Justin Peer

Thanks Rushes, that’s sound advice. Maybe just let them thin themselves out, it’s just hard to see a lovely tree keel over and do nothing to help it.

Morning all, thanks very much indeed for all the replies. So, it does sound like we should stake the trees at an angle, the only problem with that is that we couldn't then put guards round them. The trees were all bought as bare root slips 5 years ago so we couldn't really have done that at the time, there wasn't enough of the trunk to fasten like that I don't think. I'm going to get some shorter stakes and try staking the ones that fall from now on at an angle with something like sizal rope, which sounds like a good idea. I took the guards off a couple of the aspens a few months ago and the deer have already eaten the bark off those so not sure if many of them will survive but sounds like I can't keep doing what I've been doing up to now if I want the trees to grow stronger and be able to grow up unsupported.

Five years ago, we planted about a thousand native broadleaf trees in areas around the farm. They were supplied with tree guards and stakes because we get a lot of deer through here in North Devon. Over the years we've had a few trees fall over when the occasional stake has broken and I've replaced them, usually with something a bit beefier. This year though, with the storms over the winter we've had far more going over and it's getting expensive restaking everything. The supplied stakes were square hardwood and just don't seem to have been up to the job. Last week I had about twenty go over in the high winds we've just had, probably because the trees are now putting a fair amount of leaf on and that's acting like a sail. I've read that you should take the guards off after about 5 years but the trees just don't seem strong enough to stand up on their own if they're falling over when the stakes snap. I'm now wondering if I should have taken them off earlier and let them build more strength through movement in the wind or if that would just mean they'd all keel over and I'd lose the lot. in the nearby forestry plantation, there's a band of broadleaf that were planted around the edge of the conifer plantation and those guards were just left and gradually the trees burst through them, no idea if that's a healthy way for the trees to be left. If I were to do that I'd have to restake quite a lot of our trees with new stakes. Aternatively I could remove the guards and stake them with new stakes and proper tree straps which might allow them more movement to build up strength than just being in the guards. However, a new 50mm 1.8m stake is about £6 and a decent tree strap is about £4 so that's £10 per tree, and we have a thousand of them, so that would be a very expensive option. I'd appreciate any input from those more knowledgable about these matters or suggestions on how best to deal with this going forward. Meanwhile I've just ordered another ten stakes and straps for when the next few go over as it's due to be windy in a couple of days. https://imgur.com/a/83GJ4hN

Wood chips accepted