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Spacing • Acres • Yield
Wondering how many trees per acre you can plant at a given spacing? This tree spacing calculator estimates trees per acre (and total trees for your acreage) based on the distance between trees in feet.
Tip: Start with access and sunlight at maturity. You can plant tighter and thin later—but it’s hard to add trees back.
Quick answer: “How many trees per acre at X ft × Y ft spacing?” — this tool converts your spacing into trees per acre and total trees for your acreage in one click.
Next step: scroll to the calculator, enter your spacing, then use the guide below to sanity-check access lanes, canopy width, and thinning plans.
| Planting goal | Typical starting spacing | Why it’s used |
|---|---|---|
| Timber / straight stems | ~6–12 ft initial, then thin | Early competition encourages height and form; thinning later favors the best trees. |
| Orchards / crown space | ~10–25+ ft (species + rootstock dependent) | More light and airflow improve fruiting; equipment access matters. |
| Agroforestry alleys | Tree rows + wider alleys | Preserves cropping/grazing lanes while adding trees for shade, wind, and long-term value. |
| Windbreak / privacy | Multi-row, staggered where possible | Staggered rows reduce wind tunnel gaps and improve coverage. |
Tip: The “best” spacing is the one that still works at maturity. Use your target canopy width, access needs, and your thinning plan as the guardrails.
Jump to: calculator • spacing guide • FAQs
This calculator quickly tells you how many trees you can plant per acre based on the distance between rows and the distance between trees in each row.
Tip: Use wider row spacing when you need access for tractors, harvesters, or pruning equipment, and tighter in-row spacing when you want a denser stand, orchard, or windbreak.
“Right” spacing depends on your goal: timber, windbreak, orchard, agroforestry alleys, or a fast-rotation biomass crop. Spacing is really a tradeoff between tree count, access, and future canopy closure.
If you’re planning value, pair spacing with tree value and carbon estimates to see how density changes long-term outcomes.
Every tree planted is a metric waiting to be measured. Use these tree planting calculators to plan spacing, value, and carbon for your forest or woodlot.
In most timber plantations, hardwood trees are spaced farther apart than softwood trees—often by a factor of 1.5–2×—to give their broad crowns and deep roots room to develop. For example:
Wider spacing allows hardwoods to reach diameter at breast height (DBH) and clear log lengths suitable for veneer and sawlogs, while closer spacing in softwoods produces straighter poles and more tonnage per acre on shorter rotations.
These distances are typical final spacing for hardwood plantations grown for timber. Some growers start closer and thin, but most hardwoods are not heavily thinned like softwoods.
Softwoods are often planted closer together, especially where trees will be thinned for pulp, poles, or biomass before final timber harvest.
In traditional row plantations, softwoods are often double-spaced: planted at 6–8 feet apart initially with the expectation of thinning every second tree for pulp or pole wood. Hardwoods grown for timber are usually planted wider—between 15 and 25 feet apart—and may not be thinned as aggressively.
Row plantations leave ample space for mechanical harvesters, skidders, and log trucks. Row spacing typically ranges from 20 to 30 feet, depending on tree species and equipment size. Softwood plantations require less spacing than hardwoods, which need room for wide-branched crowns (oaks, maples, etc.) to fall safely during harvest.
For long-term forest health and diversified income, it is often recommended to alternate tree species by rows—for example, a row of maples next to a row of oaks, or conifer rows alternating with deciduous rows. This diversifies ROI, spreads risk, and improves overall stand resilience. While the number of trees per acre in a row plantation can be higher than in a spiral plantation, growth rates are often slower than in optimized spiral patterns.
Although fewer trees are planted per acre in a spiral plantation, the geometric layout of a Crop Circle tree plantation can increase growth rates by as much as 20%. Faster growth means that harvest and return on investment occur sooner than in a conventional row plantation, more than making up for the lower trees-per-acre count.
Spacing between trees in a spiral layout is similar to a rowed plantation, but spacing between “rows” (spiral arms) is typically set at 25 feet for both softwoods and hardwoods. Mixing species along the spiral—such as planting a white pine, then a sugar maple, then a red oak and repeating—achieves both investment diversification and improved plantation health.
