The young saplings (as well as the mature trees) are usually ring-weeded to a radius of about 1.5 m. During the fourth and subsequent years when the root plate has spread, a general shallow surface cultivation should be done about twice per year. A fork hoe is preferable to the normal hoe as less surface roots will be cut. Care should be taken not to damage the collar.

On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that careful planting and handling of the seedlings are important. The tap root should be cleanly cut, the wrappings removed, and the plant with a good ball of earth, firmly planted with the collar at or a little below ground level, except on heavy soils.

Nearly 12 million seedlings were planted in Zanzibar Island during the period 1935-53 and about 750000 seedlings in Pemba. The traditional method of cultivating cloves in Zanzibar is by hand-hoeing. The clove plantations receive little care and attention and that it is usually restricted to weeding prior to picking the crop. Hand-hoeing is expensive and can be destructive to the roots and damage the collar, particularly in young plants.

The planting should be done in wet weather and early in the rainy season, so that at least a month of regular rain may be expected to follow planting. Should the rainfall prove inadequate, watering must be resorted to. The planting site should be given a shallow cultivation and a mulch of chopped banana stems or clove leaves applied round the transplant. It is customary to apply an artificial shade for each plant; this can be done by supporting plaited coconut fronds on stakes about 1.2 m long, or by leafy branches stuck in the soil around the plants; Aframomum angustifolium K. Schum. is used for this purpose in Madagascar. Often a ground cover such as cocoyam, either Colocasia esculenta Schott or Xanthosoma sagittifoliwn Schott, can be planted throughout the plantation, as is done with cocoa, Theobroma cacao L. This helps to keep the soil cool and moist, reduces wind movement near the ground and conserves a humid atmosphere, all of which help the young cloves to thrive.

Imperata cylindrica Beatty, known as cotton or spear grass or lalang, is the most serious weed of young plantations and also later if allowed to become established. Gaps in the stand should be filled as quickly as possible. Once the trees have reached the bearing stage, deaths are exceptionally few, except from the diseases of sudden death and die-back. Where the trees have become too old and moribund, replanting is necessary, and this can be done by clearing or by under-planting.

Cloves can be interplanted with some other tree crop, such as cocoa or robusta coffee. They may also be under-planted in coconuts, although this practice is not looked upon with much favour in some countries.