I've planted with a dibble in the US, and I spent time in Canada with a tree planting crew doing research (I'm an anthropologist who has studied reforestation) and the Canadian bar was much shorter. It meant workers had to bend down to get the tool in the ground as opposed to the US where you would make the hole then bend down with the tree.
Why was it different in Canada? Is there an advantage to a shorter bar?
What's the advantage to a shorter bar?
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Scooter
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Re: What's the advantage to a shorter bar?
Do you mean that the Canadian shovel is much shorter? I'm not sure what a "bar" refers to.
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Personal Email: jonathan.scooter.clark@gmail.com
Sponsor Tree Planting: www.replant-environmental.ca
(to build community forests, not to be turned into 2x4's and toilet paper)
Re: What's the advantage to a shorter bar?
Yeah. In America, most planting is done by dibble bars which look relatively similar. Hence the word choice.
Re: What's the advantage to a shorter bar?
Shorter is lighter...
I use my Canadian shovel for plugs in light soils. It's great. The materials used to construct it are also light, aside from how short it is, as you don't have to use a short one. Taking some length out of the handle is a good idea to match the length to a planter's height, but doesn't gain all that much weight savings.
For bare-roots and any heavy soil, I use a bar. It has a far better step, so my leg does the work, not my arm. The weight of it helps move the soil and rock as well - it doesn't bend, at all. The 'blade' is significantly longer, which is key because bare-roots are significantly longer than plugs. Ultimately, how far you have to bend over depends on the height of the seedling. I will say that I like planting tall stock. I also use a bar one-handed, basically by cutting off one half of the "T-bar" handle design. This makes one use it in-line with your boots, so the blade becomes a working surface to slide bare-roots into the hole, cleanly, rather than placing the plug or roots behind the blade, so it is easier to see what you are doing.
This season I talked about arm problems with a Guatemalan crew leader I have known for a long time in the business. He was unfamiliar with the concept of tendonitis, and elbow and wrist problems amongst all the planters we both know. His crew currently averages about 8-10 years experience; just one new planter and one second year planter this year and the lead planter is at 19 years. What does happen with the bar is problems in the shoulder, and I have known a couple guys who were legendary pounders who had to quit over problems in their upper arm, but that was probably somewhere at the 2-3 million tree level, who knows. They also spent their planting career on 6/1 shift schedules and worked in manual labor year-round.
A friend of mine with 20 years experience is slowly taking to the bar I gave him. He learned to plant with a hoe-dad ('mattock' in Canada), as I did. I knew my first year that could easily lead to wrist problems, and I would never give one to a planter these days, but I know some people who still use them. My friend is quite worried that esophagus problems might end his planting career, as I am a little, so he is beginning to appreciate the bar as he doesn't have to bend over quite so far with it.
The word 'dibble' can refer to various planting tools however.
I use my Canadian shovel for plugs in light soils. It's great. The materials used to construct it are also light, aside from how short it is, as you don't have to use a short one. Taking some length out of the handle is a good idea to match the length to a planter's height, but doesn't gain all that much weight savings.
For bare-roots and any heavy soil, I use a bar. It has a far better step, so my leg does the work, not my arm. The weight of it helps move the soil and rock as well - it doesn't bend, at all. The 'blade' is significantly longer, which is key because bare-roots are significantly longer than plugs. Ultimately, how far you have to bend over depends on the height of the seedling. I will say that I like planting tall stock. I also use a bar one-handed, basically by cutting off one half of the "T-bar" handle design. This makes one use it in-line with your boots, so the blade becomes a working surface to slide bare-roots into the hole, cleanly, rather than placing the plug or roots behind the blade, so it is easier to see what you are doing.
This season I talked about arm problems with a Guatemalan crew leader I have known for a long time in the business. He was unfamiliar with the concept of tendonitis, and elbow and wrist problems amongst all the planters we both know. His crew currently averages about 8-10 years experience; just one new planter and one second year planter this year and the lead planter is at 19 years. What does happen with the bar is problems in the shoulder, and I have known a couple guys who were legendary pounders who had to quit over problems in their upper arm, but that was probably somewhere at the 2-3 million tree level, who knows. They also spent their planting career on 6/1 shift schedules and worked in manual labor year-round.
A friend of mine with 20 years experience is slowly taking to the bar I gave him. He learned to plant with a hoe-dad ('mattock' in Canada), as I did. I knew my first year that could easily lead to wrist problems, and I would never give one to a planter these days, but I know some people who still use them. My friend is quite worried that esophagus problems might end his planting career, as I am a little, so he is beginning to appreciate the bar as he doesn't have to bend over quite so far with it.
The word 'dibble' can refer to various planting tools however.