I wonder how fast they would have grown in a good year?

Joe and I just made a visit to Ottertail Cty, MN that closed the book on another great year of collaboration with Babe Winkelman, host of Good Fishing and Outdoor Secrets and - just as importantly in Babe's mind - steward of a property he is working (man, is he working!) to enhance for wildlife and pass down to his children & grandchildren.

Working with Babe, his wife Kris and his staff has been one of the real highlights of Plantra's history.

Plantra Tree Tubes were recently featured on an episode of Outdoor Secrets. To view the video, Click Here.

We have actually undertaken 4 projects at Babe's ranch. Keep in mind that Ottertail Cty, MN - despite its 1100+ lakes (yes, that's more than 1000 lakes in a single county!) is generally dry & windy; it's right on the edge of where the hardwood forest meets the prairie, which means it's right on the line to the west of which annual evaporative potential exceeds rainfall - especially in recent years.

1) Planting 1500 new crabapple seedlings in 4 soft mast "overhead food plots." In May 2008 seedlings (bare root 1-0 planting stock, 6 to 12 inches tall at planting time) were machine planted by the local conservation district. Six foot wide woven weed barrier fabric was installed by machine over the seedlings. We then installed 5 foot Plantra O-style Vented Tree Tubes on all of the seedlings.

So now the trees have 2 growing seasons under their belt. Recently the staff of the local NRCS office toured the ranch. They took this photo (click to enlarge).

The gentleman in the photo is more than 6ft tall... which puts these 17 month old crabapples at 8-10 feet in height. And as you can see, that level of growth is consistent throughout the food plot.

Survival? As of last count fewer than 30 trees out of those 1500 have been replaced, a survival rate of 98% under tough, windy conditions.


2) Rejuvenating a failed hedgerow of Nanking cherry, American plum and assorted other fruit-bearing shrubs and small trees. Over the course of 6 years Babe has planted more than a mile of hedgerow to provide food, cover and edge effect/travel corridors for wildlife. I should say he planted, replanted, and replanted again. After 5 years Babe had nothing to show for his efforts - at least at first glance. He pointed to the hedgerows and all you could see was 2ft tall grass. A closer look revealed hundreds - thousands - of surviving seedlings that had been kept mowed in bonsai fashion to about ankle or shin height. Babe was stuck. You couldn't see where the seedlings were so you couldn't mow or spray around them. And without protection they would never grow past the browse line.

In late May, 2008 we selected a 3/8 mile section of the hedgerow to start with. 4 foot Plantra O-style Vented Tree Tubes were applied. We have a saying at Plantra: "As long as you have a root system, you have a tree." These trees had root systems that were 3, 4 and 5 years old, a huge amount of growth potential just waiting to be unleashed... and man was it unleashed!

The first plants started emerging from the 4ft tubes on June 25 - just 5 weeks later! Here's what the hedgerow looked like as of July 3, 2009 (click photo to enlarge). After a cool July but a somewhat warmer August, the trees are even bigger now.

It's obvious how the Plantra Tree Tubes protected the trees from deer browse, and how they shielded the plants from the drying effects of the wind to keep them actively growing when un-tubed trees would have stop growing and closed their stoma to conserve limited moisture.

Less obvious, but no less important, is how Plantra Tree Tubes enabled Babe to spray RoundUp in the tree rows to eliminate weed competition for light, water and nutrients. Tree Tubes make it easy to see the trees amidst the tall grass, and they protect the trees from herbicide spray. It's hard to say which factor - deer browse protection, moisture stress reduction, or reduced weed competition - contributed most to the amazing growth. In the end it doesn't matter which matters most, all that matters is that a planting project a dedicated landowner considered to be an expensive, frustrating failure is now a resounding success.

2) Rejuvenating a failed hedgerow planting, part 2. Based on the success of the 3/8 mile hedgerow section in 2008 we decided to rescue the remaining - much longer - portion of hedgerow in 2009, which two important changes.

First, we used 5 foot Plantra Tree Tubes instead of 4 foot tubes. In 2008 deer repeatedly browse trees as the emerged from the 4ft tubes. By applying Deer Guard Repellent to the emerging trees Babe was able to get the trees past the browse line. This a great solution for landowners who are limited by their initial planting budget to using shorter tree tubes than they would prefer (hey, a 3 or 4ft tubes a whole lot better than no tube!). Spraying emerging trees with Deer Guard will provide that last bit of protection to grow them past the browse line.

As effective as the 4ft tube/Deer Guard combination was in 2008, Babe wanted to avoid the added trips to the field to spray repellent in 2009, and chose to use 5ft tubes instead.

