Three signs Tree Tubes have gone mainstream

After being a definite "niche" product for nearly three decades, known mostly to professional foresters and large-scale tree planters, tree tubes have definitely taken huge strides in the last few years in becoming much more of a mass market product (as those of us who recognized, 25 years ago, their potential to revolutionize the way trees are planted in the USA always thought/hoped they would be).

Here are three signs that tree tubes have become accepted standard practice among the rank & file of tree planters in the USA:

1) Tree tubes are now available on Amazon

2) Tree tubes are a common topic of discussion among sportsmen planting trees for wildlife habitat (and it is truly sportsmen who do the heavy lifting in terms of creating habitat for both game and non-game species) on web discussion boards such as QDMA, Michigan Sportsman, etc.  Twenty-five years ago if people were talking about tree tubes at all the discussions centered on questions like, 
"What are these things?"
"You mean I can put a 6 inch seedling in a 5 foot tree tube?" (Answer: Yes! But the tree won't be 6 inches tall for long.)
"Won't it burn up in there?" (Answer: No - it will be happy and growing while un-tubed trees are stressed.)
"Why would I spend $3-4 on a tree tube to protect a 50 cent seedling?"  (Answer: because if you don't you'll be planting that 50 cents seedling year after year, watching deer eat it, and still have nothing to show for your hard work.)

Now the topics on the discussion boards are more along the lines of,
"Which tree tubes are best?"
"Where can I get the best pricing on tree tubes?"
"When do I take my tree tubes off?" (Answer - not until the tree reaches 3" diameter at the base)

I can't say that the information exchanged on these discussion boards is always accurate or the best advice, but it's awesome that tree planters have moved from if/why use a tree tube to, which tree tube is best and how best to use them.

3) Tree tubes are commonly advertised for sale on Craig's List - with the full expectation on the part of the seller that buyers will a) know what they are, and b) need them.

Oh, and another small indication that tree tubes have gone mainstream:  Sales of tree tubes in 2014 have broken all records for total volume, number of orders, and geographic diversity of orders.

It's best not to re-use tree tubes... but if you're determined to re-use them here are two ways to do it

This post is long overdue.  The single biggest mistake tree planters make when using tree tubes is that they remove them too soon.  As we have discussed, tree tubes are meant to fill three roles throughout the course of their life:  Establishment, support and bark protection.

In the establishment phase (1 to 3 years) the tree tubes protect seedlings from animals, reduce moisture stress (to enhance survival and growth) and shield seedlings from herbicide & mowers, to get seedlings off to a successful start.

At the point in time that the trees emerge from the tree tubes they will have a thinner stem relative to their height than trees planted without tree tubes (the difference being, of course, that trees planted without tree tubes often NEVER reach that height).  Tree tubes are DESIGNED to stay in place to support the trunk of the tree after it emerges from the tube, until the trunk thickens up.

Even when the trees are self-supporting they are still at risk for bark damage from deer (buck rub) and rodents.  Tree tubes are meant to be left in place for continued bark protection until the trees reach 3 inches in diameter at the base, at which time the tubes should be removed and disposed of.

HOWEVER.  Tree tubes are a significant investment for the hobbyist tree planter, and the idea of re-using tree tubes is very tempting... or even in some cases necessary.  Keep in mind that every time you remove a tree tube before it has completed its full job of getting the tree to 3 inch basal diameter you are taking the risk that something will happen - wind storm that breaks the stem, buck rub, gnawing rodents, mower damage - that will either set the tree back or even kill it.

The sooner after emergence you remove the tree tube the greatest the risk to the tree.  Tree planters have been successful using two different methods of re-using tree tubes. 

Good (highest risk but also highest number of uses for each tree tube):  Remove the tree tube shortly after the tree emerges, but tie the tree to the stake you were using to support the tree tube.  Preferably this would be a flexible stake like pvc.  I´m not a huge fan of this practice – I don´t like staking trees and of course it exposes the tree to rodent and deer damage.  But I have many customers doing this successfully and it does mean you can use the tubes two or three times.

