---
title: "Tubestock Planting Rates and Establishment: A Contractor's Guide"
canonical: https://fernland.com.au/news/tubestock-planting-rates-establishment/
datePublished: 2026-09-10 03:11:42
dateModified: 2026-09-10 03:11:52
author: Jason
summary: "Planting density sets your labour, guards and replacement allowance. The first six weeks set your establishment count. A practical guide for revegetation contractors covering root checks at delivery, site preparation, planting rate per operator, weed control by scale, and the return schedule that decides whether a planting holds."
type: blog_post
keywords: [Revegetation, Tubestock, erosion control, landscaping, soil conditioner, terrasoil, watering]
---

# Tubestock Planting Rates and Establishment: A Contractor's Guide

> Planting density sets your labour, guards and replacement allowance. The first six weeks set your establishment count. A practical guide for revegetation contractors covering root checks at delivery, site preparation, planting rate per operator, weed control by scale, and the return schedule that decides whether a planting holds.

Establishment comes down to six things: root condition at delivery, site soil preparation, moisture held at the plug, weed competition, browse protection, and the interval between planting and the first return visit. Get those right and most native species are away within six weeks.

The number every other figure hangs off is planting density, so start there:

Spacing

Plants per hectare

1.5 x 1.5 m

4,400

2 x 2 m

2,500

2.5 x 2.5 m

1,600

3 x 3 m

1,100

4 x 4 m

625

Most revegetation specifications land between 2 x 2 and 3 x 3, with density set by the target vegetation community and the tender. Once you have plants per hectare, labour, guards, mats and replacement allowance all scale off it.

The rest of this guide covers each factor in the order a crew meets it on site, written for revegetation and rehabilitation contractors, civil crews running offset plantings, and council project officers across Queensland and northern New South Wales, where spring plantings face their first summer six to twelve weeks after going in.

## What happens to tubestock in the first six weeks?

A tubestock plant arrives on site with a root system that has spent its life in 50 to 120 mm of controlled media, watered daily under nursery conditions. On planting it has to push roots out through the interface between that media and the site soil, then find enough moisture and structure to keep going.

Three things stall that process:

- Roots that have already spiralled in the tube and keep circling rather than exiting

- A hard interface between potting media and compacted site soil, so roots stay inside the plug

- A moisture gradient where the plug dries faster than the surrounding soil, or the site soil is too repellent to hold what the plant is given

Most failures traced back after a season are one of those three rather than species selection. All three are decided in the first fortnight, which is why the return schedule at the foot of this guide matters as much as the planting spec.

## How do you tell if tubestock is ready to plant?

Pull a sample from each batch, slide it out of the tube and look at the root mass. You want white root tips distributed through the plug, and a plug that holds together when handled without being solid root. Spiralled roots wrapping the outside will keep circling in the field, so tease the base before planting or reject the batch.

Where you commission stock rather than buying it in, the propagation system decides what you receive. Air pruning terminates roots at the cell wall so the plant branches instead of wrapping, and cell volume needs to suit the species, since slower-developing natives held in a small cell arrive root bound no matter how well they were grown. Our [guide to air-pruning tray configurations](/news/transplant-system-trays/) covers what to specify.

One ordering note that catches crews out on large programs: stock waiting on site for a crew needs daily watering. Plants that dry out in the tube before they reach the ground are a loss you have already paid for.

## Does the site soil matter more than the planting hole?

Yes, on most rehabilitation sites. Digging a good hole in bad soil creates a bathtub. On compacted civil sites, roadside batters and rehabilitated ground, the hole fills with water and holds it, and roots stay inside the amended pocket rather than moving out into the surrounding profile.

Where the site allows it, ripping ahead of planting does more for establishment than anything added to an individual hole. Deep ripping on heavy or compacted clay speeds up planting and improves water availability at depth, which is why it appears in most state restoration guidance for larger projects. That guidance also consistently puts weed control around six months ahead of planting rather than treating it as a follow-up task, on the basis that everything on site competes for the same water and nutrients.