Second, we pruned all of the deer-browsed "bonsai" trees to a single stem before applying tree tubes. This adds time and labor at the beginning but it has two huge benefits: 1) All of the growth potential stored in those huge roots would be channeled into a single stem, resulting in faster height growth (getting the terminal shoot above the browse line more quickly), and 2) Produces trees with better form - fewer lateral branches and narrow branch crotch angles.

The results? In a word: Wow!
Joe took this photo (click to enlarge) on October 23. That's me standing next to a tree that was tubed on May 20, 2009 when it was no more than knee high. It is now very nearly 10 feet tall!

85% or more of the trees we tubed just this past May have emerged from 5ft tree tubes. What's the reason for the great results? Is it the fertile soil? Babe's soil could be charitably described as "gravelly loam." A less charitable description given by someone who has spent several days driving stakes into it is " rocks." So trust me, it's not the soil.

Is it the high rainfall? Ottertail County has been in a drought for several seasons. Was it the warm, sunny summer? I just came across this amazing fact on the East Ottertail SWCD web page:

Did You Know?

Perham had only one day 90 degrees or greater this summer.

Every night this summer had temps below 70 degrees.

I think that safely rules out unusually good growing conditions as the reason for the great growth. Again, it was a combination of browse protection, moisture stress reduction and the ability to do great weed control that unleashed the pent up growth potential in those root systems.

4) Planting white oak seedlings in forest openings to enhance hard mast production. Like many farms in the region, the hillier portions of the property were not cleared for farming, and the oaks (bur and red) that benefited from period prairie fires were allowed to grow. Over time, and in the absence (and active suppression of) fire, more shade tolerant species like basswood began to gain ascendancy in the woods. Basswood is a terrific tree, but it does not produce much mast for wildlife, and you generally don't want it to comprise a high percentage of your forest composition. So Babe worked with a local logger to harvest basswood trees from the woods. This has two benefits. First, the crowns of the basswood trees were competing with the crowns of the oaks for sunlight and growing space. Removal of the basswoods will give the existing oaks more room to grow, and they will dramatically increase acorn production in the coming years. Second, it created openings for planting new oaks - and Babe choose to plant white oak to provide a different (and sweeter) type of mast than his indigenous bur and red oaks provide - to get started.

Approximately 150 white oaks were planted, each in a 5 foot Plantra O-style Vented Tree Tube. While the results are not as exciting as the crabapples or the hedgerows (no stories of 10 feet of growth in one year), the results were terrific. On our recent visit to the ranch we replaced the few oak seedlings that didn't survive with direct seeded acorns which will germinate next spring. We'll easily see the first of the oaks emerge from their 5ft tree tubes next summer, and growth will be enhanced by further clearing of brush and overstory trees that are shading our seedlings.

All in all, another fantastic year at Babe Winkelman's ranch. And the best part is knowing that these are the kind of results our customers are seeing across the country.

Beware The Leaf Clot

The top picture is a bur oak leaf clot looking down a tube. You cannot see the shoot and that is bad.










The second is a side view of an Autumn Blaze Maple leaf clot.

Leaf clots are bad. They prevent gas exchange and can trap the shoot. Always prune to a single stem.

Temped to jam the foliage in the tube?

Don't own a pruner?

Don't have time to prune?










Here's more detail.

Have to admit I love the next picture - and not just because the growth and form benefits of Plantra Vented Tree Tubes are so obvious. The other reason is that there are so many lessons from these two trees.

At the bottom you can see the "leaf clot" I want to talk about. The a shoot escaped the clot and screamed to the top of the emerged and formed a new area of dense foliage.

Standard Plantra recommendations are to cut back to a single stem before installing the tube. There are three reasons for this recommendation.


Structure: First is that we want to produce a straight single stem. If you want the tree to live a long productive life, you have to get a sound structure and that means a single straight trunk.

Root System Energy: The most important thing you purchase in a seedling is the carbohydrate stored in the root system. It matters how this energy is used. If there are three shoots the energy is divided between the three and you get three short stems producing leaves that compete for light and CO2. We want one shoot to command that energy. The key to the Plantra Growth Engine is to rapidly fill the tube to the top with an array of spaced out leaves that do not overlap. We want leaves fully expanded and intercepting light through the wall with the stoma on the underside wide open and absorbing CO2 from the humid-CO2 rich air the vents move past the stoma on backside of the leaf.


Leaf Clots: A tangle of leaves can trap the shoots. In the confined space of a tube bunched leaves can form an impenetrable blockage.


