Tree Tube Maintenance

[Smokey Hills Bandit]

The previous owner had planted acorns nearly a decade ago and all the trees were about a foot tall with all the browsing pressure. Last spring I picked up 100, 4ft tubes for $1 each off Facebook and went to town.  5ft would have been better but the cost savings was too great to pass up.

Removing the tube and cleaning all the dead leaves out




5ft of growth in a single year and the tip had been chomped off.

[glenn57]

looks like you'll need to get the tube stretcher out!!!!!!!

[Smokey Hills Bandit]

looks like you'll need to get the rube stretcher out!!!!!!!

For me and the tree!

[glenn57]

looks like you'll need to get the rube stretcher out!!!!!!!

For me and the tree!

[deadeye]

Great score there, Smokey

[delcecchi]

4 feet high enough to keep bambi from topping them?

[HD]

I keep on telling my self that I need to pick up some of them tubes! 

[deadeye]

I need a couple hundred bigger ones.  I have the same issue with hundreds of oaks I planted years ago.  Most are only waist high and look like shrubs. 

[Smokey Hills Bandit]

4 feet high enough to keep bambi from topping them?

There were a few tops that were eaten off.. The roots systems are 10 years old so my hope is they shoot from 4' to 6'/7' this year and give themselves a fighting chance. I may even scoot the tubes a foot higher as there was no evidence of girdling before I tubed them.

[LPS]

My ol neighbor who used to manage the property that we bought planted some white pines along a fence line here in the woods.  He did that probably 25 years ago.  I found them and they are about a foot tall.  Deer keep eating them I suppose.  I need to put something on them to give them a chance. 

[Leech~~]

When we were camping in the Cascade River state park 2 weekends ago.  They had White pines fenced all over the place, some with signs explaining why?

[delcecchi]

A few years ago someone planted a bunch of white pines here, and they would put a piece of paper or light cardboard around the leader and staple it together.     Seemed to be enough that bambi didn't eat it, and last time I went by there they were like 8 feet tall and no paper...

[glenn57]

A few years ago someone planted a bunch of white pines here, and they would put a piece of paper or light cardboard around the leader and staple it together.     Seemed to be enough that bambi didn't eat it, and last time I went by there they were like 8 feet tall and no paper...

i see that alot up north where they plant new trees!!!!!!!

[Gunner55]

Always wondered why they did that, makes sense now. A couple spots along Hwy 46 where they've done that.

[LPS]

I will have to try that. 

[deadeye]

Yes, paper capping works wonders to save small pine trees from those blasted deer.

[Dotch]

You got any pics handy of the welded wire enclosures you put around some of your apples & other trees deadeye? Remember you posting some but can't remember how many steel posts you used. Looking at putting something around the hazelnuts to protect them from the deer and the sheep. I see the damn deer snapped a fiberglass post off on the electric fence out there this a.m. I plan on pasturing the windbreak where the hazelnuts are. Sick of mowing it. Not fond of baling hay either. The sheep will make short work of all the boxelder seedlings that are showing up and clean it up nicely otherwise.

Oops! Found one set of pics for the apple trees anyway. Not sure if the sheep would try to push on something like that or not. I could put some yellow electric fence insulators on it to make them think it's electric. They're pretty dumb.

https://mnoutdoorsman.com/forums/index.php?topic=39612.msg345536#msg345536