Timber is usually hand harvested and trucked out of the plantation, preserving veneer sawlog quality and supporting secondary revenue activities such as branch-trimming for pellet production and periodic pole-log harvesting.
Partner with us in a land management and tree asset project that repurposes agricultural lands into appreciating forest and carbon assets. We have partnered with Growing to Give , a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, to create tree planting partnerships with land donors.
We have partnered with Growing to Give , a Washington State nonprofit, to create a land and tree partnership program that repurposes flat, fallow farmland into appreciating tree assets.
The program uses privately owned land to plant trees that benefit both the landowner and the environment. You provide the land; we provide the tree plantation design, planting, and management plan.
If you have 100 acres or more of suitable farmland and would like to plant trees, we would like to talk with you. There are no upfront costs to enter the program. You own the land and you own the trees we plant, and there are no restrictions—you can sell or transfer the land with the trees at any time.
Enter your spacing (feet between trees) in the calculator above. It converts your spacing into trees per acre and can also estimate total trees for your acreage. Use it for quick planning, comparisons, and early layout checks.
Square spacing plants trees in a grid (simple to measure and maintain). Triangular spacing staggers every other row, often fitting slightly more trees into the same area and improving uniformity. Your best choice depends on equipment passes, access lanes, and how you plan to thin or prune over time.
Timber plantings often start tighter to encourage straight stems, then rely on thinning to give the best trees room as crowns expand. Start with a spacing that you can actually plant and maintain, then plan when and how you’ll thin.
Orchards usually need more crown space and airflow than timber stands. Spacing varies by species, rootstock, pruning style, and equipment. Use the calculator to compare scenarios, then choose a spacing that still works when trees reach maturity.
Related planning tools: Tree Value Calculator • Tree Carbon Calculator • Reforestation Planner • Agroforestry Guide
Start by choosing your planting pattern: square, rectangular, or triangular. For most timber and orchard layouts,
you’ll use a square or rectangular grid. Set the row spacing (X) and the
in-row spacing (Y), then plug those into the Tree Spacing Calculator to see trees per acre.
For diagonal distance between trees in a square or rectangular grid, use the Pythagorean theorem
(a² + b² = c²) to calculate corner-to-corner spacing. Always adjust for mature canopy width,
equipment access, and the critical root zone.
Convert your spacing to feet, then multiply row spacing by in-row spacing to get the square feet per tree. Divide 43,560 (square feet in one acre) by that result. Example: 10 ft × 12 ft = 120 sq ft per tree; 43,560 ÷ 120 ≈ 363 trees per acre. The calculator on this page does this math for you in one click.
Orchard spacing depends on species, rootstock, and training system. Dwarf fruit trees on high-density systems may be planted much closer than full-size trees. Use square or rectangular spacing that gives good light and airflow around each canopy, and follow cultivar-specific guidelines from your nursery or extension service. Once you pick your row and in-row spacing, enter them in the Tree Spacing Calculator to see trees per acre for that layout.
For yard and street trees, use the mature canopy spread as your guide. A simple rule of thumb is to space trees at least half the mature canopy width apart (for example, a 30-foot canopy suggests about 15 feet minimum spacing). Give extra clearance from buildings, driveways, and overhead lines. Unlike plantations, landscape trees don’t need formal rows, but you can still use the calculator to test different spacing distances and compare how many trees would fit per acre.
Yes. Windbreaks often use closer in-row spacing and multiple staggered rows to create a dense barrier. Closer spacing blocks wind faster but can require earlier thinning. Choose distances based on species, desired density, and equipment access, then run several spacing combinations through the calculator to compare trees per acre and total planting stock required.
Absolutely. When you mix species (for example, alternating hardwoods and softwoods or combining timber and wildlife trees), base your layout on the largest mature canopy and root zone in the mix. Enter a conservative spacing into the calculator to estimate trees per acre, then adjust your species pattern within that framework for biodiversity, staggered harvests, and better overall forest health.
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