Tree Tubes spell relief from wind & moisture stress

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Looking at this photo you can practically hear the little bur oak seedling sighing, "Ahhhh."  I took this photo yesterday.  Nice sunny day, but the wind was howling with gusts up to 35mph and more.

 

An un-tubed bur oak seedling - or any seedling - would have been under severe moisture stress as the wind continually stripped away the moist envelope of air surrounding the leaves. Not this guy.  All he "felt" was the gentle swaying of the tree tube thanks to its PVC tree tube stake.  No wind.  No stress.  Just perfect conditions for growth. 

Why do trees grow so much faster in tree tubes?  Two reasons (well it's a lot more than two reasons, but we'll concentrate on two for today).  One a windy day like yesterday the leaves on un-tubed trees close their stomata - the pores through which they exchange gases and transpire moisture.  This is a good strategy for conserving limited moisture resources, but it's a bad strategy for photosynthesis, which slows dramatically.  In other words, it's a survival strategy, not a growth strategy.  By contrast the leaves of a seedling in a tree tube keep their stomata open and photosynthesis continues full bore.

Since the leaves of the seedling in a tree tube are not exposed to stressful, windy conditions they can optimize their morphology and structure for growth:  High surface to weight ratio to optimize light absorption and gas exchange, bright glossy surface.  The leaves of a seedling outside a tree tube are smaller, thicker, darker and duller.  They are survival leaves, not growth leaves.

To put it another way (and to use a Memorial Weekend analogy), the leaves in a tree tube are an Indy car, while the leaves of an un-tubed seedling are a 1974 Pinto.

Tree Tubes Withstand Flooding

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A customer in Mississippi sent this photo after recent high winds and (obviously) torrential rains.

Even after all that, his Tubex Tree Tubes with PVC Tree Tube Stakes are still standing strong!

Tree Tubes: Giving Nature a helping hand

If you end up with some extra tree tubes after you're done protecting your newly planted seedlings, chestnuts and acorns, here are a couple of ways you can put those tree tubes to use:

1. Use tree tubes on naturally regenerated seedlings (volunteers) that you want to favor and protect

2. Use tree tubes on stump sprouts (suckers) that grow after an older tree dies or is harvested

Obviously growing from seed or re-sprouting from an existing root system are two ways trees have been reproducing since the dawn of time.  But keep in mind that only a tiny percentage of those naturally regenerated trees ever survived to reach maturity - and today's volunteer seedlings or sprouts face more dangers in the form of record high deer populations and dozens of invasive weed species than ever before.  Covering them with Tree Tubes not only shields them from deer browse, it makes it easier for you to locate those special young trees and give them some weed & brush control.

So you don't always have to plant a tree to grow a tree.  Sometimes you can simply take what Mother Nature starts and give it a helping hand.

Projects Of The Week

Whew, it was a whirlwind of a week* with a bunch of new tree planting projects getting off to a successful start.  The pace of orders and shipments turns this time of year into a bit of a blur, so I apologize if I'm forgetting some.

> A grower in PA bought a bunch of 24" tree tubes (yes, we have those - pls call for a quote!) to use on direct seeded American chestnuts and other trees.  And yes, she did get our special discount available to anyone using our Tree Tubes on American chestnut trees to help restore this magnificent species.

> Hazelnut bushes in Georgia - which will benefit from our Vented Tree Tube design

> Genetically select bur oaks in Texas

> Grapevines in Minnesota, Iowa and Pennsylvania

> Northern red oak and black walnut in Michigan

> Riparian buffer CREP project in Virginia

> Willows and cottonwoods in a riparian buffer CREP project in eastern Oregon

As always, thanks to all of our customers for allowing me and Wilson Forestry Supply to play at least a small part in the success of your projects.  Our success is measured by the success, growth and health of your trees, and how quickly they fulfill your plans.

* Speaking of whirlwinds, check out our Tree Tube News section to read how our Tubex Combitube Treeshelters and PVC Tree Tube Stakes withstood sustained 50mph winds in the South.

Tree Tubes Promote Stem Thickness - In Time

A customer asked a very good and well informed question this morning (that's not surprising - our customers are the smartest and best informed tree planters out there!):  She had read that trees need to shake and sway in the wind in order to add stem thickness/caliper, and worried that this would not happen in tree tubes. 

I gave a three part answer, which this poor customer probably regarded as "20 minutes of her life she'll her life she'll never get back," even though she was kind enough to listen and sound appreciative.  To save you the same 20 minute discussion, here's the Reader's Digest condensed version:

1) It's true that while a seedling is growing up through a tree tube and out the top it does not sway or flex as much as an un-tubed tree, and has a thinner stem relative to its height than the un-tubed tree.  (On the plus side, the tree is the tree tube is actually alive after the first few years, whereas odds are increasingly against the same being said for the un-tubed tree, due to deer browse and drought.)

