How to Use This Calculator
- Enter how many trees, or switch to Acres and spacing to have the calculator count them on a square grid.
- Choose how the trees are planted: bare-root seedlings, a larger tree you plant yourself, or a contractor.
- Replace the starting prices with your own. They are published figures, not quotes.
- Turn on any extras you plan to buy: tree tubes, stakes, a mulch ring, or a replacement allowance.
- Read the total, the cost per tree and the itemized lines, and open Show the math for each step.
What Does It Cost to Plant a Tree?
There is no single price, because a “tree” can be a bare-root seedling or a larger tree planted by a contractor. The published figures below come from nurseries, cities and a federal agency, each for a particular year, place and kind of tree.
| What | Price | Source and year |
|---|---|---|
| Bare-root hardwood seedlings | $0.65 each at 1,000; $1.25 each at 100 or 300 | Minnesota DNR State Forest Nursery, 2026 to 2027 list |
| Bare-root conifer and shrub seedlings | Conifers $0.40 to $0.70 each (4 year old conifers $0.75 to $1.50); shrubs $1.55 each | Minnesota DNR State Forest Nursery, 2026 to 2027 list |
| Seedlings, by quantity | $0.40 to $1.17 each | Missouri Department of Conservation, 2025 to 2026 order form |
| Seedling shipping and handling | $15 per 100 seedlings in state (minimum charge $15), plus $9 per order | Missouri Department of Conservation, 2025 to 2026 order form |
| Landscape trees, supplied and planted by a contractor | $332 each ($199,200 for 600 trees); seven bids from about $332 to about $600 each | City of Des Moines, Iowa, Request for Bid D25-153, October 2024 |
| Trees bought by a city, 1.5 to 2.5 inch caliper | $65 to $160 each (most $120 to $145), before freight at $875 per load | Columbus, Georgia, 2016 bid |
The Des Moines bid asked for “all material, labor, and equipment required to deliver, plant and guarantee 600 landscape trees,” so it is a complete contractor price. The lowest bid won at $199,200, the other six ran up to $359,730, and the middle bid was $231,000, or $385 per tree. The bid pages we cite do not state the tree size, which the city’s specification sets.
McPherson and colleagues (2005) reported annual planting spending and trees planted per year for five cities. Dividing one by the other gives a rough cost per tree. This is our own arithmetic, the paper does not define the planting line item, and the cities were not chosen to represent the country.
| City | Annual planting spending | Trees planted per year | Per tree (our division) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Collins, Colorado | $111,052 | 500 | about $222 |
| Berkeley, California | $95,000 | 600 | about $158 |
| Glendale, Arizona | $21,100 | 200 | about $106 |
| Cheyenne, Wyoming | $45,913 | 670 | about $69 |
| Bismarck, North Dakota | $5,880 | 600 | about $10 |
The spread, from about $10 to about $222, shows how much the answer depends on what is planted and what the spending covers. The calculator does not use these figures. It builds a price from the pieces (tree, shipping, labor, extras) so you can see which one drives the total.
Seedlings Versus Larger Trees
A bare-root seedling is a young plant sold without soil and planted by hand. A larger tree comes in a container or with its roots balled and wrapped, and is bought one at a time. At the starting values a larger tree’s $145 is about 223 times a seedling’s $0.65 (145 ÷ 0.65), before freight or labor.
That gap is why the options suit different jobs: seedlings for a windbreak, woodlot or hedgerow, where you plant hundreds, and a larger tree for a yard or street. The seedling option adds shipping and hand-planting labor to the plant price. The larger-tree option adds only your labor, so add any delivery or freight to its price. The Columbus, Georgia bid listed freight separately, at $875 per load.
A seedling’s price is not its whole cost. The same federal scenarios that price a hardwood seedling at $0.62, shipping included, add a tree tube at $5.07 and a wood stake at $1.56, so protection costs more than ten times the plant (5.07 + 1.56 = 6.63, and 6.63 ÷ 0.62 = 10.7). Those are fiscal 2014 prices, likely higher now.
For spacing, hole size and watering, use the Tree Planting Calculator, then bring its tree count here.
Cost to Plant Trees per Acre
An acre is 43,560 square feet, so trees per acre depends on spacing: 10 ft apart in rows 10 ft apart is 436 trees (43,560 ÷ 100, rounded). The calculator does this sum in Acres and spacing mode and shows the cost per acre beside the cost per tree.
