Just spoke to a gentleman from North Carolina who called to order tree tubes for the third time in a year. Some very interesting tidbits to this conversation:
In reviewing these orders I noticed that:
1) Every one is for an “oddball” quantity that other tree tube companies won’t even let you order (they’d have made him order 25, 50, etc.).
2) Even so he always paid less for the premium tree tube on the market – the Tubex Combitube Plus Tree Tube – than he would have paid for less durable, less effective, higher maintenance tree tubes.
He mentioned that the crab apples he planted as small seedlings last fall are in several cases 2ft above the 4ft tubes he used.
Unfortunately some of them have been browsed heavily by deer after emerging from the tubes. I am hearing this more and more these days. Deer are bigger, hungrier and more plentiful than ever. We discussed a couple of options for these trees. He noticed the deer left them alone once his wildlife food plots came into production in late summer, so the current plan is to treat them 2-3 times with a deer repellent early in the growing season. This should provide enough supplemental protection to get the trees past the browse line. If it doesn’t, then we’ll look at adding the 24-inch tree tube extenders that are becoming really popular among our customers.
This time around he switched to 5ft tree tubes. These are for sawtooth oak rather than crab apples. I have not doubt the 5 footer will provide enough protection for the sawtooths to get them past the deer. I also have no doubt that those sawtooth oaks will be out the tops of those 5 ft tubes at this time next year!