 Better (less risk and affords opportunity to re-use the tree tube once):  After the tree emerges wait at least one full growing season and then remove the tube.  Especially when using pvc stakes the tree will gain a lot of caliper in that first growing season after emerging from the tube, and should be self supporting at that point.  The advantage is the ability to reuse the tube (and probably the stake if the tree can stand alone); the disadvantage again is exposing the bark to rodents and deer damage.

Best of all, of course is to keep the tree tubes on until the trees reach 3 inches in basal diameter.  At that stage you can remove the tree tube knowing it has completed the three functions for which it was designed, and safe in the knowledge that the tree is successfully established.

But if budgetary restrictions mean you have to re-use tree tubes in order to meet your planting goals, these guidelines will help you weight the risks of the various methods and will give you the best chance for success.

Incredible Tree Tube Video: THIS is what is possible with tree tubes

Want to see the kind of growth rate on oaks that is possible with Tree Tubes? 

Click here to find out.

If you didn't know that the tree you see is just 3 growing seasons old (since being planted as an 18 inch tall seedling) you'd probably guess it's what... 8 years old?  10? 12?

Tree tubes have the power to make people completely rethink what's possible in terms of tree performance and growth.  Incredible.

4ft Tree Tubes - Still the "workhorse" tree tube height

Recent years has seen a skewing of tree tube sales from 3ft and 4ft heights to 5ft and even 6ft heights.  This is indicative of two factors:

1) The deer population continues to grow virtually unchecked, putting more and higher browse pressure on tree seedlings.

2) Tree tubes are increasingly being used by sportsmen to improve wildlife habitat which means

• They really care about the success of each individual tree, and the speed with which it will begin producing mast
• They are planting tree species that are especially attractive to deer like fruit and nut trees
• They are planting in places with high concentrations of (hopefully!) very large deer

In light of these trends it's not surprising to see an up-tick in the market share of 5ft tree tubes.  However, it's important to note that 4ft tree tubes still represent by far the lion's share of the tree tube market.  The 4ft tree tube is still the workhorse product that's getting it done, especially on large scale projects.

The reason is simple:  In the majority of cases 4ft tubes provide all of the deer browse protection needed for success.  Wilson Forestry Supply's web site puts it in perspective well:

• 4ft Tubex Combitube Plus Tree Tubes provide enough protection to grow trees past the deer browse line about 75% of the time.  Deer can browse trees emerging from 4ft tree tubes.  In most cases the tree will have enough stored energy to send a rapid growth shoot past the deer browse line.  However, in some areas deer will repeatedly browse trees as they emerge from 4ft tree tubes, not allowing them to grow taller.  In these cases the protection of the 4ft tube can be supplemented either with deer repellent or a 2ft Tubextender kit (sold separately).
• 5ft Tubex Combitube Plus Tree Tubes provide enough protection from deer approximately 90% of the time.  In areas with extremely high deer densities, the deer can browse trees as they emerge from 5ft tree tubes.  Cases of deer browsing trees emerging from 5ft tree tubes are most common with fruit trees such as apples, crabapples, pear, etc.
• 6ft Tubex Combitube Plus Tree Tubes provide enough protection from deer 99.87% of the time (OK, we made that up, but 6ft tubes are as close to complete deer protection as you can get).

 All tree planters have a limited, finite budget.  All tree planters want to accomplish as much as possible within that budget.  Given that, and in the face of deer browse pressure, there are two entirely reasonable approaches, both of which end with success:

1) Use 4ft Tree Tubes to optimize the number of seedlings you can plant and protect within your budget.  Then, if the trees get browsed heavily upon emergence from the tubes, supplement the browse protection with either a deer repellent or a 2ft Tree Tube Extender.  This is a way to spread out the cost over a span of a few years.

2) Use 5ft Tree Tubes and protect a smaller number of seedlings within your budget, but know with (almost) certainty that you will not have to supplement that level of deer browse protection.

Actually, there's a third way - one which probably makes the most sense of all:  Strategic deployment of 5ft or 6ft tubes.  If you are planting a field of trees, the deer do not browse them equally.  They hit certain species (fruit trees in particular, such as crab apples) harder than others.  They browse more heavily along creeks and alongside woods and cover.  A very effective strategy is to use 5ft or 6ft tree tubes on trees that are the most "at risk" based on species or location, and 4ft tubes on the rest.