Please PRUNE Preventively

This Bud Is For You - If You Want A Straight Tree

On 23 June 2009 this Autumn Blaze Maple was tubed with a 4 foot tall Plantra Vented O-Style Tree Tube.

As you can see in 11 weeks there was a tremendous difference in growth.

The untubed maples are shrubby and about 17-20 inches tall and the tubed maple is 5-1/2 FEET tall with a gun barrel straight stem.

Given the fact that all 1,000 maples in this picture are under two feet and the Plantra maple is well over 5 feet, I think it is safe to say the Plantra Tree Tube made a difference. I would go so far as to claim statistical significance. If the difference is great enough - all you need is one!

Quite a difference - an important difference, but not what I want to call to your attention.

My purpose is to explain some of the hidden mysteries of plant growth in a well designed tube.

The next image is a close-up of the leaves and buds that formed just at the point the maple was emerging from the Plantra Tree Tube into full sun. There is something odd about that picture - it looks upside down. Can you see it?

Notice the dark bark has developed above the younger looking green bark.

Normally you would expect the newer parts to look newer and the older parts to look older. Not in this case.

The lower - older - stem parts were protected from intense sun, strong winds and scouring sand, so the plant kept the protected area photosynthetically active. There is chlorophyll in the stem inside the tube. This effectively increases the leaf surface area and the growth potential of the plant. Not sure if I have every read that observation before.

But that is not what is truly interesting here. Let us look at the next set of leaves below the dark stemmed area.

The first thing you will notice is the angle of the leaf stalk or petiole. It is angled upward because it developed in the restricted space of a tree tube. Next again notice the photosynthetically active green stem.

But wait... there is more.

The most significant difference between the two images is that in the upper picture small branches have emerged between the stem and the leaf stalk. Scroll back up and take a look.

In the lower picture all we have are two leaves. This two leaves only pattern continues exactly the same down the stem for all of the new growth in the tube.


Why is this significant?

• It means the grower has a labor-free method to control the height of the first branches
  
• It means the plant has not wasted energy producing useless branches
• It means the grower has far fewer branches to prune
• It means the stem it straighter
• It means the stem is stronger - no narrow crotches or included bark
  
• It means the stem has a more appealing form for a veneer or landscape buyer
• It means more growth due to excellent air flow within the tube to replenish CO2 consumed in growth
• It means no excess of fungus harboring moisture trapped by over crowded leaves and branches
  

There will of course be a dormant bud at the leaf site, but it will not form a branch under normal conditions.

Branches do not form readily in the tube because of the absence of blue light and a surplus of red light. Not all tubes take this important plant response to account when designing products. At Plantra we try to think of everything.

Borlaug and Plantra

In November of 2008 Steve Tillmann, Chris Siems and I had an offsite meeting to set the future direction of Plantra. One of the tasks Steve set for us was writing a vision and a mission statement. I was as enthusiastic as a five-year-old wait for a shot. I think it is fair to say Chris thought it was a waste of time. Steve pulled vision and mission statements from deep within us. Much to my amazement and relief, I strongly believe in both. This morning I realized where our vision really came from and I am deeply honored to realize we are just continuing a path blazed by Norman Borlaug.

A blog entry at Instapundit noted that Norman Borlaug had passed away and had two links. One article referred to him as The Man Who Saved More Human Lives Than Any Other. The other link went to a 1997 article by Gregg Easterbrook titled Forgotten Benefactor of Humanity. That article contained the seeds of the Plantra vision.

By producing more food from less land, Borlaug argues, high-yield farming will preserve Africa's wild habitats, which are now being depleted by slash-and-burn subsistence agriculture.

Our vision
Revolutionize woody plant establishment to make agriculture lands more productive and wild lands more wild.

Borlaug's vision is not limited to subsistence agriculture in the third world. The Borlaug Effect (it deserves a name) can be seen for those who look in every practice of modern sustainable horticulture and agriculture. The beauty of the vision is the way it links Plantra's horticultural and habitat work. When Plantra Grow Tubes get a vineyard into full production a full year sooner we create a surplus of land. That saves 300 year old Coast Live Oaks in California. When Plantra Tree Tubes take a year or two off the time to produce an ornamental shade tree for sale at a lawn and garden center in Illinois, it frees up land for corn and soybeans. That in turn reduces the demand to convert CRP acres back to cropland. That means more wildlife with more wild land.

