Drain tiles for tree protection?

[buckaroo]

I'm getting ready to plant several trees, mostly apple, pear, chestnut. I have quite a bit of left over plastic, slotted, black, 4 inch tile. I've used them in the past with no problems. On my budget I cannot see myself buying the high dollar protection. Why aren 't more people using them ? Or am I alone on this?

 

[PickettSFHunter]

I'm not saying you can't have success with them but I am saying that black gets very hot in the sun and that can potentially damage trees with heat or by delaying or speeding up dormancy. Some species are more sensitive than others. They also won't let alot of light through evenly like a tree tube will.

 

[buckaroo]

I suppose u could take them off in the summer, at least no horning going on

 

[PickettSFHunter]

It's not just a potential problem in the Summer.

 

[Hunter 257W]

No light inside the tube and the heat from the black color would also be my concern. I hear what you are saying aout the cost of tree tubes but it also costs to cut corners and lose trees. I've been there with both my 1st and 2nd attempt to plant a large number of trees. You not only lose the cost of the tree but you lose time to 1st fruit or nut drop. Since trees take so long to grow compared to a food plot, I figure anything that will speed them up and up the odds of survival is worht the extra cost. Look at it this way, a tree planting is expensive on the front end compared to a food plot but once you get trees going, they will produce feed for years and years with no extra expense.

 

[treefarmer]

I have used about 18 of them on persimmon trees after they were maybe 4 feet tall. I cut the tube short enough to be below the lowest branch. I painted a few white with wal-mart cheap spray paint left over from a project and the paint held well for years. Slit the tubes lengthwise so you can remove them some day. They are still hard to hold open to get around the tree. I didn't lose any trees from the tubes that I know of and they are now very tall and maybe 5" diameter. Mine were tall enough so there weren't many leaves in the tube. If you have many leaves in the tube a semi-clear one would be best.

 

[buckaroo]

Another idea, roll of welded wire 50 ft about 30 $. Roll out couple feet to make cylinder, cheap 1.00$ electric fence stake, would be much cheaper than tubes

 

[Hunter 257W]

Another idea, roll of welded wire 50 ft about 30 $. Roll out couple feet to make cylinder, cheap 1.00$ electric fence stake, would be much cheaper than tubes

That would protect the trees from deer but it wouldn't restrict light and make the tree grow faster the way a tube does. I know what you are saying about the cost of tubes. I had the same hesitation to paying for the tubes. It adds up if you are planting 100 trees and already paying several $'s per tree then have to add another $3 per tree for a tube plus yet another $3 per tree for stakes. All I can say is to keep in mind that once trees are planted this way, you have for the most part got a self-supporting permanent food source for wildlife. In the long run, it's far cheaper than food plots.

On the other hand, if you don't mind a little slower growth, your wire idea would work just fine. One short cut I'll never take again is planting without "Moister Mizer" powder. For trees that you can't water, that cheap moisture retainer is the difference between success and failure from my experience.