This argues heavily in favor of choosing a tree tube supplier that offers a range of sizes and lets you order any quantity of mixed sizes, so that you can customize your planting to your exact needs, budget and goals.

Tree Tubes on American Chestnut Trees #3

To quickly review:  When tree tubes arrived in the USA from the UK in the late 1980s, people dedicated to the restoration of the American chestnut were quick to recognize the potential benefits.  Unfortunately, the performance of tree tubes on American chestnut seedlings didn't fulfill the promise.  Chestnut seedlings grown in the old, unvented tree tubes suffered from frost damage due to improper hardening off for winter, and grow spindly trunks with a corkscrew growth habit.

That was then, this is now.  Over the last decade advancements in tree tube design and Best Practice recommendations - most notably the introduction of vented tree tubes and the widespread adoption of flexible PVC tree tube stakes - have dramatically improved the performance of tree tubes on American chestnut seedlings.

A grower in Mississippi recently texted these photos and messages:

Text message:  Here's a friend of my standing beside the tallest tree. It's above 7-1/2 feet. Completely straight and stiff, it is not spindly. This is a ten month old 100% American chestnut. Growing in a 5 foot Tubex (Combitube Tree Tube), it was planted in July.

Here's the other photo he sent:

Text message:  Here's another. A little over 5 feet and straight. 

There is no project in all of forestry and ecological restoration more important than the restoration of the American chestnut to its rightful throne as king of the Eastern hardwood forest.  It is a test of our collective resolve, of our willingness and ability to undo some of the damage we have wrought (chestnut blight was unleashed in the USA after entering the country in infected - but co-evolutionarily immune - Chinese chestnut planting stock).

Tree tubes have always held the promise of being a powerful arrow in the quiver of restoration ecologists.  Design improvements made over the past decade mean that tree tubes are now fully able to fulfill that promise.

New 'Micro-vented' tree tube hits the US market

A new tree tube with an intriguing combination of time-tested and innovative design features was recently introduced to the US market.

The Photosynth Tree Tube is in many ways a conventional tree tube, featuring a flared rim to prevent abrasion to the bark of emergent trees, twin-walled cylindrical construction for rigidity and durability, and releasable zip ties.

Venting has become standard for any high-performance tree tube.  Photosynth Tree Tubes have a 'micor-vented' design that has long been popular in Europe:

Rather than a relatively small number of larger vent holes punch sporadically in the walls of the tube, Photosynth Tree Tubes have thousands of small vent holes punched continuously from near the rim of the tube to approximately 16 inches from the ground.  This design result in more even gas exchange along the entire length of the tube.

The lower 16 inches of each Photosynth Tree Tube is solid for both herbicide spray and rodent protection.

Pricing of Photosynth Tree Tubes is highly competitive with other twin-walled tree tubes.  Tree tubes appear to be following - albeit at a slower pace - the pattern established with other new technologies, with the price decreasing as use of the technology becomes more widespread, competition among producers increases and production volumes increase.

It's a very exciting time in the tree tube industry.

Tree Tubes on American Chestnut Trees #2

This is the second in what will be an ongoing series of posts on the effectiveness of tree tubes on American chestnut trees.  To find the others, type chestnuts into the search bar.

A private landowner and American chestnut enthusiast in Mississippi purchased some 100% American chestnut seed last winter, and sowed the seeds in root pruning pots, grew them into 12 to 18 inch seedlings, and the planted them on his property.

While the seeds were getting started he researched tree tubes, knowing that upon planting his seedlings would immediately be subject to heavy deer pressure.  He contacted experts with the various chestnut restoration organizations for advice.  He was universally told that 4ft and 5ft tree tubes don't work well with American chestnuts.  The recommended method of establishment was either to use a 2ft tree tube (for rodent protection and initial moisture stress reduction) coupled with a wire cage for deer browse protection.

As we have discussed the basis of this recommendation was the poor results experienced by chestnut growers 15 to 20 years ago with the old, unvented, small diameter tree tubes sold at that time.  A 'corkscrew' or spiral growth habit of American chestnuts growing in tree tubes was a complaint back then, as was winter injury or die-back.

