If your question is not addressed below, we invite you to call and speak with our forestry staff to get the answers you need.

1. My bid specifies "Tubex Treeshelters or the equivalent." Do Plantra Treeshelters qualify as "equivalent?"
2. Who is Plantra and how much experience do you have with treeshelters?
3. If Plantra Treeshelters are so much better, how come they cost so much less?
4. Are Plantra Treeshelters made in the USA?
5. Can you make Plantra Treeshelters green to blend in with the scenery?
6. Do Plantra Treeshelters have a flared rim?
7. Do Plantra Treeshelters have a perforation to allow the tube to split open as the tree expands and to prevent girdling?
8. What diameter are Plantra Treeshelters… and why does diameter matter?
9. If every tube is the same diameter, how are they shipped?
10. Do Plantra Treeshelters come in nested sets of various diameters?
11. Does it take longer to install Plantra Treeshelters as compared to nested treeshelters?

Question 1.
My bid specifies “Tubex Treeshelters or the equivalent.” Do Plantra Treeshelters qualify as “equivalent?”

A.
Plantra Treeshelters are not equivalent… they are SUPERIOR in every respect that governs the outcome of the project.

Color – Plantra’s peach color optimizes the ratio of red light for optimal photosynthesis and balanced plant growth.

Diameter – Plantra’s large 3.9 inch diameter produces trees with thicker stems and a balanced root/shoot ratio.

Ventilation (optional) – Ventilation offers important advantages:

• Temperature equalization – to promote proper dormancy;
• Humidity reduction – to prevent the incidence of foliar fungi;
• Dappled sunlight – which allows enough light for optimal photosynthesis but not enough light to stress the leaves;
• Measured air flow – to gently move leaves and stimulate stem thickening and root development;
• Improved Co2 replenishment – important in taller tubes.
  

Question 2.
Who is Plantra and how much experience do you have with treeshelters?

A.
Plantra is a Minnesota-based company dedicated to revolutionizing woody plant establishment. We are a rapidly growing company with a highly talented team of people and a very long history in treeshelter manufacture and design. At the core of the team are three partners with more treeshelter design experience than anyone in the world:

Joe Lais – Made the telephone call that introduced treeshelters to the USA from the UK in 1988. No one has been doing this longer. Joe has been continuously researching, designing and testing treeshelter/grow tube performance ever since. He is the foremost expert on light transmission effects on growth in treeshelters.

Chris Siems – Started working with Joe upon graduation from forestry school (University of Minnesota) in 1989. Chris has also been continuously working with treeshelters ever since.

Steve Tillmann – Another University of Minnesota-trained forester, Steve joined Joe & Chris in the mid-1990’s.

Together our treeshelter design team has nearly 50 years of experience in developing tubes to optimize performance.

Question 3.
If Plantra Treeshelters are so much better, how come they cost so much less?

A.
Volume, overhead, and distance.

Plantra is the #1 selling tree/grow tube in the USA. Large production volumes create economies of scale that keep production costs very low.

Plantra is a very low-overhead company. Our large sales volumes mean we can operate on very smaller profit margins.

Plantra Treeshelters are made in the USA, in Pennsylvania, so shipping costs are much lower as compared to imported products.

Plantra is committed to ensuring that the cost of success is affordable and practical. There are few aspects of planting that are more expensive than “re-planting”. Still, we’re committed to providing the lowest cost to achieve the highest degree of success.

Question 4.
Are Plantra Treeshelters made in the USA?

A.
Yes! Plantra Treeshelters are manufactured in Pennsylvania.

Besides the fact that this means that your reforestation dollars stay here in the USA, manufacturing domestically has three additional advantages:

1. Rapid response time – we can produce even very large orders in a short period of time.
2. Reduced transportation costs and carbon footprint.
3. Ability to produce custom tubes to your specifications (for large orders); we can produce any length tube, with or without venting, with or without the ties pre-threaded – to meet your individual preferences and specifications.
   

Question 5.
Can you make Plantra Treeshelters green to blend in with the scenery?

A.
We can...but we won’t.

From the plant’s perspective – and therefore from the perspective of the success of your project - green is the worst color for a treeshelter.

At Plantra we would rather lose the bid than to make and sell a treeshelter that bathes the tree in green light.

Plants use red and blue light for photosynthesis. Red is the most important of these for fueling biomass growth. Blue is primarily responsible for photomorphogenesis - directional growth and controlling apical dominance.

Green tubes are green because they absorb red and blue light. They both reflect and transmit green light. Therefore the environment inside is very rich in green light as a ratio of red and blue.

Plants don’t use green light (that’s what makes them green - they reflect green light while absorbing red and blue).

Plants have very sophisticated photoreceptor systems that constantly gather information about their environment so that the plant can allocate its limited growth resources to the best advantage. Photoreceptors measure the ratio of different wavelengths of light to draw conclusions about their surroundings.

An environment that is very rich in green light "tells" the plant that it is in the shade and is surrounded by competing vegetation. This has very unfavorable effects on plant growth and health. Depending on the species, an environment rich in green light either cause the plant’s growth to slow down or stop growing in order to conserve limited resources until growth conditions become more favorable (they way that many oaks remain in a state of virtual stasis on the forest floor for decades until an opening is created in the canopy above).

Alternatively – and more commonly – trees in green tubes exhibit "shade response" growth with a thin, spindly stem and a weak root/shoot ratio. From the plant’s perspective, this response makes sense. All of the data received by its photoreceptors tell the tree that it is surrounded by competing vegetation. Why invest growth energy in thickening its stem and growing more roots? The logical (and evolutionarily adapted) growth response is to devote all of its growth energy into racing the competing vegetation for sunlight.

