What sort of auger (or, gulp, by hand?) do you recommend?

[TheJenners]

Keep in mind, I’mma be doing this by myself for the most part and I’m…well, I’m not @endlessclimb , let’s just say that. I don’t have a tractor and I’m not handy. I can generally puzzle things out but it needs to be simple.

I have several small trees I’ll be planting as well as trying to dig some post holes, some straight down but some at angles, for XC jumps. By several small trees, I mean I just ordered 20 little’uns from fast growing trees dot com to block out the ghetto next door plus I have several to go with the XC jumps too. And the jumps themselves. Some of this is shovel work obvs. But some of this will be auger work, in clay with rocks. Will a one-person auger absolutely send me flying? Will I die? I’m currently about 150# but at the rate I’m losing weight I’ll probably be closer to 140# by the time I get around to it.

Recommendations?

[endlessclimb]

Yes it will, tried it, do not recommend. Can you rent one for your tractor?

Edit whoops I read your post wrong. I’d just go with the shovel. If you have a ton to plant I’d rent the tractor and the auger.

[luvmyhackney]

Pay someone or rent a skid steer with the auger attachment.

Tried the one person auger and it was dangerous as hell. My heavier and much stronger husband struggled with it.

[endlessclimb]

Even two person augers will damn near break your wrists. I HATE them, will not use them.

[Simkie]

Honestly, I don’t find digging post holes by hand to be THAT onerous. And I’m in Connecticut, where rocks are our state crop. I put in 150’ of four board fence alone last summer, by hand. Posts 8’ on center. It was work, sure, but not the hardest thing I’ve done by far.

All post hole diggers are not created equal. I use this one:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Kobalt-Post-Hole-Diggers-14-38-in-Post-Hole-Digger/3350136

It’s no longer for sale, but they show up on marketplace or whatever. This style is important–it has pointy shovels, and it actually closes.

This is a similar one that’s available:

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/gardening-tools/digging-tools/7215437

Or this one:

https://a.co/d/7M0BMUq

eta: these should open and close freely. I picked up one in the first link as backup, and it was STIFF out of the box. The screws holding it together were over tightened.

I also use an iron digging bar to pop out rocks or break up hard pan in the bottom of the hole. Like this:

https://www.acehardware.com/departments/lawn-and-garden/gardening-tools/digging-tools/74414

We used to have a 3 point post hole digger on the tractor. It was SUCH a workout to put on and take off, and really didn’t make things easier. Our tractor just wasn’t big enough to power it past rocks, so it was just constantly backing it out and digging rocks out by hand, anyway.

[Xanthoria]

Yep to digging bar and a good post hole digger. Even more yep to hiring a couple guys!

[poltroon]

Yeah, don’t use any power auger that isn’t attached to a tractor. Even then… if you’re not doing a LOT of holes, it’s not easier especially for a novice. Better to hire someone to come, which may not be much more than trying to rent equipment and DIY.

I dig mine by hand, with a narrow shovel and a post hole digger shovel, and sometimes a couple of buckets of water to soften the ground ahead of time.

[goodhors]

We rent the skidsteer with an auger for our posthole work. It just is a LOT faster, more powerful than any hand held or tractor powered augers we have tried. Sold a couple 3-pt tractor augers, they just could not get into the soil we have. Clay with rocks. Skid steer will dig straight down and at an angle if needed.

Refilling the holes to keep posts straight is harder work! Ask the rental guys for a quick lesson before they leave after dropping the machine off. Wear good ear protection, seatbelt. They will like you even better if you hose off any dirt and mud when you are finished. Ask if they want machine refilled with fuel before they pick it up for return.

We don’t do much with shovels, way too much work at the postholes.

[sherian]

won’t help with the trees but for the posts you can rent a post pounder with it’s own engine that you pull with your truck.

[LCDR]

If you rent augering equipment as a beginner, the trick is to go slow, pulling the auger up frequently to clear out the hole. If you let it get away from you and pull itself way down you will likely be hand digging the auger back out. You can screw it in, but the tractor doesn’t have an unscrew direction to the PTO.

[LakeEffect]

This is good advice! We had okay luck with the auger that tows behind something and then you pull it off and hang on it (not 3-point). Tough part is accuracy - it can be tough to get close to things or the spacing just right, and if you don’t, you’re pretty hosed. For my pastures fencing I paid a guy with a pounder on a skid steer. He was fast, accurate enough, and not that expensive to be honest.

[atr]

Having watched an auger attachment flip over the rented skid steer with my husband inside it, I’d rather do it the old fashioned way.

[HeartsDesireEventing]

We used one of the person-held augers to do the fence posts for the first pasture. I would definitely NOT recommend doing that alone - it took either my dad or my husband, plus me on the other side of it, to manage it and be able to pull it back out of the hole. Definitely was a two-person job, at least for us.

For the second pasture, we hired someone to come pound the posts - much easier

[endlessclimb]

Hey, are these bare root trees? Or cuttings?

If they’re not potted, you can just get a gigantic drill bit for a regular drill. Still might buck and fight if you have tons of rocks and the ground is really hard, but consider it an option.

I’ll be planting 40 austree willow cuttings to block my entire western property line here in a couple weeks, and plan to use a giant drill bit to do it. My ground is loam with very few rocks though.

[Southernboy]

The second worst beating I ever got was from a two-man augur. There is a lot of good advice here that doesn’t include one.

[endlessclimb]

You can put a small auger on a stand-on jobby, like a vermeer or a dingo. Theyre far easier to use than one on a 3 point.

Check your local rental joint.

[TheJenners]

@endlessclimb

Hey, are these bare root trees? Or cuttings?

If they are like the other… 20? trees I’ve ordered from them over the last few months for various projects and the pictures, they will be in little pots. I’ve seen those giant “drill bits” they are billing as augers, called “power planters” I think, and been tempted, but I also think with my dirt they look like a really fantastic way to break my skinny weak-sister wrists. Loam? Heck yeah baby, get some.

Right now I have eight little boxwoods, two skypencils, and eight junipers for planting around or as part of my future XC course (going into bigger pots for now because obvs I don’t need them yet but there was a sale soooooo), and then the 20 I just ordered are those 3-5’ per year arborvitae to try to block the neighboring ghetto falling down barn that I’m tired of looking at. The slumlord has teased the same real estate agent twice now in five years with putting it on the market and has never so much as taken the first step, plus he told me either last year or year before he was going to turn the place into a dog park (FMFL) and then he told my neighbor on the other side (who he owes about $5k for well repairs because that property and my neighbor on the other side share a well that goes under my property yay me) that he is fighting with the county to rezone so he can turn it into a freakin mini-storage. UGH. Which reminds me, I need to text the RE agent to see if he knows that…

Anyway, I’m tired of looking at this damn collapsing barn that is about 8’ off the property line.

[endlessclimb]

Ugh I don’t blame you one bit for wanting to block out that eyesore.

I think you’re better off hand-digging. It’s not too many in the end, and it’s good exercise.

[TheJenners]

Thanks Mom

Kidding!!

It really is, esp now that I’m not on a med that makes me feel fat and useless. I’m still clumsy AF but lord knows I need the upper body workout.

[endlessclimb]

“It’s good exercise” is what I said yesterday as I was MFing my pasture mower and beating it to death with a sledge hammer. It should not take torches, angle grinders, and pipe wrenches to change the mowing height. Set a reasonable goal of how many per day and then knock it out. Take pictures when you’re done!