This gentlemen also discussed the issue with reputable sellers of today's vented tree tubes, and of course got a completely different story; he was told how the problems cited by chestnut experts harken back to earlier tree tube designs, and that results on chestnut with the vented tubes sold for the last 10 years have been excellent.

It was the typical conundrum for a private landowner and hobbyist:  Ask 10 foresters for advice and get 24 different - and often completely conflicting - answers.  Who to believe?  Luckily, this landowner did what so many other dedicated tree planters have done:  He didn't believe anyone, and put both methods to the test.

The upshot after nearly one full growing season:  "Tree tubes for American chestnuts should be 5 foot and trees should be above the tubes by August.  I really like the way the seem to help manage moisture."

Click the photo to enlarge.  The photo above is of his 'prize' American chestnut tree: Planted as an 18 inch seedling in spring 2013, photo taken Labor Day, 2013 with the tree now 2 feet beyond the top of a 5ft tree tube.

Asked about spiraling growth of American chestnuts in tree tubes he wrote, "The spiraling wasn't significant and now the trees have emerged straight as an arrow."

Here's another American chestnut tree emerging from a 5ft tree tube in the first season - note the very straight growth habit.  Click to enlarge to see the venting pattern on the tree tube.

The trees grown in 3ft tree tubes within wire cages also did well, but...

1) Aren't nearly as tall as those grown in 5ft tree tubes.

2) The wire cages for deer browse protection are an unnecessary added hassle and expense as compared to using the 5ft tree tubes which provide increased survival, faster height growth and deer browse protection.

Results like these show why a sea change among American chestnut enthusiasts. 

The "old" recommendation of using a 2 or 3ft tree tube along with a wire mesh enclosure for deer browse protection was based on a recognition of the effectiveness of tree tubes for rodent protection and increased seedling survival rates, but were also based on the negative results experienced when using the old unvented 4ft and 5ft tree tubes.

American chestnut planters using the newer vented tree tubes are seeing excellent results - and tree tubes are now fulfilling their promise as an indispensable tool in the monumental effort to restore the American chestnut to its rightful place in our Eastern hardwood forests.

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.

Tree Tubes on American Chestnut Trees

Tree tubes are finally fulfilling their promise as an establishment aid for American chestnut seedlings.

If ever there was a perfect candidate tree for tree tubes it would seem to be the American chestnut tree.  Billions of majestic chestnut trees were wiped out by the fungal blight that swept through its range in the early- and mid-1900s.  It has been the focus of heroic re-establishment efforts on the part of organizations such as the American Chestnut Foundation and thousands of dedicated scientists and volunteers.  Every chestnut seed or seedling planted is rare & precious, and critical to the long-term success of re-establishment efforts.  But chestnuts are also extremely vulnerable to all of threats to successful regeneration that other species face, including deer browse, competing vegetation and periodic drought stress.

So given the value and importance of each and every chestnut seedling planted and the number of threats they face, one would think that using plastic tree tubes on American chestnuts would be a no-brainer... and indeed American chestnut enthusiasts were some of the first tree planters to recognize the potential benefits of tree tubes and give them a try.  Unfortunately, the performance of those early, unvented tree tubes on American chestnut seedlings left a great deal to be desired.

It turned out that chestnut seedlings grown in tree tubes were particularly vulnerable to winter injury and die back.  They also grew with elongated, spindly stems that often formed a spiraling or helix growth habit as they worked their way up the tree tube.  Word of these issues quickly spread in chestnut growing circles, and chestnut planters either switched to using 2ft or 3ft tree tubes (shorter tree tubes provided rodent protection but did not cause die back or spiraling growth) or stopped using tree tubes altogether.

Growers of Chinese chestnut trees, incidentally, experienced and reported these same problems, and many became disillusioned with tree tubes.

Recently, however, chestnut planters - both of American and Chinese chestnuts - have recognized the major advancements in tree tube design - most notably the addition of ventilation, better light transmission properties and larger tube diameter - and have given them another try.  This time around the results have been outstanding.

In this blog I have often discussed the evolution of tree tubes as the story of two eras:  Before Venting (BV) and After Venting (AV).  The entire history of tree tube use and effectiveness in North America can be divided into these two categories; the un-vented tree tubes that first came over from the UK and worked well in their moderate and very forgiving climate, and the vented tree tubes that work in the extreme climates - both cold and hot - found in the United States.  Nowhere is this dichotomy of BV versus AV illustrated more starkly and dramatically than with American and Chinese chestnut trees.