The best published acre-scale figures are USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service cost scenarios for practice 612, Tree/Shrub Establishment, compiled for Pennsylvania in fiscal 2014. They set cost-share payments, they are not quotes, and they are more than a decade old.
| Scenario | Density | Cost per acre |
|---|---|---|
| Conifer seedlings, hand planted | 436 or more per acre | about $397 |
| Conifer seedlings, mechanically planted | 436 or more per acre | about $429 |
| Hardwood seedlings, hand planted, with tubes and stakes | 436 or more per acre | about $3,761 |
| Hardwood seedlings, hand planted, with tubes and stakes | low density, 200 or fewer per acre | about $1,758 |
Conifer seedlings cost a few hundred dollars an acre, planted by hand or machine. Tubes and stakes lift the hand-planted hardwood scenario to $3,761, about 77 percent of it ($22,105.20 + $6,801.60 = $28,906.80, out of $37,609.55 for the 10 acre scenario). At 200 trees an acre or fewer the cost falls to $1,758, mostly because there are fewer tubes and stakes to buy.
The scenarios also bill supervisor time, a pickup, a trailer and hand tools by the hour, and treat site preparation and mulching as separate practices. So the calculator’s $553.94 for 436 seedlings is a narrower figure than a federal scenario.
Do It Yourself or Hire a Contractor
Planting yourself trades money for time. For seedlings the calculator uses 0.025 hours per tree, the 109 general labor hours USDA NRCS Pennsylvania lists for 4,360 hand-planted seedlings (109 ÷ 4,360), at $18.82 an hour, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics median wage for landscaping and groundskeeping workers in May 2025. That is about $0.47 a seedling. If the work is your own time, set the rate to 0.
A contractor’s price is a different kind of number. A wage is not a billing rate, because contractors also cover overhead and equipment, so the calculator treats the contractor price as one figure per tree and adds no labor. The Des Moines bids ran from $332 to about $600 each, and the starting value of $335 sits near the bottom because it comes from the winning bid. Enter your own quote, or set the low and high bids to the quotes you collect and read the total as a range.
Hidden Costs People Forget
- Minimum orders and handling. Minnesota’s nursery has a 300 seedling minimum, with packets of 250 for smaller plantings. Missouri adds $9 per order to shipping, which has a $15 minimum.
- Freight. The Columbus, Georgia bid priced freight separately, at $875 per load.
- Protection. Tree tubes and stakes were most of the federal hardwood scenario. They are optional extras here.
- Mulch. The calculator works out a round ring’s volume from its diameter and depth (3 ft and 3 inches to start), shows cubic feet and cubic yards, and leaves the price blank for your supplier’s. For a whole bed, use the Mulch Calculator.
- Watering. A new tree needs water, and no starting price includes it. Budget your time, hose or irrigation separately.
- Replacement. The calculator can replace a percentage of the trees, starting at 0 percent. We publish no loss rate because we have no source for one, so set it from your own experience.
Worked Examples
25 bare-root seedlings, hand planted
A small hedgerow of 25 seedlings at the starting values:
- Seedlings: 25 × $0.65 = $16.25.
- Shipping: 25 × $0.15 = $3.75.
- Labor: 25 × 0.025 hours = 0.625 hours, and 0.625 × $18.82 = $11.7625, which rounds to $11.76.
- Total: $16.25 + $3.75 + $11.76 = $31.76, or $1.27 per tree ($31.76 ÷ 25 = $1.27).
One tree, planted by a contractor
Set the number of trees to 1 and choose the contractor option. The total is 1 × $335 = $335. The range reads $332 at the low bid and $600 at the high bid, so a single tree comes to $332 to $600. For comparison, one larger tree you plant yourself is $145 + (1 hour × $18.82) = $163.82.
An acre at 10 ft spacing
Switch to Acres and spacing, enter 1 acre and 10 ft:
- Trees: 43,560 ÷ (10 × 10) = 435.6, which rounds to 436 trees.
- Seedlings and shipping: 436 × $0.65 = $283.40, and 436 × $0.15 = $65.40.
- Labor: 436 × 0.025 = 10.9 hours, and 10.9 × $18.82 = $205.138, which rounds to $205.14.
- Total: $283.40 + $65.40 + $205.14 = $553.94, or $1.27 per tree and $553.94 per acre.
- With tubes and stakes: 436 × $5.07 = $2,210.52 and 436 × $1.56 = $680.16, so the acre becomes $3,444.62, or $7.90 per tree.
Common Mistakes
- Treating a starting value as a quote. Each default is a published figure for one year and place. Replace it with your own quote.
- Comparing a seedling price with a planted-tree price. $0.65 buys the plant. $335 buys the plant, the planting and a guarantee. Compare totals, not prices per tree.
