There has been a major change in the level of acceptance of tree tubes in recent years. They are now considered standard operating procedure for successful tree planting. Several top-notch tree seedling nurseries offer – and highly recommend – tree tubes to their customers.
That’s new. When tree tubes were introduced to the USA 20+ years ago, nurseries were slow to embrace the technology. There were several reasons for this. For a nursery, offering treeshelters to its customers meant openly discussing the “elephant in the room” that everyone knew was there but no one wanted to discuss: The high level of deer browse, and the likelihood that the seedlings customers planted would get browsed off. Nurseries worried that openly discussing the threat of deer browse and recommending tree tubes as the solution would discourage people from planting trees in the first place, and would drive the cost of tree planting past what people were willing to spend.
20 years down the road, many things have changed:
1) The population density problem with deer has only gotten worse. The elephant in the room has become the blue whale in the room!
2) There is now a much more widespread understanding of the true cost of successful tree planting. When you compare the cost of tree tubes to just planting trees and walking away, they seem like an expensive added cost. However planting and walking away is recipe for failure – and repeated replanting. When you compare the cost of tree tubes to what you would have to do without them to have a successful project, then you realize that tree tubes actually save you money over the long haul.
3) Today’s nursery stock is light years better than 20 years ago. Root pruning pots and advancements in bare root production mean that the seedlings you get from today’s nurseries are supercharged for growth. The nurseries have more invested in producing these great seedlings, and the thought of sending them out unprotected to the field to be exposed to the ravages of deer browse and is unacceptable. And the customers who purchase them, wisely making the decision to spend a little more on top-notch planting stock with known superior genetics, also wisely make the decision to protect those seedlings with tree tubes.
Two of the very best nurseries producing seedlings for enhancing wildlife habitat have partnered with Wilson Forestry Supply to offer Tubex Combitube Tree Tubes: Mossy Oak’s Nativ Nurseries of West Point, MS and The Wildlife Group of Tuskegee, AL.
How strongly do these nurseries feel about our tree tubes? 1) When they plant trees on their own properties they never do so without our tree tubes. 2) The both tell their customers: If you have a certain budget for your project it’s better to reduce the number of trees you plant and cover them with tree tubes. 3) Both will tell people in no uncertain terms: If you plant trees without tree tubes you are wasting your time (which means you are also wasting the blood, sweat and tears they put into raising those trees).
After years spent trying to convince folks to use tree tubes, that argument has been won. Now the only question is: Which tree tube? The clear answer to that question: Tubex Combitube Treeshelters from Wilson Forestry Supply!
As always, if you have any questions about tree tubes, please contact us.