In coming weeks we will be posting accounts and photographs of tree tubes on American chestnut and Chinese chestnut trees.  Healthy, rapid growth and straight trunks have been the rule, as you see in dramatic fashion here:

(Click to enlarge)

This is a Chinese chestnut tree growing in Mississippi.  It was planted in July, 2012 as a 12 inch seedling.  It was protected with a 4ft tall tree tube, and was watered to help it survive the late season planting.  It didn't put on any additional growth for the remainder of the 2012 season.... in other words in entered the 2013 growing season 1 foot tall.  This photograph was taken in August, 2013.  The tree grew more than 8 feet in one growing season.

More important than the rapid rate of growth:

1) The tree - and many others like it in the same planting - is perfectly straight, with no sign of the spiraling growth seen in the early days of chestnut seedlings in un-vented tree tubes.

2)  The trunk diameter - while thin relative to it (amazing) height, as you'd expect with any tree tube grown seedling - is very robust.  This also due in large part to the adoption of flexible tree tube stakes such as 1/2" schedule 40 PVC, as was used here.

Note: That "tray" at the base of the tree is a revolutionary weed mat developed in Israel called the IrriPan Weed Mat.  It blocks weeds, captures rain water and funnels it to the tree, reflects light up to the tree, and recycles soil moisture.

Follow this blog for more upcoming posts chronicling the use of tree tubes on American and Chinese chestnut trees.

Tree Tubes - defying predictions

People who have never tried tree tubes nearly always predict dire results, the most common of which is that the seedlings will "burn up" or "cook" inside the tree tubes.

Here's an interesting tree tube post about how this near-universal prediction has been proved wrong time and again.

More Tree Tube How-to Videos

For the very best "how to" videos about tree tubes on the web, visit Mossy Oak Nativ Nurseries' web site.  They very typically get 5, 6 or even 7 feet of growth in the first growing season after planting their hybrid oak seedlings.  There's no magic to it.  That's the kind of growth most trees are capable of if we as tree planters eliminate all of things - the stresses - the prevent them from growing to their full potential.

Tree Tubes: Which end is up?

Some tree tubes don't have a "top" or a "bottom," which is good in that they can't be installed incorrectly.  It's probably also bad in that it means they lacked a specially flared rim designed to prevent abrasion of the tender bark of emerging trees.

Higher quality tree tubes do have an "up" and a "down."  They have a specially made rim designed to protect the bark of emerging trees from abrasion.  However it also means they can be installed wrong side up.  In fact, I have seen tree tube brochures and web sites sporting photographs of tree tubes installed upside down!

Thankfully one of the top tree tube sellers in the US has posted a helpful blog post and video to clear up the up/down confusion!

Why do we need tree tubes?

Why do we need tree tubes in order to successfully establish seedling trees?  After all, trees managed to grow before tree tubes existed.  Why do we need tree tubes now?

There are two answers to that question.

The first is that a tree planting project is different than a naturally regenerated forest.  A naturally regenerated forest is the result of hundreds of years, billions of seeds, and a huge amount of random chance.  The odds that any one tree seed will someday become a mature tree are minute.  The accumulation of huge spans of time and huge numbers of seeds ultimately result in a forest... sometimes.  Nature has plenty of failed attempts at forest regeneration (we call these failures "prairies"). 

It takes an enormous amount of work - not to mention money - to plant trees in order to create a new forest.  And since the tree planting can't sow billions of tree seeds and doesn't have hundreds of years to wait, something has to be done to take the element of random chance out of the equation.  There are lots of ways to do this, to tip the scales of chance more in favor of success - planting species most likely to thrive in local growing conditions, properly planting high quality stock, and aggressively suppressing vegetative competition.

But the single most powerful tool to turn the odds in favor of the tree planter over random chance, if the tree tube (or treeshelter as it is known in the UK and among hardwood silviculturists in the USA).