- Assuming a bid for hundreds of trees holds for a few. The Des Moines price was won on 600 trees. Ask what a small job costs.
- Leaving out your own time without meaning to. A rate of 0 is fine if you choose it, but a total with no labor is not comparable to a contractor’s quote.
Tree Planting Cost Calculator FAQ
How much does it cost to plant a tree?
It depends on how the tree arrives. At the calculator’s starting values, a hand-planted bare-root seedling costs about $1.27 ($0.65 for the seedling, $0.15 shipping and about $0.47 of labor), a larger tree you buy and plant yourself about $163.82 ($145 plus one hour at $18.82), and a contractor-supplied, contractor-planted tree $335. Des Moines, Iowa got contractor bids of about $332 to $600 per tree in 2024. Replace each price with your own quote.
How much does it cost to plant 1,000 trees?
For bare-root seedlings planted by hand, the starting values give $1,270.50: 1,000 × $0.65 = $650, shipping 1,000 × $0.15 = $150, and labor 1,000 × 0.025 hours × $18.82 = $470.50. That is $1.27 per tree, on about 2.3 acres at 10 ft spacing (1,000 ÷ 436). At $335 each for contractor-planted trees the same count is $335,000, but a price won on 600 trees may not hold for another job, so get a quote.
What does it cost to plant trees per acre?
At 10 ft spacing an acre holds 436 trees (43,560 ÷ 100, rounded), and hand-planted seedlings at the starting values come to $553.94 an acre. USDA NRCS Pennsylvania’s fiscal 2014 cost-share scenarios put an acre of hand-planted conifer seedlings at about $397 and an acre of hardwood seedlings with tree tubes and stakes at about $3,761. Tubes and stakes are most of the second figure, and both are 2014 federal scenario costs, not quotes.
How much is the labor cost to plant a tree?
For a bare-root seedling the starting values use 0.025 hours, from USDA NRCS Pennsylvania’s 109 labor hours for 4,360 hand-planted seedlings, at $18.82 an hour (the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics median wage for landscaping and groundskeeping workers, May 2025). That is about $0.47 per seedling. A larger tree takes longer, and the calculator assumes one hour, our own estimate. Contractors bill more than a wage because of overhead and equipment.
Is it cheaper to plant seedlings?
Per tree, yes, by a wide margin: about $1.27 against $163.82 or $335 at the starting values. Protection can outweigh the plant, though: in the NRCS scenario a $5.07 tree tube costs more than eight times the $0.62 seedling it protects (5.07 ÷ 0.62). Add the extras you plan to use before comparing.
How much does a street tree cost to plant?
The City of Des Moines, Iowa awarded a contract in October 2024 to deliver, plant and guarantee 600 landscape trees for $199,200, which is $332 per tree. Seven bids totaled $199,200 to $359,730 for the same work, about $332 to $600 per tree. The tree size is set by the city’s specification, which the bid pages we cite do not state, so read it as a range, not the price of your tree.
Does the price include mulch and watering?
Not in this calculator. None of the starting prices covers watering, and mulch is an optional extra you price yourself (enter your supplier’s price per cubic yard). A contractor’s quote includes them only if the quote says so, so ask. For mulch on a larger bed use the Mulch Calculator.
Sources & further reading
- Tree seedling price list, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources State Forest Nursery (tentative 2026 to 2027 list): seedling prices and the minimum order.
- 2025 to 2026 Seedling Order Form, Missouri Department of Conservation: seedling prices, shipping and handling.
- Roll call approving the purchase and planting of 600 landscape trees, Request for Bid D25-153, City of Des Moines, Iowa (October 21, 2024): the award and the seven bid totals.
- RFB 17-0026 bid tabulation, Columbus, Georgia (2016): tree prices and freight.
- “Municipal Forest Benefits and Costs in Five US Cities”, McPherson, Simpson, Peper, Maco and Xiao, Journal of Forestry, December 2005: planting spending and trees planted per year.
- Practice 612, Tree/Shrub Establishment cost scenarios (Pennsylvania, fiscal year 2014), USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service: per-acre costs, labor hours, tube and stake prices.
- “Grounds Maintenance Workers,” Occupational Outlook Handbook, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: median hourly wage, May 2025.
- “Number of Trees per Acre by Spacing Distance”, University of Georgia Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources (Kim D. Coder): square feet per acre.
For how we source and review the formulas behind every calculator, see our methodology page. Prices change every year and vary by region, so get local quotes before you order. For caring for trees after planting, see our guide to trees and shrubs.
