Tree Planting Tools: The Digging and Planting Gear You Actually Need
There is a whole aisle of gadgets that promise to make planting a tree easier, and most of them are answering the wrong question. The thing that keeps a young tree alive is not a fancy tool. It is a wide, shallow hole with the root flare sitting at grade and plain native soil packed back around the roots. The tools that matter are the ones that help you dig that hole fast and set the tree right.
So this guide is built around the method, not the marketing. If you know the dig-wide-not-deep approach in our tree planting tips guide, the tool list gets short and cheap. This page covers the digging and hauling gear specifically; for the whole shed, see the tree care tools hub. Buy a good shovel, add one or two tools for your particular dirt, and skip the rest.
The method the tools serve
Before the shopping list, the one idea every tool on this page exists to serve. Trees fail young for two boring reasons: they get planted too deep, and they get planted in a narrow hole in compacted soil.
Utah State Extension puts it plainly in their Planting Trees, Dig Big guide: dig a hole “two to five times as wide as the root ball” because tree roots “grow more sideways than vertical.” Iowa State Extension gives the homeowner version: 2 to 3 times wider than the root ball, and 2 to 3 inches shallower than the root ball is tall. Wide gives the roots loose, oxygenated soil to run into. Shallow means the tree rests on undisturbed ground and never settles below grade.
Two more rules. Find the root flare, that swollen point where the trunk turns into roots, and keep it above the soil, never buried. And do not amend the backfill. Colorado State Extension’s research summary is blunt: mixing compost or peat into the fill soil “has not proven beneficial for tree establishment” and can trap water at the hole edge. Every tool below is just a faster way to execute those four rules.
The one tool you cannot skip: a digging shovel
If you own one thing, own a good round-point shovel. The pointed tip bites into sod and packed ground, and the forward-cupped blade lifts a real load of soil instead of dribbling it off the edges. Look for a forged one-piece head, a fiberglass or solid-ash handle, and a wide step at the top of the blade so your boot has something to push on. Expect to pay 35 to 60 dollars for one that lasts 20 years, versus 15 dollars for a stamped-steel head that bends the first time you pry.
Here is where clay and roots change the calculation. A standard round-point shovel skates off tree roots and bounces on dry adobe. A serrated digging shovel solves both. The Radius Root Slayer has a sharpened V-tip and saw-tooth edges that slice through roots up to about an inch and chew into hardpan a smooth blade can’t touch. It runs around 55 dollars, and for anyone planting in Sacramento Valley clay or replanting where old roots are still in the ground, it earns the extra money over a plain shovel. It cuts the sod ring, digs the hole, and severs roots without a separate saw.
Whichever you pick, the shovel does the bulk work: opening the hole, widening the sides, lifting the backfill. Everything else on this list is a specialist.
A flat spade for clean edges
A spade is not a shovel, even though people use the words interchangeably. A spade has a flat, squared blade meant to slice straight down, not scoop. It is the tool for cutting a clean vertical edge around your planting circle, slicing through sod in neat lines, and severing a root with one straight push cut instead of hacking.
You can plant a tree without one. But a flat spade makes the hole edges tidy and the sod removal crisp, and it slices roots cleaner than a round-point ever will. A decent forged spade runs 40 to 70 dollars. If you are edging beds and cutting sod for other projects anyway, it belongs in the shed. For the fine work of getting the soil right around the roots, our soil prep and amendments guide covers what actually goes back in the hole.
A mattock or pick for clay and rock
When the ground fights back, a shovel is the wrong tool. Around here that means summer adobe clay that dries to concrete, or a rocky lot where every hole hits stone.
A pick mattock is the answer for most hard digging. One side is a pick point for cracking hardpan and prying rock; the other is a wide adze blade that chops through clay and roots as you swing it like a hoe. You loosen the ground with the mattock, then scoop the debris with the shovel. A forged pick mattock with a fiberglass handle costs 30 to 45 dollars and turns an impossible hole into a two-beer job instead of an all-afternoon fight.