The second reason we need tree tubes today is illustrated beautifully in this chronology given on this web page of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

1900 - market and subsistence hunting virtually eliminate deer in Oklahoma

1917 - statewide deer population estimated at 500 

1944 - 379 deer harvested by hunters

2005 - 101,111 deer harvested, 40% of them does (which means wildlife managers are trying very hard to reduce the size of the herd)

This numbers are nearly the same in every state east of the Rockies.  Deer nearly wiped out by 1900, followed by reduced or banned hunting for a period of time, combined with heroic conservation efforts to restore whitetail deer, combined with changes in the landscape (creation of a patchwork with exponentially more forest edge, the preferred habitat of deer) and reduced predator populations, leading to huge deer harvests that still can't keep pace with the rate of reproduction.

Many of the natural forests we have can very likely trace their origins to that 1900 time period when deer numbers were at an all time low.

We are now trying to plant trees when the deer population is at an all time high.

There are now places in the USA where natural hardwood regeneration is seriously threatened, where there are very few young hardwood trees.  The deer simply eat them faster than they can grow.

So random chance is not an option any more.

There are other ways to protect trees from deer browse, but none as cost effective as tree tubes.

Never a bad time to apply Tree Tubes

One common misconception about Tree Tubes is that they can only be applied to newly planted seedlings, right at the time of planting.

Fact is, there's never a bad time to apply tree tubes, as this excellent You Tube video from Tree Protection Supply demonstrates.

There are so many small trees out there - both planted in previous seasons and naturally regenerated "volunteers" - that could benefit greatly from tree tubes.

Rule of thumb:  As long as you have a living root system and a tree tube you can grow a great tree.

Those oak or black walnut or crab apple seedlings you planted three years ago that the deer have kept browsed to ankle height?  Prune them to a single stem and put a tree tube on them.

Those "volunteer" oaks you find when hunting, after bush hogging or just when out for a walk?  Carry some flagging tape with you to mark them, and then go back out with pruning shears and tree tubes in hand.

In both cases you have a big, strong root system that just needs the protection of a tree tube in order to express itself.  Landowners often can't believe how fast these trees grow in the year after tubing them.

Rejuvenating struggling seedlings is one of the most rewarding uses of tree tubes.

Using tree tubes to establish native California oaks from acorns

We have been talking about various applications and uses of tree tubes.  One broad area where tree tubes have proven their mettle is in ecological restoration, more specifically the re-establishment of critical native species into environments that are no longer "native."  A great example of this is the use of tree tubes for California native oaks.

Tree tubes are being used coast to coast to help re-establish native trees whose numbers have dwindled due to disease (particularly in the case of the might American chestnut in the east) or to a combination of grazing, fire suppression, competition from exotic grasses & weeds, deer browse, rodent damage, and disease (in the case of California's native oaks).

As you can tell from that laundry list of threats, successful establishment of California oaks is not easy in 2012.  The mature oaks that line the golden hills of California got their start in a completely different world, before livestock grazing, before the spread of European annual grasses that have largely replaced less competitive native perennial grasses and forbes, and when fire - both lightening caused and as part of the vegetation management strategies of California's indigenous people - helped suppress competition giving oaks time and space to grow large enough to shade out competition.

Tree tubes to the rescue!  It is a truism that a) the more important it is that a particular tree get successfully established*, and b) the greater the threats to that tree's survival, c) the more more it makes sense to use tree tubes.

* Then again, in the same way that police officers should never draw their gun unless they intend to use it, people should never plant trees unless they intend for them to survive and thrive. 

All of this makes tree tubes the perfect tool for helping restore and re-establish California's beautiful native oaks.  And one of the best ways to plant California oaks is be direct seeding acorns and protecting them with tree tubes.

Blue oak acorns ready for planting

(Click to enlarge)

Planting acorns, chestnuts, black walnuts, and hickory nuts directly in the soil and protecting them with tree tubes is a practice that is really catching on.

In this case this blue oak (Quercus douglasii) acorns are being planted on former ranch land that is being converted to an oak preserve in the Sierra foothills near Springville, CA.

The acorns were gathered from local blue oak trees, to ensure that they are well suited to the climate and soil.  They were then soaked in a pail of water for 24 hours, and any "floaters" were discarded (floating after that period of time is a sure sign that weevils or other insects have burrowed into the acorn and have eaten all of the nutmeat that is needed to produce a new seedling).