2) This is not as true for the new vented Tubex Combitube Tree Tubes we offer here at Wilson Forestry Supply, especially when that vented tree tube is coupled with a PVC stake.  Vented tubes have been shown to promote better stem diameter growth than the old, unvented treeshelters used years ago.  And using a PVC stake allows the tree tube - and therefore the tree inside - to sway in the wind, triggering the same growth responses you see in an un-tubed tree: increased stem caliper and taper.

3) Even with today's better tree tubes and with PVC stakes, at the point in time the tree emerges from the tree tube it will have a thinner stem relative to its height than would an un-tubed tree.  That's OK!  That's why our tree tubes are designed to last 5+ years, so that after the tree emerges the tube can continue to support the trunk.  Once the emergent tree starts swaying in the wind you will see that it quickly adds stem taper and thickness.

Phrase of the day: Seismo Stress

I love learning new botanical and plant physiology terms and understanding how they apply to the science of tree tubes. I have written several posts lately about how today's tree tubes produce saplings that resemble open-grown trees in terms of stem thickness and stem taper, as compared to trees grown in the old, small diameter, unvented tree tubes we used years ago (and, of course, as compared to open-grown trees that get eaten by deer, killed by drought or swarmed under by weeds!).

Three advancements in tree tube design help account for this.

1) Larger diameter tubes - leaves in today's larger tree tubes are able to fully expand and absorb more light; they "think" they are open grown as opposed to compressed in a small diameter tree tube.

2) Vented tree tubes - venting has several advantages, including increased CO2 availability and allowing the tree inside to go dormant for winter to avoid frost damage.  Another advantage is that the air flow through the tubes gently shakes the leaves, "telling" them they are growing in an open field while still giving them the protection and moisture stress reduction of a tree tube.

3) Flexible PVC tree tube stakes - our pvc stakes for tree tubes sway in the wind, and that shaking triggers the production of ethylene, which in turn tells the tree to allocate more of its growth resources to stem thickness and taper.

In researching these posts and looking for a way to explain this phenomenon I came across the term "seismo stress."  I probably learned that term back in plant physiology in forestry school, but since that was a long time ago (before the evolution of angiosperms), I had forgotten it.  In fact I probably forgot it the day after the exam.  If not before.

Seismo of course refers to shaking, in the way that a seismograph measures the amplitude of earthquakes.  Too much shaking induces stress that inhibits growth.  A little bit of shaking (e.g. with a vented tree tube and a pvc stake) encourages a better balance between height growth and stem diameter.

The Science Behind Vented Tree Tubes: Air Flow Increases Stem Diameter

For me today is a day for feeling old.  Not only have I been working with tree tubes for nearly 22 years, I just learned that one of my best customers was born the year I graduated from high school; I had already been working at garden centers and as a freelance landscaper for 2 years before he was born, thinking about better ways of planting oak trees into the landscape.

But with age comes experience, and with experience comes - hopefully - wisdom.  One area in which the entire forestry community has more wisdom than we did 22 years ago is in tree tube design and function.

Back in the early days - the stone age - of tree tubes in the USA we all thought that a treeshelter should be an air-tight chamber; unventilated with the base pushed into the soil.  We all dreaded the idea of a "chimney effect" of air movement in the tube, fearing that it would overheat or over-dry the seedling inside.

How wrong we were!  Nowadays there is a large and growing body of research that shows that vented tree tubes 1) increase overall growth and 2) result in a better distribution of growth - you get a larger tree with similar allocation of growth between height, stem diameter and roots as an un-tubed tree.

Here is a great page summarizing the current body of research on vented tree tubes.

With every passing year we learn more about how to use tree technology to produce trees with a growth allocation that more closely approximates that of open grown trees.  Of course there is one BIG difference between a tree grown in a Wilson Tree Tube by Tubex and an open grown tree:  One is still alive, and one was eaten by deer!

So while I've been at this tree tube thing for a long time, it's exciting to see how far we've come, and to think about how much there is still to learn.

Wilson Tree Tubes For American Chestnut

Many people know the story of the American chestnut tree, but sadly many more people don't.  It is one part tragedy, one part farce, ten parts dedication and hopefully, ultimately, 100 parts triumph.