A digging bar earns its place only when you hit real rock. It is a five to six foot solid steel rod, 15 to 20 pounds, with a chisel on one end and a tamping head on the other. You drop it point-first to split rock and pry out buried stones the mattock can’t move. Most homeowners never need one. If your lot has a caliche or hardpan layer, or you keep hitting fist-sized rock, it is the tool that gets you through the bottom of the hole. Budget 40 to 55 dollars.
For NorCal clay specifically, the mattock matters for a second reason. Utah State Extension warns that a shovel blade smears clay hole walls into a slick glaze roots cannot penetrate. A mattock leaves a rough, broken surface instead of a polished one, which is exactly what young roots need to escape the hole.
The garden auger, and its honest limits
Garden augers, the spiral drill bits that chuck into a cordless drill, get sold as the effortless way to plant. They are genuinely useful for a narrow set of jobs and close to useless for the main one.
Where an auger shines: planting a lot of small stuff. Bare-root whips, bulbs, plugs, 4-inch pots, and 1-gallon shrubs. Bore a hole, drop the plant, move on. If you are putting in a windbreak of 50 bare-root seedlings, an auger on an 18-volt drill saves your knees and your afternoon.
Where it fails: planting an actual tree. An auger bores a narrow, round, straight-sided hole, which is the exact opposite of the wide, shallow, saucer-shaped hole a tree needs. In clay it is worse than useless, because the spinning bit polishes the walls into a glazed tube that traps the roots and holds water like a bucket. And most consumer augers bog down and stall the drill in heavy soil or on any root. So use an auger for volume planting of small material, and reach for the shovel and mattock for anything in a 5-gallon pot or larger. Do not let the tool talk you out of digging wide.
A tarp for the backfill
This one costs eight dollars and I would not plant without it. Before you dig, spread a cheap poly tarp next to the hole and pile every shovelful of soil onto it. When you set the tree and backfill, you drag the tarp over and pour the same native soil right back in.
Two reasons it matters. First, it keeps your soil off the lawn or the driveway, so cleanup is dragging a tarp instead of raking and hosing for 20 minutes. Second, and this is the real one, it keeps your backfill together and lets you break up clods on the tarp before they go back in the hole. Loose, broken native soil packs around the roots without big air pockets. A 6-by-8 tarp handles a 15-gallon tree; go bigger for anything larger.
A wheelbarrow to move the tree and the spoil
A balled-and-burlapped or 15-gallon container tree is heavy. A 15-gallon root ball can run 100 pounds or more, and wrestling it across the yard by the trunk is how you snap roots and hurt your back. A wheelbarrow moves the tree to the hole, hauls off the sod and any excess soil, and carries mulch back.
A single-wheel contractor barrow with a 6 cubic foot steel tray is the workhorse, around 80 to 120 dollars. A two-wheel version is more stable on uneven ground and easier to hold level with a heavy load, which matters if your yard slopes. If you already own one for general yard work, it does everything tree planting asks of it. If you are planting one tree and can recruit a second person to carry the root ball, you can skip it. For the full planting sequence these tools support, from digging to staking, walk through our how to plant a tree guide.
After the hole: watering and root establishment
The tools get the tree in the ground. What gets it established is water and time. Skip the fertilizer at planting, because as Utah State Extension notes, high nitrogen at planting can actually slow root growth. What does help is a root stimulator, a mild low-nitrogen solution with a bit of phosphorus and a rooting hormone that you drench into the backfill.
A bottle of Fertilome root stimulator runs about 12 dollars and mixes into your first few waterings. It nudges root growth without pushing the top of the tree to grow before the roots can support it. Follow it with deep, infrequent soakings through the first two summers, which is the whole ballgame for survival in a hot-summer climate. A watering bag or a slow hose does more for a new tree than any other tool you own. The bark also needs a season or two of protection while it establishes; our tree wraps and trunk guards guide covers when to wrap for sunscald and frost cracks and when to take the wrap back off.
