The Rural Voice, 1998-05, Page 26Stretching up!
Plastic tree shelters can take new hardwood tree
plantations to new heights —
like four feet of growth in just one year
By Keith Roulston
(with information from the Ministry of Natural Resources)
The apple and walnut trees on
Rae McIntyre's Shallow Lake -
area farm have been growing
for four years and weren't more than
a foot or so high when he decided to
experiment with Tubex tree shelters.
By the end of the summer the trees
were sticking out six inches above
the top of the four -foot (1.2 metre)
plastic tube.
The plastic tree shelters are giving
hardwood trees an early boost that
can bring them to maturity several
22 THE RURAL VOICE
Field trials by the
Ministry of Natural
Resources show
tremendous growth
rates for first year
red oaks planted in
Tubex (above left)
and Tree Pro (above
right) shelters. The
shelters make it
possible to plant
hardwoods without
nurse crops of
evergreens.
years earlier than if no shelter was
used.
Jim Faught, co-ordinator of the
Grey County Forest Stewardship has
experience with the shelters after
taking part in five years of studies
that show they may provide an
alternative for establishitig hardwood
plantations in open areas instead of
using a nurse crop of evergreens.
The tubes mimic what happens in
a crowded forest situation, Faught
says. In a forest the young tree is
protected from wind and weed
competition but has to stretch to get
its share of available sunlight. -
The tree shelters, made of
translucent plastic, create a small
greenhouse inside that traps carbon
dioxide and moderates hot and cold
temperatures. They also protect the
trees from browsing rodents, insects
and deer. Placed around the trees
when they're planted, they also make
it easy to locate the trees and reduce
stress caused by transplanting.
The tree guards have been used in
Britain but only recently imported to
Canada. Two companies, Tubex in
Paris, Ontario and the Canadian
Supplier of Tree Pro in
Mississauga, supply the tubes in
various lengths from .6 metres to 1.8
meters. Cost of a 1.5 metre shelter
ranges from 54 to $4.75.
McIntyre used 1.2 metre Tubex
shelters last year on six walnut and
four apple trees which had been
showing little ambition to grow.
"They worked extremely well," he
says of the results. He feels the
seedlings had established good root
systems which enabled them to bolt
ahead in their first season in the tree
shelters. He's skeptical about the
claims that transplants can grow 1.5
meters in their first year.
But that's what the Ministry of
Natural Resources has found trials at
sites near Ridgetown, Cayuga,
Midhurst, Picton and Prescott. A
copy of Extension Notes, from the
Ministry shows photographs of one-
year -old red oak seedlings emerging
from the top of Tree Pro and Tubex
tubes.
To make the most of the
miraculous growth potential MNR
makes several suggestions. Prepare
the site by turning over the soil
before planting, says the MNR
Extension Note. It makes it easier to
push the tree shelters into the soil. If
planting in sod, MNR suggests using
a herbicide to kill perennial weeds
which might otherwise grow inside
the tube.
To reduce the shock of
transplanting, tree shelters should be
installed when the seedlings are
planted. The Tubex shelter is a light
brown tube with the top flared to
avoid stem abrasion. They are
shipped in groups of four, nestled
together, each with a slightly