-sized hole without compacting the surrounding walls. This encourages roots to grow outward instead of circling. It’s also fantastic for amending soil in a targeted way, letting you remove a column of clay and backfill with compost right where the tree needs it most.

This is not the tool for digging a wide hole for a large, balled-and-burlapped tree. Its narrow profile is its strength but also its limitation. Think of it as a surgical tool for tough soil, perfect for when precision and penetration matter more than moving large volumes of dirt.

The Jim-Gem Dibble Bar for Mass Seedling Planting

If you’re planting a single ornamental tree, a dibble bar is overkill. But if you’re planting 200 pine seedlings to reforest a back corner of your property, it’s the only tool that makes sense. A dibble bar isn’t a shovel at all; it’s a specialized wedge on a T-handle designed for one purpose: planting huge numbers of bare-root seedlings, fast.

The process is simple and efficient. You drive the wedge-shaped blade into the ground, rock it back and forth to create a narrow slit, insert the seedling’s roots, and then use the bar again to close the hole from the side. An experienced planter can put a seedling in the ground every 15 seconds. It’s a system built for speed and scale.

The key thing to understand is that this tool is only for bare-root seedlings. It doesn’t remove any soil, so it won’t work for potted plants or larger saplings. But for establishing windbreaks, Christmas tree plots, or wildlife habitat with hundreds of small trees, the dibble bar is the undisputed champion of efficiency.

A.M. Leonard Soil Knife for Precise Root Work

Sometimes the job is more delicate than brute force allows. The A.M. Leonard Soil Knife, often called a hori-hori, is the perfect tool for working with small saplings, perennials, or breaking up a root-bound potted tree before planting. It’s one part knife, one part trowel, and one part saw.

When you pull a tree from a nursery pot and find a dense mat of circling roots, this is the tool you need. The serrated edge allows you to saw through the thickest parts of the root ball, while the sharp blade is perfect for scoring the sides to encourage outward growth. It’s also invaluable for weeding around a newly planted tree without disturbing its delicate feeder roots.

While you’d never dig a full-sized hole with it, its versatility makes it an essential companion to your main shovel. You use the big spade to dig the hole, then switch to the soil knife for the final, critical steps of preparing the root ball and settling the tree. It’s a small tool that solves big problems.

Nupla Power Pylon Shovel for All-Day Comfort

Planting trees is repetitive work, and after the twentieth hole, your body starts to feel it. The Nupla Power Pylon series is built with ergonomics in mind. Its main feature is a hollow fiberglass handle, which is significantly lighter than wood or steel and does a fantastic job of absorbing shock and vibration.

This matters more than you think. Every time you hit a small rock or tough patch of soil, a little bit of that impact travels up the shovel handle. Over a full day, that adds up to significant fatigue in your hands, wrists, and shoulders. A fiberglass handle dampens those vibrations, allowing you to work longer and with less strain.

You do sacrifice some of the brute-force prying strength of an all-steel spade. Fiberglass is incredibly strong, but it has more flex than solid steel. For 95% of planting tasks in average soil, however, the comfort and reduced fatigue make this a worthwhile trade-off. It’s the shovel you’ll be glad you own on day two of a big planting weekend.

Seymour Structron Sharpshooter for Deep Holes

The sharpshooter, sometimes called a transplanting spade, is another specialist that excels at a specific task: digging deep, narrow holes. Its long, rounded blade is ideal for planting trees with a prominent taproot, like oaks or hickories, without excavating a massive crater. It lets you get the depth you need while minimizing disturbance to the surrounding area.

This tool is also incredibly useful for digging in tight spaces. If you need to plant a shrub between a sidewalk and a foundation, or tuck a new tree into an existing garden bed, the sharpshooter’s narrow profile lets you work without damaging nearby plants or infrastructure. It’s the perfect tool for trenching, too, whether for irrigation lines or for amending a narrow planting bed.

Like the drain spade, its narrowness is its weakness for jobs requiring you to move a lot of soil. But for getting deep quickly and cleanly, it’s hard to beat. It’s a perfect complement to a standard, wider digging spade, and once you have one, you’ll find yourself reaching for it more often than you’d expect.

