When to remove tree tubes

Probably the biggest area of confusion about using tree tubes is when to remove them.  The most frequent mistake tree planters make when using tree tubes is removing them too soon, before they have completed their task of successfully establishing a tree.

There has been a lot of discussion about this issue recently on sportsman's online forums.  A common complaint seems to be that the tree planter, eager to remove (and perhaps reuse) the tree tubes, removes them as soon as the trees emerge from the tubes - only to find that the trees are not fully self-supporting.  They "flop over."

Tree tubes designed to fulfill three functions at different stages of a seedling's development.

1) Establishment - tree tubes protect newly planted seedlings from deer, rabbit and rodent damage, reduce moisture stress to dramatically increase survival rates and accelerate growth, and shield them from herbicide spray and/or mowers to make weed control fast and easy (or even, in many cases, possible).

2) Support - the introduction of vented tree tubes and the adoption of flexible tree tube stakes such as pvc conduit has resulted in a dramatic increase in the stem diameter of trees when the emerge from tree tubes.  However, since we're still talking about growing a tree up through an enclosed space to rapidly pierce the browse line, trees that have recently emerged from tree tubes are quite thin-stemmed relative to their height.

That's why tree tubes - at least good tree tubes - are designed to last several years.  When the tree emerges the tree tubes assumes a new role, that of trunk support.  Tree tubes are meant to be left in place to support the tree while the newly emerged canopy sways in the wind and the trunk rapidly gains caliper.

3) Trunk/Bark Protection - A year or two after emerging from the tree tube the tree will be completely self supporting.  Even then the tree tube still has a role to play in the successful long term establishment of the tree.  Bucks love to scrape and rub their antlers against springy saplings.  Rodent still gnaw on the tender bark of young trees.  Treeshelters protect the trunk of the newly established tree from these dangers.

To gain the full spectrum of benefits tree tubes can provide, they should be left on young trees until they reach about 3 inches in diameter at the base, at which point the tree tubes should be removed and properly disposed of or recycled.

Does that mean you can't reuse tree tubes?  Not at all.  Given the cost of tree tubes - and tree planting in general - and the fact that most folks are trying to achieve as much as they can within very limited planting budgets, it is natural to want to establish more than one tree with each tree tube.

In the next post we will cover three methods for reusing tree tubes, and weigh the risk and benefits of each.