Then two acorns are being planted in each planting hole, about 1 inch deep and loosely covered with soil.  Each set of 2 acorns is then being protected with 6 foot Tree Tubes for protection from deer, but more importantly from the cattle that will be grazing on this property for the next few years as part of a lease agreement.

The tree tubes will:

Protect the acorns and seedlings from rodents (except burrowing ground squirrels; other measures are being taken to protect from them)

Protect the seedlings from getting browsed or trampled by cattle (steel t-posts are being used for stakes, with a second, shorter stake being used on the opposite side to prevent cattle from rubbing against the tube and pivoting it around the stake.

Shield the seedlings from deer browse.

Greatly reduce moisture stress in an area that goes months without rain and where temp's often top 105 degrees.

Facilitate effective weed control, so annual grasses do not take the limited soil nutrients and moisture these oaks will need.

 

 

Tree tubes are proving to be an absolute must for the successful establishment of native California oaks.  Are tree tubes "natural?"  No, but then neither is the environment into which we are planting those native oaks - too many cattle, too much grass seed, and too little fire.

Tree Tubes Pro's and Con's: A Grower's Perspective

Here's a really interesting blog post on tree tubes from a grower with hand-on experience.

Click here.

Tips for peak growth with Tree Tubes: Prune seedlings to a single stem

One of the most frequently asked questions from first-time tree tube users is:  "Should I prune my seedlings to single stems before applying the tree tubes, or should I gather the lateral branches and lower the tree tubes down over them?"

Unlike most things in forestry where foresters like be give lengthy "there's no wrong way to do it" replies, in this case the answer is absolute and unequivocal:  YOU PRUNE TO A SINGLE STEM BEFORE APPLYING THE TREE TUBE.

This seems counter-intuitive.  Then again, many things pertaining to tree tubes are.  But there are two very good reasons for pruning seedlings to a single stem before placing a tree tube on them:

1) Better tree form = better long term health.  In general, if you bend lateral branches upward to fit into a tree tube, those lateral branches will continue to grow up and out of the tube.  The result is a very acute angle between the lateral branch and the main stem.  The narrower that branch angle a) the weaker that branch connection is and the more prone it will be in the future to breaking under heavy wind and/or snow loads, and b) the more difficult it will be down the road to prune that branch properly.

Generally speaking if you put a tree tube over a single stem you get a single stem growing up through the tube and out the top.  You might get a few very small lateral branches in the tubes, but these tend to remain very small and are easily pruned when the tube is removed.

So simply from the standpoint of long term tree health Best Practice is to always prune seedlings to a single stem before "tree tubing" them.

2) Faster growth!  Fast growth is one of the primary reasons (besides protection from deer browse) that people use tree tubes in the first place, and pruning to a single stem before applying tree tubes flat out results in faster growth.

This is the part that seems counter-intuitive.  You get a nice big seedling from the nursery, complete with 2 or 3 good-sized lateral branches.  You plant the seedling and are just about to apply the tree tube.  You look at those lateral branches and think, "Cripes if I prune these branches I'm leaving 50% of the seedling I paid good money for laying on the ground.  Plus, doesn't it need the leaves on those branches to fuel more growth?"  Both perfectly natural thoughts and valid concerns.  I had the same thoughts and concerns myself, so I did a trial.  In my mind I thought I was trying to balance the better tree form I would get from pruning to a single stem with the faster growth I assumed I'd get by leaving the lateral branches in tact.  To my great surprise - and after 23 years tree tubes still never fail to surprise me - the seedlings I pruned to a single stem before tubing them not only exhibited better form, they also grew faster... A LOT faster!

I believe that there are two reasons for this faster growth, one obvious and one not-so-obvious:  a) All of the seedling's growth energy is channeled into a single stem, and b) removing the lateral branches and their leaves allows for better air flow/exchange in the tree tubes, and allows each leave to absorb more sunlight.

The importance of pruning to a single stem is illustrated perfectly in this video from Tree Protection Supply, a long-time distributor of high quality tree tubes (in fact there are several highly informative videos about Tree Tubes at Tree Protection Supply's You Tube Channel. 

