For hardwood (deciduous/broadleaf) seedlings that are 6 inches to 36 inches in height…
Products to use:
Plantra Tree Tubes – to protect from deer & rabbits and reduce moisture stress
Plantra Weed Mats – so weeds don’t steal the nutrients, moisture & light your trees need
Plantra Fertilizer Packets – so your trees get all the nutrients they need (without becoming more tasty to the deer)
Deer Guard Repellent – to protect trees emerging from shorter tree tubes until they grow past the deer.
Products not to use:
Plantra Tree Bark Protectors
You won’t believe how fast you can get from seedling to tree with Plantra. The first thing you need to know is: Yes! You can put a 5-foot (or 4 foot, or 3 foot) Plantra Tree Tube over a tiny 6 inch seedling. Plantra Tree Tubes provide 3 major advantages:
Protection from deer & rabbit browse
Mini-greenhouse & safe haven from drying winds and drought
Shelter from herbicide spray, for fast and effective weed control (or just plain making weed control possible in the first place)
If you are planting hardwood seedlings for wildlife habitat and/or high value timber production, there are 3 things that will come between you and success.
We call them the 3 W’s: Wildlife, Weeds & Wind… and we have solutions for all 3.
Seedling Threat
Plantra Solution
Wildlife
Next time you see a mature oak tree, think about this: When that tree got started there were fewer than 3 deer per square mile.
In 2009 deer herds of 20, 30, 40 or more deer per square mile are common… and the impact on hardwood regeneration – both natural and planted – is enormous.
Simply put: Planting hardwood seedlings without deer browse protection is a waste of time.
On top of that, rabbits cause untold damage to new plantings. A lot of the animal browse blamed on deer is actually caused by rabbits; if the browsed tip was neatly sheared at a 45 degree angle, then rabbits were the culprit. Deer browse tips look like they were ripped and shredded… because they were.
Option 1:
Use 5ft Plantra Tree Tubes.
The “browse line” – the point above which deer typically do not browse – is between 4 and 5 feet in most places.
This means the best and surest way to grow your little seedlings past the browse line is to use 5ft Plantra Tree Tubes.
For rapid installation, proper dormancy in cold climates, and cooling in hot climates, use
5ft Vented Tree Tubes.
Option 2:
3ft or 4ft Tree Tube for initial protection PLUS
Deer Guard Repellent to protect emerging trees until they grow past the browse line.
Often grows face a choice: “I can’t afford a 5ft tube for every tree I’m planting. I can either protect a smaller number of trees with 5ft tubes, or I can protect more trees with a shorter tube. What should I do?”
A great solution to this dilemma is to use a shorter Plantra Tree Tube to provide initial browse & wind protection during the critical first year, and then treat the emerging trees as necessary with Deer Guard deer repellent until they grow past the browse line.
Option 3:
If rabbits & other rodents are your primary problem, use 2, 2.5 or 3ft Plantra Tree Tubes. O-style tubes provide faster installation. C-style tubes are easier to remove and reuse.
Weeds
Trees cannot complete with weeds & grasses for water, nutrients and light. The mature hardwoods you see today often benefitted from periodic fire to suppress grass and weeds long enough to get their roots established and their canopy above competition.
Option 1:
For complete 3 to 5 year weed control, use Plantra Weed Mats. These rugged woven poly mats can be applied of grass, stubble and brush, and are held in place with “sod staples.”
The upfront cost in money and labor is higher than herbicides, but…
Do it once, and your weed control is done
Our weed mats provide the added benefit of retaining precious soil moisture
Plantra Weed Mats are the perfect choice for the landowner with limited time to spend on maintenance – and never knows if it’s going to rain on the 1 weekend set aside to spray herbicides.
Option 2:
Herbicides, of course, can be a very effective means of weed control, especially for large scale plantings.
Here again Plantra Tree Tubes help in a number of ways:
The first problem you’ll face is simply finding you trees amidst the grass and brush. Plantra Tree Tubes make it easy to locate your trees (a lot of landowner who buy our tubes just for deer protection come back and tell us what a time-saver they are in locating their trees!).
Second, the tubes shield seedlings from herbicide spray, so you can quickly spray around them without fear of damaging your seedlings.
Wind (and Drought)
The small root systems of seedlings have access to a very limited amount of soil moisture. In the meantime the wind strips moisture from leaf surfaces, further stress the plant.
First, it’s an issue of survival: Will roots tap into enough moisture before wind, heat & drought deplete its limited moisture reserves? It’s a race against time, and it’s a rare year when seedlings get all the moisture they need, when they need it.
Second, it’s a matter of growth: Moisture stress prevents seedlings from reaching their growth potential… and the longer they stay small the more they are susceptible to animals and weeds (so ultimately it’s a matter of survival once again).
Plantra Tree Tubes of every type and size reduce moisture stress by shielding seedlings from the desiccating effects of the wind. They function like a “mini-greenhouse.”
Plantra Weed Mats reduce moisture stress 2 ways:
Preventing weeds & grass from stealing the moisture your seedlings need
Retaining soil moisture by reducing surface evaporation
