Forest ploughing in the forest range of the Landes of Gascogne

Throughout the years, the technics and the machines to prepare the soil before a reforestation have not ceased to improve, The work of the soil and the responsible fertilisation have allowed an important increase of the Maritime Pine's yield.

What are the objectives of the soil's preparation?

The ploughing has for aim to aerate the soil's structure which in turn allows a good establishing of the roots system, essential for the right development of the tree.
The ploughing limits partially the concurrence of self-propagating plants.

The different types of soil's preparation:

Full ploughing: The entire surface of the plot is worked; there is no « even out » or ploughing ridges. Full ploughing is done with a mouldboard plough. It is important to do beforehand a good clean-up so as to avoid asphyxia of the young reforestations. Furthermore, it is compulsory to border the lines with plants or seedlings.

Ploughing in bands: The soil is worked in strips: only the planting or sowing line is ploughed. The ploughing in strips is either done with a mouldboard plough or with a tool string.

Different technics exist:

The mouldboard plough is the machine the most used and adapted to dry, wet and mesophilic moors.

To begin with, mono-ploughshare, then bi-ploughshares, nowadays we find some tri-ploughshares. These upgrades are linked to the tractors 'power increases.
The soil is worked on a depth contained between 30 and 40cm.
The distance between the lines is contained between 4m and 4.50m.

The advantages of the mouldboard plough are:
- Multipurpose equipment regardless of the spot;
- Technic which has proven itself;
- Good burying of the organic matters as well as the fertilisers.

Planfor's specificity on this tool is the addition of a disc placed behind the third ploughshare which allows filling back in the wedge.

• Watch the video of ploughing with a mouldboard plough (click here)

The PLANFOR's tool string is rather suited to dry or mesophilic moors.

The advantages are:
- Superficial stripping which limits significantly the concurrence of self-propagating plants;
- De-compacting of the soil in depth to encourage roots development;
- Burying of the fertiliser located on the planting line;
- In the case of plots damaged by a storm and cleaned using a stump 'muncher', the tool string allows to discard the shredded wood in between the lines and to plant on a "clean" line.

• Watch the video of ploughing using a tool string (click here)

The tool string 'Littoral Planfor' has been especially designed to prepare the soils for reforestations in the coastal sand dunes, inland dunes or sandy grounds (dry Landes)

The objective is a « hollowing » work to collect rain water and offer a lateral shelter to the young plants in order to protect them from wind

Reminder:

Regardless of the tool used:
- A clearing is essential before starting ploughing.
- The quality of the clearing determines the quality of the ploughing which itself determines the quality of the reforestation.

To conclude, there isn't only one soil's working technic suitable for the forest range of Aquitaine.
It is therefore highly important to adapt the soil's working technics to the ground which needs reforestation.
Planfor's strength is to have specialised, specific tools for each type of ground and also to be equipped with powerful tractors to work on high level of volumes.