If you think I'm exaggerating, look at this example. Let's say you currently need a 100 acre field to produce shade trees for sale at Green Acres Lawn & Garden Center. It takes five years to grow the trees to marketable size. The Plantra Tree Tube produces the same tree in four years. That means you only need 80 acres to meet the demand for shade trees. What do you do with the extra land? With 20% fewer acres, less diesel fuel, less fertilizer, less herbicide, less labor and generally less of everything that goes into producing the tree for sale we have saved money and contributed to the environment. We have freed up 20 acres of land and substantially reduced the other economic and ecological impacts to produce a tree.

That was Norman Borlaug's vision and Plantra unknowingly followed in his footsteps. Maybe this is not as surprising as you think. Norman Borlaug's undergraduate degree is in forestry and from the University of Minnesota. Chris Siems and Steve Tillmann both have forestry degrees from the University of Minnesota. Coincidence? I think not.

Seedling Safety

Pardon the dark image. Lee Wahlund of the Central Dakota Sportsman's Club plants trees and shrubs for wildlife forage and habitat. Even with tubes and mats the grass is so high it is easy to drive over a tree. Lee is a planner and he marks safe driving lanes to protect his trees.

The idea is simple. I didn't think to ask at the time but I think it is similar to teh channel marking system for avoiding hazards navigating a river. The safe lane to drive is between two different colored stakes. The stake on the left is yellow and orange. (Click to enlarge) The right stake is solid orange.

Now you can tell people where to drive when visiting your plantings. No need to worry... maybe... maybe not.

Best Un-Natural Forest Regeneration Ever

In July the Northern Nut Growers had their 100th meeting and scheduled it at Purdue University. Purdue has a national reputation for work on black walnut. My wife Mitzi & I live in Minnesota. There are many innovative hardwood tree planters between Indiana and Minnesota. On our way back, we drove through Iowa to meet John Olds of One-Stop Forestry. We wanted to see for ourselves the directing seeding magic we had heard so much about. John was at his office in Postville, IA behind the Northeast Iowa RC&D. By the way, Mitz took most of these pictures.

John Olds and Gary Beyer of the Iowa DNR were unsatisfied with the results from traditional low-density seedling planting and decided to see if they could take an old method of reforestation called direct seeding and modernize it to make it work for hardwoods in the Driftless Area where Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota come together.

John and Gary reasoned that trees know how to grow from seed. Seed is cheap. And the highest quality timber is produced when the trees are crowded and forced to grow clean straight boles in competition for sunlight. By direct seeding a large volume of nuts, seeds and acorns, they hoped to germinate and grow over 10,000 stems per acre. Competition, the site and natural selection would sort out which trees grew where. With help from three years of weed control and Plantra Tree Tubes the landowner would have an incredible stand of hardwoods.

We followed John in his pickup out to Daryl Landsgard's farm. Every forester has his favorite client. You know the type. The grower willing to try new ideas and the one who can be counted on to do his part. No planting succeeds without an involved landowner. Daryl is an enthusiastic deer hunter and wants improve habitat. He doesn’t mind if he produces some high quality hardwood timber along the way. Even though there were seedlings every two feet in this planting, I think Daryl knew the status of every single one.

A typical planting with seedlings has about 700 stems per acre. As I wrote above, John’s goal is to over produce an incredible 10,000 or more stems per acre. It was originally thought this many plants would overwhelm the deer. It would be more than they could eat.

That is only partially true. Although deer do appear to randomly browse as they walk around, in fact deer have strong species preferences for browsing. That means with so many stems nip, the deer get selective and nip what they prefer. In John’s plantings, if there is enough oak, the walnut grows free. Walnut is a fast grower and even excretes the phytotoxic chemical Juglone to control competition. So, even though there is plenty to eat, the deer browse the defenseless oaks. John has found that he needs to use tree tubes to protect the oaks and give them an advantage over the walnut.

At Plantra we are always looking for new and improved methods to establish trees. We have the luxury of working with the best of the best. Not surprisingly, John Olds is truly one of the best. After leaving Daryl’s farm we followed John back to his house. The Olds Estate (It doesn’t have a name yet, but is more than impressive enough to deserve one) sits on the crest of a hill with a commanding view of an immense valley. John wanted to show us what Daryl’s planting would look like in a few years.

The regeneration is so dense you have work up a little courage to enter. John’s biggest problem is deciding what to thin. With so many high quality stems to choose from the choice can be a difficult one.

Darn, too much black walnut!

Direct seeding is not a new concept and has many variations. Arlyn Perkey, author of Crop Tree Management has written about a direct seeding acorns in Tree Farmer Magazine and has a photo journal on direct seeding chestnut. By the way, John Olds says he reads his copy of Crop Tree Management every year. While written for the forestry professional, Arlyn’s clear prose and minimal use of jargon make it very easy to read for anyone. Every woodlot owner should have a copy.

