I ordered some trees from the Missouri Dept of Conservation as a result of reading another thread on this forum. I’d like to plant them in a portion of my yard that isn’t fenced in. I am exploring tree tubes as a means to protect the young trees, mostly from voles and somewhat from deer browse.
Has anyone found non-plastic, biodegradable tree tubes on the market? I have a couple of quotes out to vendors that sell compostable ones made of wood or cardboard. On the flip side, I’ve noticed some companies call their product recyclable or biodegradable and the tube itself is polypropylene.
Are there alternatives to plastic tree tubes I can look into that may help shelter my new trees?
I use 4” perforated drain pipe. Get it in 10’ lengths and cut to length. Then I put a 4-5 wire fence with a 5’ t post for the deer. The tube is more for herbicide than keeping anything out. I did 85 like that in February.
DoubleA has something like a milk carton open at both ends, for putting on grapevines. People also use misprints of actual milk cartons, might be where this idea originally came from. I do not know if this would protect trees well enough or long enough. For deer browse you would need to add wire fencing tall enough, this would be fine for chemicals or voles.
I might try a couple of the EcoDepot ones just to see how it goes. In the meantime I will pot up my whips and try and hold them for a season or two inside the fenced in part of our yard before planting them out in the field.
As much as the tree tubes cost, I like being able to reuse the tubes over and over. I pull them off when a tree is ready to be on it’s own, and then move on to the next tree. I guess that applies to planting a lot and not so much a yard setting.