The result is a tree that is more susceptible to frost damage and heat stress, a tree with a spindly stem that is easily damaged by the rim of the tube (even a tube with a flare - notice that tubes that produce spindly stem trees are the ones that have/need a flared rim), and one that takes much more time upon emergence from the tube to re-balance its stem caliper and root system before resuming growth.

By contrast, Plantra’s peach/pink color optimizes red light for optimal photosynthesis. In essence the goal is to "trick" the plant into "thinking" it is in full sunlight, while gaining the protective and moisture stress-reducing benefits of treeshelters.

Plantra Treeshelters take light management one step further, into the non-visible part of the spectrum. Leaves absorb red light, while far-red light passes through as though through a pane of glass. Consequently the light under a leaf canopy is very low in red light and very rich in far-red light. Plants have a photoreceptor system called Phytochrome that measures this ratio and allocates growth resources accordingly.

Plantra in an environment that has a high red/far-red ratio allocate more of their resources to secondary growth characteristics of stem caliper and root development.

The plant gets plenty of blue light from the top of the tube – where blue light belongs. The sky is deepest blue at the center, and plants are adapted to grow toward the center of the sky. That makes blue a poor choice for a treeshelter. By bathing the tree in blue light it literally doesn’t "know" which way is up, and every bud "thinks" it is the apical bud which releases hormones to inhibit the growth of lower buds to maintain apical dominance.

Question 6.
Do Plantra Treeshelters have a flared rim?

A.
No, because Plantra Treeshelters don’t need one.

Early treeshelters needed to have flared rims for three reasons:

1. To attempt to remedy the problems caused by poor basic treeshelter design. Small diameter and green treeshelters produce trees with very thin, spindly stems which upon emergence from the tube are swayed and bent by the wind, creating abrasion around the rim of the tube.
2. Tubes that are shipped as nested set of various diameters need a flared rim so that the inside tubes don’t slide out during shipping or transport in the field. Again, it is an imperfect solution to a flawed design.
3. Other treeshelters are made from plastic that is much more stiff and rigid; without a flared the rim would act like a serrated knife on the tender bark of the emerging tree.

Plantra Treeshelters do not need a flared rim because:

1. Our color and large diameter create a tree with a much thicker stem, a stem that is much less vulnerable to abrasion upon emergence from the tube.
2. By making a single diameter and packing them flat there is not need to a flare to keep a nested group of tubes together.
3. Plantra Treeshelters are made with a special blend of polyethylene resins which is rigid enough to protect and support the tree during the critical establishment phase, but supple and pliable enough to cradle the emerging stem without abrasion.

Remember: Plantra Treeshelters are the #1 selling grow tube/tree tube in the USA. Millions have been used under every conceivable set of growing conditions, from grapevines and desert restoration in California, to shelterbelts on the windswept Plains states, to hardwood regeneration & riparian restoration in the eastern USA.

If you have any concerns about the rim design, please don’t hesitate to contact us by phone at 1-800-931-3806 or by email at info@plantra.com and we’ll be happy to tell you more and give references for previous users under similar conditions.

Question 7.
Do Plantra Treeshelters have a perforation to allow the tube to split open as the tree expands and to prevent girdling?

A.
Yes. And unlike "laser line" perforations which stop 1/2 to 3/4 inch from the edges of the tube creating a ring of plastic that won’t split open, Plantra’s perforation is continuous to the edge of the tube.

Question 8.
What diameter are Plantra Treeshelters… and why does diameter matter?

A.
Every Plantra O-style Treeshelter is 3.9 inches in diameter.

20 years of experience and testing has shown that 3.5 inches is minimum acceptable diameter for a treeshelter.

Why does tube diameter make such a big difference? The smaller the diameter of the tube, the more the leaves in the tube shade each other. Consequently the trees grow like trees in a shady understory: they allocate all of their growth resources to stretching for the light, and allocate very few resources to "secondary" growth such as stem thickness and root development.

Of course small diameter tubes with a lot of self-shading also effectively reduce the total amount of photosynthesis taking place in the tube.

The larger the diameter of the tube, the less the leaves shade each other, and the more the tree allocates resources to secondary growth. There is more total photosynthesis occurring in the tube, because more sunlight is striking the leaf surfaces without shade, and there is more total leaf surface area to fuel growth.

Question 9.
If every tube is the same diameter, how are they shipped?

A.
Plantra Treeshelters are made as cylindrical tubes and then are shipped flat. Our special resin blend and the way we crease & pack them make it easy to form them into cylinders in the field.

Question 10.
Do Plantra Treeshelters come in nested sets of various diameters?

A.
No. Every Plantra O-style Treeshelter (the type most commonly used on large reforestation projects) is 3.9 inches in diameter.

Making tubes in nested groups forces the manufacturer to choose between two bad alternatives:

1. Make the inside tubes very small in diameter to keep costs low...and in the process produce trees with thin, spindly stems and a weak root/shoot ratio.
2. Make the inside tubes large enough for healthy, balanced growth...and in the process the outer tubes become so large in diameter that the cost becomes prohibitive.
   

Question 11.
Does it take longer to install Plantra Treeshelters as compared to nested treeshelters?

A.
No. If you order your Plantra Treeshelters with pre-threaded ties, installation times are virtually identical and in some cases faster because more tubes can be carried by each field installer, reducing trips back to the supply truck.