Where ripping is not possible, condition the backfill so the interface between hole and site soil is less abrupt, and plan for a longer watering-in program. If the site carries a soil test as part of the tender, our agronomy team can read it against what you are planting rather than working from the visual.

Planting depth is worth stating explicitly to crews because it varies between operators. Cover the potting media with 2 to 3 cm of soil, and mulch to about 10 cm kept clear of the stem.

## When is soil conditioner worth the per-plant cost?

The plug is the vulnerable part of a new planting. It holds a small volume of moisture, sits at the surface where evaporation is highest, and on a large program you may not be back on site for two or three weeks.

Conditioner is not a default line on every job. On a broadacre planting into reasonable soil with a reliable watering schedule, that budget is usually better spent on the return visits. It earns its place where a failed plant is expensive: contracts with survival or establishment targets written in, offset plantings and mine-site rehabilitation, higher-value streetscape and amenity stock, and any site where compacted, sandy or repellent soil means the plug cannot hold what you give it.

Application rates vary with plant size, soil type and the way the program is watered, so they are set on the product label rather than by a rule of thumb. For a project quantity across a hectare rate, send us the plant schedule, the spacing and the soil information and our agronomy team will work it out against the site rather than the average. [FloraTech TerraSoil](/terrasoil-premium-enriched-soil-conditioner/) is the product we supply most often into revegetation and landscape work.

Where you use it, mix it through the backfill rather than dropping it into the base of the hole, so the moisture reserve sits where the roots are heading rather than below them.

Water repellent soils are a separate problem and a cheaper fix. Water applied to repellent ground runs off or channels past the plug entirely, which is how plantings die despite an irrigation log that says they were watered. A [wetting agent](/chemicals-plant-protection/wetting-agents-surfactants/) through a boom or knapsack at watering-in costs a fraction of conditioning every hole and solves more failures.

## What planting rate should you budget per operator?

Labour is the largest line item on a planting program, and planting rate decides whether a tender is winnable. A crew working with a spade on unripped ground will not hit the same daily figure as a crew working with a dedicated planting tool on prepared lines, and the gap compounds across a season.

The [Hamilton Tree Planter](/hamilton-tree-planter-for-50mm-native-tubes/) is built for 50 mm native tubes and runs at least 400 plants per operator per day in light and heavy soils. Put that through the density table and it is two and a half operator days per 1,000 plants, or roughly three days per hectare at 3 x 3 spacing. That figure is what you are actually tendering against.

It also seats the root mass close to the surface with no air gaps, which removes the two most common failures that trace back to technique rather than product, and it positions roots below the pre-emergent zone. That second point belongs in your maintenance figure rather than your install figure. A planting that can be sprayed instead of hand weeded changes the cost of the whole program, not just the day it goes in.

## How do you control weeds around new plantings?

Young tubestock cannot outcompete established weed growth for moisture, and hand weeding a large planting is the fastest way to burn a maintenance budget. The approach follows the scale of the job.

Spot plantings, streetscapes and erosion treatments suit a mat surround, which suppresses weed growth, holds moisture at the surface and, in jute, breaks down in place so there is no retrieval visit. Row work and longer service lives suit weedmat. Broadacre plantings suit a residual pre-emergent applied over the planting, which only works if the roots have been seated below the herbicide zone at planting.

Whichever you choose, decide it before the crew mobilises. Retrofitting weed control to a planting that is already in the ground costs more than the control itself.

## Which tree guard should you spec?

Guard specification is a separate decision from establishment but lands in the same site visit. Browse pressure, wind exposure and the tender's material specification all feed into it, and council and grant funded contracts increasingly require a fully biodegradable kit.

