How great is this? I just got a text from a customer with these photo and these words:
May 7, 2013: “It will be out tomorrow!”
… Meaning “this tree will be out the top of the tree tube tomorrow.”
This is awesome in about 50 different ways. First, this is a sawtooth oak that was planted in mid-March in the Florida panhandle. It was about 12 inches tall at planting time. It’s been raining cats and dogs in that area; while there has been excellent (as in way too much) soil moisture, there hasn’t been a ton of sun to fuel growth.
And still this tree is popping out the top (correction, it will pop out the top tomorrow!) of a 4ft tree tube in less than two months, with the real growing part of the growing season still to come.
This is awesome because this customer has obviously been watching this tree – and the other couple hundred like it – nearly every day to monitor growth. It’s awesome because with tree tubes you can actually see a growth difference each day. This tree has grown nearly an inch a day, and considering the fact that many days have been cold and wet there have been days – days! – when this tree has grown 2 inches or more.
It’s awesome because my customers are the kind of people who enjoy watching trees grow – folks who mark the height of the seedling at planting time on the side of the tube, and make new dated marks as the seedling grows, exactly like we do with children. Except that it happens a lot faster!
It’s awesome because my customers are cool enough to think of me and send great pictures like this!
Update: Yes, it did grow out the top today!
May 8, 2013
Another update, two days later:
May 10, 2013
For those of you keeping score at home, that’s about 5 inches of growth in 3 days. And it’s only early May.
And no, the customer did not trade his cow for magic acorns – even though this sawtooth oak has grown faster in its tree tube than Jack’s beanstalk.