Safety and a call before you dig
Two things before the first shovelful. First, in most of the country, dial 811 a few days ahead so the utilities come mark buried gas, water, and electric lines. It is free, it is the law in most states, and a shovel through a gas line ruins more than your afternoon. Deep tree holes are exactly where people hit utilities.
Second, save your back. A loaded shovel or a swung mattock is a lower-back injury waiting to happen if you twist or lift with your spine. Bend at the knees, keep the load close, pivot your feet instead of twisting your torso, and let the mattock’s weight do the swinging rather than muscling it. Wear closed boots with a solid sole for the shovel step, and gloves so the handle does not blister your palms.
The short shopping list
For most homeowners planting a tree or two, here is what actually earns shed space:
- A round-point or serrated digging shovel. The one non-negotiable. The Radius Root Slayer is the upgrade pick for clay and roots.
- A pick mattock if your soil is heavy clay or rocky. Around here, it is nearly as essential as the shovel.
- A flat spade for clean edges and sod, if you do other yard projects too.
- A tarp for the backfill. Eight dollars, always worth it.
- A wheelbarrow to move a heavy root ball, or a strong friend instead.
- A digging bar only if you keep hitting buried rock.
- A garden auger only if you are volume-planting small bare-root or 1-gallon material, never for an actual tree.
For a broader look at the full yard toolkit beyond planting, MK Library’s rundown of basic landscaping tips every homeowner should know is a good companion read. And if your planting job involves fruit trees you will be pruning and picking from later, the orchard tripod ladders guide covers the one ladder that is safe on soft orchard ground.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of shovel is best for planting a tree? A round-point digging shovel is the single most useful tool for planting a tree. The pointed tip bites into sod and packed ground, and the slightly cupped blade lifts a good load of soil. For roots and clay, a serrated digging shovel like the Radius Root Slayer cuts through roots and hardpan that a standard round-point just bounces off. If you only buy one tool, buy a quality round-point shovel with a forged head and a fiberglass or solid-ash handle.
Is a garden auger worth it for planting trees? For planting a lot of small stuff, like bare-root whips, plugs, or 1-gallon shrubs, a garden auger on a cordless drill saves your back and speeds things up. For planting an actual tree, it is close to useless. An auger bores a narrow round hole, which is the opposite of the wide shallow hole a tree needs, and in clay it just polishes the walls into a glazed tube roots cannot escape. Skip it for anything bigger than a 1-gallon pot.
Mattock or digging bar for clay and rocky soil? Use both, for different jobs. A pick mattock, with a pick on one side and a wide adze blade on the other, is the tool for breaking up hardpan clay and chopping roots as you widen a hole. A digging bar, a five to six foot steel rod, is for prying out buried rocks and busting through a caliche or hardpan layer at the bottom. For typical NorCal adobe clay a mattock does 90 percent of the work; add a digging bar only if you hit rock.
How wide should I dig the planting hole? Dig 2 to 3 times wider than the root ball, and on poor compacted soil up to 5 times wider. So a 16-inch root ball wants a hole 32 to 48 inches across. Depth is the opposite story: never deeper than the root ball is tall, and 2 to 3 inches shallower on well-drained ground so the tree cannot settle and sink. Wide and shallow beats deep and narrow every time.
Do I really need both a spade and a shovel? They do different jobs, and once you own both you feel the difference. A round-point shovel is for the bulk digging, lifting, and moving soil. A flat spade is for slicing a clean vertical edge around the hole, cutting sod, and severing roots with a straight push cut. You can plant a tree with just a round-point shovel, but a spade makes the edges clean and the sod cuts crisp.
What tools do I need for a bare-root tree versus a balled tree? A bare-root tree needs almost nothing: a round-point shovel to open a hole wide enough to spread the roots, and often a small mound of firmed soil in the center to drape the roots over. A balled-and-burlapped or container tree is heavier and needs more muscle: a digging shovel plus a mattock for clay, a tarp to hold the backfill, and a wheelbarrow or a second person to move a 15-gallon root ball that can top 100 pounds.