Our [contractor's guide to compliant tree guards and stakes](/news/plasticfree-revegetation-in-australia-a-contractors-guide-to-compliant-tree-guards-and-stakes/) sets out the guard formats, stake profiles and tie materials that qualify. Where the job carries a slope or waterway component, the [coir versus jute comparison](/news/coir-vs-jute-for-erosion-control-in-australia-how-to-choose-the-right-material-for-your-project/) covers service life against project timeline.

## How often should you return to site after planting?

The most common gap between a planting program that works and one that does not is the interval between planting and the first return visit. A realistic six-week schedule for a spring planting:

- **Week 0.** Plant, install guard and mat, water in thoroughly, with a wetting agent where soils are repellent

- **Week 1 to 2.** First return visit. Water, straighten guards that have moved, replace obvious failures while replacement stock is still available

- **Week 3 to 4.** Second visit. Water if there has been no meaningful rain. Check weed emergence at the mat edge

- **Week 5 to 6.** Assess. Survival can be counted honestly at this point, and replacement stock ordered in time to plant before the heat arrives. Budget the allowance per thousand rather than as a percentage, because that is how you will reorder it

Only take on an area you can realistically maintain. Planting is the first step rather than the finish, and every site needs monitoring, weed management, pest animal control and in most cases watering. Building those visits into the quoted program rather than treating them as an extra is what separates a planting job from a planting result.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do you plant tubestock?

Clear and treat weeds ahead of planting, rip or condition compacted soil, open a hole sized to the plug, set the plant so the potting media is covered by 2 to 3 cm of soil, firm in with no air gaps, water thoroughly, then install a guard and mat. Return within two weeks.

### How long does tubestock take to establish?

Most native tubestock is through the critical establishment phase within six to twelve weeks of planting, depending on species, season and rainfall. Guard and mat products are generally specified with an 18 month field life to cover that window plus the following season.

### What is the best time of year to plant tubestock in Queensland?

Autumn and spring, with the aim of giving plants a growing period before summer heat or winter dry. A spring planting in southeast Queensland needs its watering program locked in, because establishment runs straight into the hottest part of the year.

### How much water do new tubestock plantings need?

Enough at planting to wet the plug through and the soil around it, then a return visit within two weeks and again at four weeks if there has been no meaningful rain. Penetration matters more than volume, which is why repellent soils need a wetting agent rather than more water.

### Should you fertilise at planting?

Slow release planting tablets are standard on landscape, streetscape and amenity work, where nutrition released in the hole reaches the plant rather than surrounding weed growth. On broadacre revegetation into native soils, placement matters more than rate.

## Further reading

- Queensland Government, [active revegetation guidance](https://wetlandinfo.des.qld.gov.au/wetlands/management/rehabilitation/rehab-process/step-4/intervention-options/active-revegetation-mod.html)

- NSW Biodiversity Conservation Trust, [restoring native vegetation guidelines](https://www.bct.nsw.gov.au/resources/managing-your-land/vegetation)

- Land for Wildlife South East Queensland, [technical notes on revegetation practicalities](https://www.lfwseq.org.au/notes/)

- Greening Australia, [regional revegetation guides](https://www.greeningaustralia.org.au/knowledge-hub/revegetation-guides/)

- IECA Australasia, [erosion and sediment control publications](https://www.austieca.com.au/publications/erosion-control)

## Supply for your next planting program

A Fernland trade account gives you project pricing across the full revegetation range, staged delivery to site, online order history with one-click reorder, and an automatically maintained safety data sheet and label register for everything you have bought in the last twelve months.

[Apply for a trade account](/account/register/trade/)

Already have one? Send us your plant schedule and quantities and our Landscape and Revegetation Specialist will come back with a full supply solution: tubes and trays, conditioners, guards, stakes, mats and erosion control, priced as a project and delivered in the stages your program needs. [Talk to the revegetation team](/landscape-revegetation/revegetation-rehabilitation/) or call [07 5454 8800](tel:+61754548800).