MSITU

Every tree planter's companion

and the catalyst to tree planting.

RTK-precision marking and pegging on Android — so grids stay true, crews move faster, and forests come back where they belong.

RTK base + roverTriangular meshOpen source

Introduction

Why forests matter — and why marking matters

Reforestation is urgent, but the bottleneck is often invisible: how accurately you mark and peg before the first seedling goes in.

Climate change, prolonged dry seasons, flooding, soil erosion, increased atmospheric greenhouse gases, global warming, and lack of biodiversity — all of these have deforestation in common.

Between 2001 and 2002 alone, Uganda lost 290 ha of tree cover, about a 15% decrease. Coverage has remained under pressure since 2000, and systematic cutting continues with too little replanting to match.

Reforestation is the obvious path forward — yet the practical work of getting trees in the ground at scale is harder than it sounds. Traditionally there are four steps, with trees planted in a square mesh so opposite trees stay equidistant:

  1. 01

    Preparation

    Land cleared and ready for planting.

  2. 02

    Marking

    Ropes and spacing laid to the planned grid.

  3. 03

    Pegging

    Plot fixed to the ground before seedlings arrive.

  4. 04

    Planting

    Seedlings set where the mesh says they belong.

The problem

Marking and pegging is where reforestation stalls.

As hobby and community foresters, the team replanted where trees had been removed — commercially and voluntarily. The bottleneck kept appearing at the marking stage.

Across several acres, rope-based pegging is tedious, easy to misalign, and slow. Small measurement errors compound into wasted land, rework, and lost planting days.

Scale
Layouts that look fine on paper drift in the field.
Ropes & eyes
Human pacing and sightlines introduce cumulative error.
Clock
The slowest step caps how much forest you can plant.

Solution · System · Field validation

How MSITU works in the real world.Follow the rotating journey from setup, to RTK precision, to field-proven planting outcomes.

Field validation

70+ acre deployment

Tested across varied terrain

System

RTK base station

Fixed correction reference

Field validation

Hybrid pegging method

Less marking, better speed

System

RTK rover

Mobile point capture in the field

Outcome

Planting momentum

More forestry, less rework

Solution

MSITU app

Project setup in minutes

Active card

📱

Solution

MSITU app

Create a marking project from name, gap size, and line length. Connect to rover by Bluetooth or USB and start field layout fast.

  • Android workflow
  • Simple setup form
  • Bluetooth / USB rover link
SignalFast setup

Learn more on video

Layout

Triangular mesh vs traditional square mesh

Same land, different geometry. MSITU favors equilateral triangular spacing so nearest-neighbor distance stays consistent in every direction, improving land use and planting density.

Square risk

Diagonals stretch longer than edge spacing.

Triangle gain

Equal nearest-neighbor distance in all directions.

Outcome

Better land utilization and tighter planting flow.

Traditional square mesh

Baseline

Edge points may be evenly spaced, but diagonals are longer. At 10 ft edge spacing, diagonals approach ~14 ft, which creates dead pockets and lowers planting density at scale.

  • • Higher geometric wastage across large plots
  • • More inconsistent spacing perception in field work
  • • Lower expected trees per acre over time
Traditional square mesh layout

MSITU triangular mesh

Preferred

Trees sit on equilateral triangles, keeping nearest-neighbor spacing consistent around each point. This reduces wastage and improves practical planting density.

  • • Equal directional spacing from each tree
  • • Cleaner grid logic for field teams
  • • Better yield potential per hectare/acre
MSITU triangular mesh layout

Visual app walk-through

Product flow
MSITU app visual walk-through

Open source collaboration

The MSITU app is functional and field-tested, with clear room for growth. It is open source, and the team welcomes contributors, technical partners, and organizations interested in building the next version together.

View repository: github.com/dsmagicug/msitu

Proof of concept

Mukono, Uganda — 2023

Using the Msitu app and triangular mesh, the team planted several acres of new forest in Mukono. The videos show full-grown forest that was planted using the MSITU app workflow.

Aerial view
Close up

Team & collaboration

Join us in reforesting Uganda and beyond.

From precision field layouts to long-term canopy growth, MSITU is built with communities, growers, and implementers who want practical climate action that lasts.

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”
— Franklin D. Roosevelt

Field momentum

Contact

Reach out if you want to plant trees

Reach out if you want to plant trees with MSITU. We support partnerships, pilot deployments, and field coordination, then guide your next practical step.