As with so many things with tree tubes over the years, customers have pointed me in the right direction.  One grower I know in Mississippi not only prunes his seedlings to a single stem before applying tree tubes, he picks off all of the lateral buds leaving only the terminal buds.  Who am I to argue with his results?  Take a look:

(Click to enlarge)

This is a hybrid shumard x willow oak.  The acorns were gathered in autumn 2010.  They were not sown in nursery pots until July 2011.  This seedling was planted in autumn, 2011.  It was about 18 inches tall at the time.

This photograph was taken in September 2012 - after one growing season in the ground.  The green tree tube is 4ft tall, and the beige "tubextender" is 2ft tall and was added to keep deer from browsing the tree after emerging from the 4ft tree tube.  From there you can do the math and see how tall this tree is - after getting planted in late autumn 2011 as an 18" seedling - after just one growing season.  Amazing.

A lot more went into achieving that kind of growth (aggressive weed control, supplemental fertilization, etc.) and we'll cover those things in future posts. 

But a major factor in achieving this kind of growth is simply PRUNING SEEDLINGS TO A SINGLE STEM BEFORE APPLYING YOUR TREE TUBES.

Absolutely astounding growth of oaks in tree tubes

This is unbelievable even to me - and I've worked with tree tubes for 23 years. 

This is a hybrid oak - overcup oak x white oak.  It was planted in March, 2011 as an 18 inch seedling.

(Click to enlarge)

 

This photo was taken yesterday, against a darkening Mississippi sky.  That tree is now 11 feet 8 inches tall.  (The tree tube is 4ft tall and the photograph is taken from ground level looking up.)

Let me be a little more clear, because it really is hard to wrap your brain around this:  In just two growing seasons this tree has grown 10 feet 3 inches since being planted as a seedling.

When I take a step back I shouldn't be surprised.  In fact these are the kind of results that I believe will become commonplace in the next decade.  It is the result of several factors:

1) Tree seedling planting stock is much, much better than ever.  Nurseries are selecting seed from superior trees, and are producing healthy, vigorous planting stock (especially stock growing in root-pruning pots) that is ready to "hit the ground running" with little or no transplant shock.

2) Trees - even oak trees - actually, especially oak trees - are inherently capable of remarkable growth.  Reaching that growth potential is simply a matter of removing the obstacles - the stresses - that prevent it from growing as fast as it might.  Those stresses include weed competition, drought, lack of nutrients, and of course animal browse.

3) Tree Tubes make it easy for growers to eliminate most if not all of those stresses:

> They shield tree seedlings from deer browse

> They make it easy to locate tree seedlings amidst the grass and brush, and protect them from weed control treatments that eliminate vegetative competition (thus making more moisture, nutrients and light available to the seedling)

> The shelter tree seedlings from drying winds, and capture and condense transpired moisture, returning it to the soil to be re-absorbed by the seedling.

In subsequent posts we'll be looking at how to achieve peak growth performance like this!

Driving unnecessary cost out of tree tubes

This blog is about the history, development and applications of tree tubes.  But it is also chronicles the evolution of the companies that are trying - as has happened with so many technologies - to drive down the cost of using tree tubes and make them accessible to the largest number of users.

In the previous post I discussed one company's obsession with keeping the final, delivered cost of tree tubes as low as possible to make them affordable for more tree planters.

Here is a great post from another company, Tree Protection Supply, which shares this philosophy, using creative, custom packaging and aggressive shopping of freight services to keep their prices on tree tubes  low.

So much of the price of the things we buy has nothing to do with the cost of raw materials and manufacturing, and everything to do with secondary costs such as transport, overhead, packaging, marketing - not to mention profit margin.

In the case of tree tubes many suppliers have extremely high secondary costs and profit margins.  It is therefore possible for companies that focus on keeping secondary costs to an absolute minimum to sell a BETTER PRODUCT at a LOWER PRICE than tree tube companies selling a product of lesser quality.

Hmmm ... Better product at a lower price.  That sounds to me like the way a technology goes from a niche product to widespread acceptance.  And tree tubes are definitely following that trajectory!

Inside Baseball on Tree Tubes

Here's an illuminating post on the history and behind-the-scenes business of tree tubes, and one company's efforts to get this amazing technology to market at the lowest possible price so as to be of the greatest benefit.

Click here.