Planting Trees and Poplars Farming Simulator 17 Guide
Last update: 15 November 2016
You need a special machine Damcon PL-75 - 26 000$ (category: Forestry Equipment) to plant trees and poplars. You have to load it with a palette of saplings, found in the store (category: Palettes). It has to be placed on the device, and then connected to a tractor. After connecting, switch to the seeder, and use the fill option - the palette will be loaded, and you are ready for planting. The cheapest option include front loader for the tractor, and installing a pallet fork.
Trees
You don't need to plant trees if you are comfortable with cutting a forest - especially that forests often contain better specimens (bigger trees). To plant trees, you don't need a field - you can plant them on any patch of land, but if you have a field, the planting can be performed by an employee (however, it is a very simple action, and you need to reload the palette often). One palette contains 20 seeds, and costs 40$. It takes time for the trees to grow (you don't have to fertilize them), for the first trees to be ready to cut (that will yield a reasonable gain) need around a week.
Trees are planted in rows, next to each other (in strips), with around 5m of distance between every row. A palette contains only 20 trees, so if you want to plant more, prepare a supply. Similarly to other plants, you need around 1.5 of a day for the trees to be ready for cutting. Of course, you'll need to plant a next batch after you cut the current one - if you want to use the same location, prepare a machine for cutting out the trunks: fsi Powertech ST 65 T (5 000$, Forestry Equipment).
Poplars
Poplars are planted for woodchips. Remember that you have to plant them similarly to other plants - on your own field (you don't have to plow it earlier). For 40$ you'll buy a palette holding 2000l, which will be enough to cover around 0.05 of a hectar, which in reality is a pretty small area. This amount ends with 8000l of woodchips. However, you don't need many plants to receive a serious payday. You don't need to grow many poplars, to receive sufficient earnings. You also don't need to fertilize them.
Nevertheless, it is not a cheap investment. First of all, you'll need a Forage Harvester (the cheapest model costs 221 000$) and a header for cutting poplars(category Forage Harvester Headers: New Holland 130FB 25 000$).
It is not a viable strategy for the early game, as cutting trees and selling them for woodchips is much faster, cheaper, and more profitable - you can receive up to 20 000l of woodchips from two big trees. Additionally, while gathering poplars, you need a help from a worker, who will drive the combine, while you're driving a tractor with a trailer. Silo combine doesn't have any storage space. If you'll mow the area without using the trailer, the crop will be lost. The received woodchips can be transported to the sawmill or sold in a heating plant.