Chestnut blight is a fungal disease that was accidentally introduced to the USA from Asia in about 1900.  Several species of Asian chestnuts had co-evolved with the blight fungus, and were resistant.  The American chestnut - a towering, majestic tree that dominated the forests of Appalachia and much of the eastern USA - had virtually no inherent resistance.  Within 50 years more than 3 billion American chestnut trees were dead.  (We'll never know the degree to which the American chestnut population might have had some innate resistance to chestnut blight; as the disease ripped through the eastern hardwood forest landowners were instructed by foresters to cut down all of their chestnut trees, on the assumption that they were all doomed, to salvage the lumber value.  The fact that a small number of American chestnut trees did survive the blight, and the fact that in large populations a certain number of individuals almost always survive even the worst epidemics, leads us to believe that there would have been thousands of survivors that could have formed the basis of a breeding program to restore a pure American chestnut to the woods.  Such an effort is underway thanks to an incredibly dedicated group of folks, but still we wonder what might have been if those chestnuts had been left standing to determine which could withstand the blight.)

The American Chestnut Foundation was founded by, among others, four brilliant men with - I'm proud to say - Minnesota connections:  Charles Burnham, Philip Rutter, David French and Donald Willeke.  The plight of the American chestnut was thought by most to be hopeless.  These men had other ideas, and under Burnham's guidance initiated a bold and far-reaching plan:  Adapt the precepts of the traditional "back cross" breeding done in other fields of agriculture to the American chestnut.

In other words, cross-breed the American chestnut with blight resistance Asian chestnuts, and then continue to back-cross the most blight resistant of these offspring with American chestnuts.  The goal, of course, is to produce trees that gain the disease resistance genes of the Asian chestnuts, while maintaining and exhibiting the physical characteristics of the might American chestnut.

That process is several generations down the road, and the results are incredibly exciting and promising.  I stand in bewildered awe of the dedication of the American Chestnut Foundation and its head plant breeder/farm manager Fred Hebbard.

At the same time there are other ways to restore the American chestnut.  The aforementioned American Chestnut Cooperators Foundation, whose goal is to breed a blight-resistant tree that is 100% American chestnut in its genetics by working with the few chestnuts that survived the onslaught, the dedicated folks who are working with hypovirulent strains of the fungus in hopes of stopping the blight in its tracks as happened in Europe, and the amazing people who are applying genetic engineering to create chestnut trees capable of fighting off the fungus.

I salute you all.

And here at Wilson Forestry Supply we hope, at least in our own small way, to help in any way we can.  Our Tubex Combitube Tree Tube is ideally suited for use on American chestnut seedlings or direct seeded chestnuts.  Large diameter vented tree tubes have proven to be the best choice for American chestnuts.

If you are planting American chestnut trees this spring, give us a call.  We offer special discount pricing to all of the dedicated folks working to restore the American chestnut to its rightful place in our eastern forests.

Top 10 Trees People Protect With Tree Tubes

After 21 years of marketing tree tubes, I thought I’d try my hand at creating a list of the top ten tree species on which people choose to use tree tubes.

There are two different ways to determine this: total number of tree tubes used on a certain type of tree, or the percentage of trees of a certain type that planters choose to tree tube.

My list is a combination of the two, with some representatives from both categories.

1. Sawtooth oak (and ‘Gobbler’ Sawtooth oak)
If you’re planting sawtooth oak (Quercus accutissima) that means you’re planting for wildlife. And if you’re planting for wildlife, that means you have wildlife that likes to eat tree seedlings. You also want to get a fast growing, early-producing tree into production ASAP. No sawtooth oak should ever be planted without a tree tube.

2. Black walnut (Juglans nigra)
One of our highest value hardwoods is also a favorite of deer in many locations.  If you’re planting black walnut you’re most likely planting to leave a legacy of beauty and value to your children and grandchildren. 

Note: Black walnut was particularly susceptible to winter injury in the older, un-vented tree tubes, and so many walnut growers stopped using tree tubes for a while.  Now with the introduction of vented tree tubes this is no longer a problem, and black walnut growers and coming back to tree tubes in droves.

3. Any hybrid oak – any Quercus X with an x in the Latin name!
Hybrid oaks typically grow fast and bear acorns at an early age.  Planted for wildlife, and even for human food, every acorn for a hybrid oak is worth protecting.

4. Crab apple (Malus sp.)
A soft mast favorite of those folks planting to enhance wildlife habitat, you wouldn’t believe how fast it grows in tree tubes – 10″ bare root seedlings emerging from 5′ tree tubes the first year is not unusual!  Significant mast production in year 3 is also a very real possibility with tree tubes and aggressive weed control.

5. Persimmon (Diospyros sp.)
Persimmon in another soft mast wildlife favorite in Southern states.  Every one deserves a  tree tube for optimal growth.

