Plastic tree guards/tubes etc

[carlos]

do whips really need shelters? a lot of extra money and labour.

i have found even in mega bramble the trees do ok really, we often clear around them with a strimmer but i often wonder if it does more harm than good if you know what i mean.

i guess if rabbits are a problem then one would have to protect the trees.

[Stere]

Id say often un-needed. In most cases I see them used it  doesn't make sense to me.

 

I think for example money would be better spent on a strip bio mulch mat rather than the ubiqitious  spiral plastic guards  used on staggered double  rows of native hedging?

 

Yeah trees can do fine  in brambles scrub etc which often can protect from animal damage but probably the trees dojust grow alot slower with the light competition. So it depends on  if there are  deer about  etc what is best.

 

 

Shade tolerant tree saplings supressed under canopy shade can stay tiny for ages until given a chance so its species dependent also.

 

 

Also might be a  different approach id say  for protecting trees that need good form for timber and some amenity trees where doesn't matter so much.

 

 

Not a bad summary:

 

Quote

It has become the accepted norm in the UK that to plant a tree, you need to put your sapling in the ground and then wrap a plastic tree guard around it. This is simply ‘how it’s done’ now. This practice uses a huge amount of plastic; worse still, it disperses plastic extremely efficiently around the countryside. In some rural places, un-retrieved tree guards are by far the biggest source of plastic pollution. And yet the first commercial plastic tree guards only came on the market 38 years ago¹. There are many perfectly healthy, lovely woodlands and trees that are quite a lot older than this, and which became established without plastic, thank you very much – which begs the question: do we really need guards?

 

 

The Angel’s Share | Stump up for Trees

STUMPUPFORTREES.ORG

 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Stere