Tree Tube Poll - What is your tree planting objective?

This tree tube web site is polling visitors to learn what their primary tree planting objective is.

As of this writing the results are:
Wildlife Habitat - 40%
Food Crops - 19%
Ecological Restoration - 13%
Landscaping - 13%
Timber Production - 10%

I find these results fascinating, especially since I now have 23 years of tree tube experience to draw on and use as a basis of comparison.

In a very real sense the use of tree tubes is a measure of how much each group of growers cares about and is willing to invest in the success of their tree planting project.  I find it interesting - and a bit amusing - that folks using tree tubes to produce food for wildlife are more likely to seek out and purchase tree tubes than any other group!

I find it extremely encouraging that the number of folks using tree tubes to establish landscape trees is up to 13%.  Twenty three years ago that number would have been very close to zero.  I honestly think that the dramatic increase is due in part to a phenomenon that I have observed recently:  When people use tree tubes to establish seedling trees for wildlife or timber see how fast the trees grow, they no longer see the point of spending hundreds of dollars to plant trees in their yards.  Instead they plant seedlings - or even tree seeds - in their yard, protect them with tree tubes, and grow their landscape trees the inexpensive, fast, healthy and long-lived way.

Twenty-three years ago the percentage of tree tube customers whose primary interest was timber production - planting high value hardwoods such as black walnut and red oak - would have been closer to 90%.  The drastic reduction doesn't mean that the number of tree tubes used for hardwood regeneration has decreased; it hasn't.  It means two things:  1) The sales of tree tubes in the USA in many times what it was back then, and has expanded into many other areas of tree planting, and 2) It is much more common these days for trees to be planted with multiple goals in mind, and landowners are naturally more inclined to think of the goal(s) that have a chance of coming to fruition within their own lifetime (wildlife habitat, ecological restoration, etc.) as compared to the generation-spanning objective of timber production.

Tree Tubes for Planting Landscape Trees

Dr. Doug McCreary is the guru of oak regeneration in California.  Some years ago he spent his sabbatical in England, learning about English practices for growing, planting and protecting oaks.

One of his reports is here.

Bottom line:  We in the USA can learn an awful lot about successful and cost effective establishment of landscape and roadside trees.

Corollary:  Seedling trees in tree tubes 1) cost many times less, 2) survive at a higher rate, 3) grow faster and 4) live longer than what we currently do (planting large potted or B&B trees that cost hundreds of dollars, have deformed root systems, suffer years of transplant shock, grow slowly, and succumb to disease, insects and root strangulation).

Some key points from Dr. McCreary's report from the UK:

"When driving around the English countryside, one notices that treeshelters (tree tubes) are everywhere... Some estimates are that between three and five million treeshelters are sold annually in this country that is half the size of California."

"Even though the sight of treeshelter forests is not the most aesthetically pleasing - and I suspect some environmental groups might prefer to see them banned from the planet forever - they seem incredibly effective for reforestation in England (emphasis mine)."

We'll be looking at this issue of the aesthetics of tree tubes in a post later this week.  Not surprisingly I find a field with tree tubes in it for a few years to successfully establish trees that will live another 100 years much more aesthetically pleasing than a failed planting.

"While stuck in traffic, I tried to determine how many (tree) shelters in a roadside planting had surviving plants inside... a 'windshield assessment' indicated that over 90% of the trees were growing out of the tops of the tubes.  This is consistent with a large-scale survey here several years ago of over 4,000 (tree) shelters on 192 sites where 89% contained a living tree."

"Clearly the success rate seems far higher than for roadside plantings along California highways.  The fact that England has much more summer rainfall probably contributes greatly to excellent seedling growth and survival, but I suspect that (tree) shelters here are more carefully and properly installed and maintained... Whatever the English do, it works, and we have much to learn from their many years of experience with these devices (tree tubes) that, so far, seem particularly useful for regenerating oaks in California as well (emphasis mine)."

Tree Tubes for healthy, low-cost & long lived landscape trees

 The whole reason I started promoting tree tubes back in 1989 as a newly-minted Urban Forester (University of Minnesota) was because I saw them as a way to successfully plant in urban landscapes tree species that are not sold as large potted or B&B trees by the commercial nursery industry, but instead are available only as seedlings.  I was concerned primarily with oaks, which are not widely sold in the nursery trade due to the ridiculous misconception that they are slow growing, but also with other native species that are drastically under planted.

My thinking was:

1) Many tree species are only available as seedlings (especially deeply tap-rooted species that don't lend themselves to current nursery production practices)

2) Plant a seedling unprotected in the landscape and it will get eaten or run over with a lawn mower

3) Tree tubes + seedling trees = a low-cost, highly effective way to plant seedling trees in the landscape

Twenty-three years later my conviction that this is the best way to plant landscape trees is even stronger.  That's because I have learned,

1) Most potted or B&B trees sold in the commercial landscape industry have deformed, mangled and/or maimed root systems that impede growth, cause long term health problems, and dramatically shorten the lifespan of landscape trees.

2) The smaller the tree you plant, the less root disruption/deformation there is, the faster it will growth, the healthier it will be, and the longer it will live.

Landscape tree tube naysayers have often made the argument that tree tubes in the landscape, and especially when used for street trees, would likely become targets of vandalism.  To which I say:

1) In the increasing number of cases where tree tubes have been used to establish street, park and landscape trees the amount of vandalism has been nil.

2) Trees do get vandalized.  Would you rather have a vandal wreck a $300 B&B tree or a $10 tree tube and seedling combo?

I am getting more and more emails and phone calls from folks thinking along the exact same lines.  According to one online poll of tree tube buyers 13% of them are using the tree tubes to plant landscape trees.  Back when I started that number was a lot closer to zero. 

I received this email from a customer last week:

Within the last few weeks, the Emerald Ash Borer made its way into Massachusetts.  In central Massachusetts, the USDA has been trying to eliminate a threat from the Asian Long Horned Beetle.  I think because of pests like these there will be increasing emphasis on ways we can increase biodiversity in the forest.  The tree shelters seem like they should greatly improve results...  In these difficult economic times, the town does not have the funds to remove all the dead trees, never mind plant new ones.  I wondered if planting seedlings and using tree shelters might be an economical way to get something new planted in the springtime.

To which I say:  Amen!
 
 And here is an awesome post with a first hand case study of using tree tubes to plant landscape trees - and it involves planting my favorite tree, bur oak - a FAST GROWING, rugged, gorgeous trees that is laughably under planted in the landscape.