6. Bur oak (Quercus macrocarpa)
Like most oaks, bur oak grows a lot faster than you think, and even more so in tree tubes.  Put a bur oak seedling (or direct seeded acorn) in a tree tube and you’ll be amazed.  With the arrival of Emerald Ash Borer in the Midwestern and Plains states bur oak will – and should – fill a bigger role in windbreak and shelterbelt plantings.

(And if you’re planting a windbreak or shelterbelt, by definition you’re in a place where it’s hard to grow trees – you’re in the prairie. Just like your crops and farmstead need the trees you plant to shield them from wind, the trees you plant need treeshelters to shield them from that same wind!)

7. Northern red oak (Quercus rubra)
Northern red oak might be the "most tubed" tree in history, due to its importance as a source of high value hardwood timber and its appeal to deer as a midnight snack.  Foresters don't usually tube every northern red oak - just 30 to 50 per acre to insure a certain minimum stocking level  - so they won't have to go back and start over if (when) deer eat every last red oak.

An underused method is to use tree tubes on northern red oak stump sprouts, and on natural regeneration (especially after they turn scarlet in the and stand out like beacons on the forest floor).

8. Apples, plums and pears planted for wildlife (Malus, Prunus and Pyrus sp.) – especially any fruit tree with a varietal name like Arkansas Black, Chickasaw, Yates, Deer Golden, Methley, Ozark Premier, Dixie Delight, Galloway, etc.)
The varietal name means you paid more for a tree with specific characteristics – fruit flavor, ripening time, etc.  And it means you have high expectations for its performance.  Not using a tree tube is like buying a new Corvette and not doing oil changes!

9. Nuttall oak (Quercus nuttallii)
Our fastest growing native oak can grow even faster – and start feeding wildlife sooner – with tree tubes!

10. American chestnut (Castanea dentata)
Chestnut Blight.  One Asian fungus, fifty years, and 4.5 billion trees dead.  The majestic American chestnut once towered over the Eastern hardwood forest, until the first half of the 20th Century.  Thanks to the heroic work of groups like the American Chestnut Foundation new, blight-resistant American chestnuts are being planted to restore the “Sequoia of the East” to its rightful place in our forests.  Every single nut and seedling planted is precious, and we can’t lose any of them to deer, drought or competing vegetation.

11. (I know I’m cheating by adding an 11th item) Any California oak
The beautiful native oaks of California are in decline due multiple factors:  Cattle grazing, lack of fire to control competition, drought, and deer.

Tree tubes are playing a critical role in the reestablishment of California’s amazing oaks.

Others receiving votes:  Chinese chestnut, paw paw, baldcypress and black cherry. And anything planted for ecological restoration or wetland mitigation. Or in a windbreak. Or for wildlife habitat. Or for riparian buffers. Or in parks or our landscapes (instead of planting large B&B trees with deformed roots, more and more urban foresters are choosing to plant seedlings with tree tubes to allow the root system to develop naturally without disturbance).

Oh, never mind… it would be easier to do a list of the top 10 trees that shouldn’t have tree tubes.  Because there aren’t any!

Wilson Forestry - The Best Gets Better

Tubex Treeshelters have been the "gold standard" for hardwood establishment worldwide since 1985.  Their easy of installation and durability have made them the choice of tree planting contractors and forestry professionals.

Wilson Forestry Supply is proud to offer the Tubex CombiTube Treeshelter, without question the most advanced tree tube on the market today... and at unbeatable pricing.

What makes the Tubex CombiTube so unique?  It's the only tube that combines the classic Tubex nested tube design with the benefits of ventilation.

Back in 1989 when Tubex Treeshelters were the first tree tube introduced to the USA most foresters thought that a tree tube should be an air-tight chamber.  Man, were we ever wrong!  Subsequent research has shown that vented tree tubes have multiple benefits:

1) Increased CO2 availability, for more total photosynthesis (in the old unvented tubes, the tree seedlings would use up all the CO2 in the tube and then stop growing until the tube was slowly "recharged" with CO2)

2) Better stem caliper growth - those little puffs of wind and the dots of sunlight that come though the vent holes are not enough to cause moisture stress, but are enough to foster better stem thickness growth

3) Reduced heat and moisture build up in the Southeast means fewer problems with foliar fungi as compared to unvented tubes

There is no case where ventilation is not beneficial - no matter where your project is and no matter what species you are planting.  If your job specifications call for Tubex Treeshelters but do not specify vented tubes, give us a call.  We can help get vented tubes accepted and create a win/win/win for you, your client and the trees!  Call Chris at 507-301-5106.