Proper Shovel Care for a Lifetime of Planting

A good shovel is an investment that should last for decades, but only if you treat it right. The most important maintenance task is keeping the blade clean and sharp. After each use, scrape off any caked-on mud and give it a quick rinse. Storing a shovel with wet dirt on it is the fastest way to invite rust.

At least once a season, take a file or a grinder to the shovel’s edge. A sharp shovel cuts through soil and roots with dramatically less effort than a dull one. It also creates a cleaner hole, which is better for the tree’s roots. Think of it like a kitchen knife—a sharp one is safer and more effective.

For shovels with wooden handles, a light sanding and a coat of boiled linseed oil once a year will prevent the wood from drying out, cracking, and splintering. For fiberglass and steel, just check for any damage and keep them clean. A few minutes of care saves you the cost of a new tool and makes every future planting day a little bit easier.

In the end, the best shovel is the one that fits the job, the soil, and your own body. Don’t think of it as just a tool for digging, but as the first and most critical instrument for ensuring the long-term health of your trees. A good shovel makes the work a pleasure and gives every tree you plant the best possible start in its new home.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is a dibble bar used for when planting trees?

A dibble bar is a heavy, wedge-shaped metal bar used to quickly pry open narrow planting slots in soil for bare-root pine and hardwood seedlings. Foresters drive the steel blade vertically into ground cover, pull the handle to create a pocket, insert the taproot, and pack the dirt closed with a second wedge insertion. This specialized planting tool excels in clear-cut timber stands and soft, sandy loam soils.

What is a forestry hoedad?

A forestry hoedad is an adze-like hand tool featuring a narrow, heavy blade mounted perpendicular to a long wooden handle, designed for digging planting slits on steep slopes. Tree planters swing the hoedad downward into the soil like a pick, pull back slightly to form an opening, and slide the seedling root system behind the blade. Blades typically measure 15 to 17 inches long and handle rocky terrain exceptionally well.

How do you plant a tree seedling using a forestry spade?

To plant a seedling with a forestry spade, push the blade straight into the soil to its full depth, rock the handle back and forth, and insert the root plug. Keep roots straight without curling or J-rooting, then push the blade into the ground three inches behind the first cut to lever soil firmly against the seedling. Finish by stepping gently around the stem to eliminate remaining air pockets.

How deep should you dig with a shovel when planting bare root trees?

Dig a planting slot or hole equal to the exact length of the seedling root system, usually between 8 and 12 inches deep for typical forestry nursery stock. The root collar, which marks the transition between stem bark and root tissue, must sit exactly flush with or slightly above the ground surface. Digging too shallow bends taproots upward, while digging too deep causes collar rot and plant death.

Hoedad vs planting bar: which tool is better for rocky soil?

Hoedads work significantly better than planting bars in rocky soil because the swinging chopping motion cuts through rocky duff and allows planters to lever out stones with ergonomic leverage. Planting bars require straight downward foot pressure, which repeatedly deflects off hidden rocks and strains the operator’s knees and lower back. Professional hand-planters almost universally choose a concave or bracket-style hoedad blade when working mountainous, gravelly timber harvest areas.

How much does a professional tree planting shovel cost?

Professional forestry shovels and planting bars generally cost between $60 and $180, depending on blade alloy, handle material, and brand durability. Commercial-grade brands like Bushpro, Jim-Gem, and Council Tool feature heat-treated carbon steel blades and reinforced steel or solid hickory handles that resist bending under heavy prying. Budget garden spades cost under $30, but standard consumer tools often snap when subjected to repetitive forestry planting.

What is the most common shovel mistake that causes planted tree seedlings to die?

Leaving air pockets around the lower roots is the most frequent shovel error responsible for tree seedling mortality after planting. If planters fail to pack soil firmly around the root system from the bottom up, roots dry out rapidly and fungal decay sets in. Prevent this problem by tamping the soil shut with your planting shovel blade or boot heel along the entire planting slit.

Is a specialized tree planting shovel worth buying for a homeowner with only a few trees?

Buying a specialized forestry shovel is rarely worth the investment for a homeowner planting fewer than ten containerized or balled-and-burlapped landscape trees. Standard round-point garden shovels or drain spades handle small domestic plantings adequately because homeowners typically dig wide, circular holes rather than slit-plant bare-root saplings. Specialty forestry shovels only become cost-effective when planting dozens of bare-root conservation seedlings or reforestation windbreaks.