For direct seeding in Iowa and the Driftless Area call:

John Olds

One-Stop Forestry

101 E. Green Street

Postville, IA 52162

563-864-3586

Trail Cam: Smile, You're On Candid Camera!

This little fawn seemed so intent on becoming a star, I decided she had to get a place on the blog.

Trail Cam: Caught In The Act Of Browsing!

(Click on image to enlarge)
Caught you in the act! Our Cuddeback Trail Cams snapped a shot at a deer eating a seedling as it emerges from a 3ft Plantra O-style Tree Tube.

We had installed an array of tubes, from 2ft up to 5ft in height, to show the importance of taller in tubes in preventing deer browse. Keep in mind: in a 1/2 mile long section of hedgerow, these are the only three tubes that are shorter than 5ft... and it didn't take the deer long to find them and start nibbling the emerging trees.

Years ago when we first introduced treeshelters to the USA from Europe 4ft tubes were considered to be the standard for deer browse protection (they didn't offer complete protection, but browsing above the tube tended to be minimal and the tree was established enough to recover and keep growing). Nowadays there are many sites, including this one in west central Minnesota, where deer keep trees mowed off at the top of the tube if you use anything shorter than a 5ft tree tube.

Landowners doing a new planting often face a budgetary choice: Should I protect fewer trees with 5ft tubes, or more trees with shorter tubes. To resolve this quandry, ask yourself the question: What is the minimum number of trees I need to establish per acre or per X feet of windbreak in order to be successful? Then I would protect that number with 5ft Plantra Tree Tubes. If you determine that baseline success number and budget limitations prevent you from using 5ft tree tubes, the I would protect as many seedlings as I can with shorter tubes. Then, when they grow out of the top, you can treat them with Deer Guard deer repellent to protect them until the grow through the browse line.

We'd like to thank this doe for unwittingly helping us illustrate the importance of 5ft tree tubes!

Poodle Trees

When we first started working with tree tubes to protect hardwood seedlings from deer browse we did not have an answer for conifers. In July we visited John Olds of One-Stop Forestry to look at his innovative use of Plantra Tree Tubes in high density direct seeding of hardwoods, but this post is about poodle trees.

A poodle tree is a conifer the deer have browsed into a coke bottle or dumbbell shape. The tree looks like it had the middle shaved like a poodle.

John planted a Fir tree in his yard. I can't remember if it was a Balsalm or a Fraser Fir. The tree is in his yard and he has a dog, but the deer still get to it. In the lower image John is facing the Fir tree by his home. Notice the large dog and the dense direct-seeded forest behind him. That forest brings the deer close to his house. It is perfect cover.

So what can be done to protect conifers from deer browse? There are two choices. 1) Build a deer exclosure with a tall fence or 2) spray with a durable and effective repellent. Deer Guard Repellent it based on latex paint chemistry so it will not wash off in a rain storm. Apply Deer Guard in Fall after the first frost but only when above freezing. The manufacurer recommends applying while temperatures are between 40-90F. Here is a link to purchase Deer Guard: http://www.plantra.com/buynow/bndeerrepellent.php

For forestry in Northeast Iowa contact John Olds at One Stop Forestry, 101 E Greene Street, Postville, IA 52162; (563) 864-3586.

PEKIN TREES PLEASE!

In July my wife, Mitzi and I took a road trip to the 100^th annual meeting of Northern Nut Growers at Purdue University. Along the way, we decided to stop at some mature urban plantings to see how seedlings perform long term in the urban environment. We were looking for evidence of trees planted in treeshelters that should be long gone. I was worried I would not be able to find the trees and how would I tell the tree tubed from an ordinary tree. It was easier than I ever imagined. When I saw this tree and I knew it was too small, but it had an early 1990s Tubex Brand Treeshelter. The treeshelter was obviously reused on a new tree. This confirmed the success of the project in the eyes of the residents. I knew then we were on the right street.

The fellow walking into his home confirmed the tree in the foreground was grown in a tree tube. That did it. Time to take pictures. While Mitz moved the car around I snapped away.

Pekin had lost a large number of trees and decided to reforest the city with a lower cost technology that allowed some native trees if the owner wanted them. Small young ornament plants were offered too. These were the small samplings normally grown to large size in a nursery before extraction and planting in the landscape. In Pekin the landscape trees were grown in the landscape and never disturbed by a tree spade.

At www.plantra.com you will find a professionally done video. Just click the video link scroll down for “Tree Please!” The small seedlings were planted on the boulevards around Pekin, IL. and then protected with Tubex Treeshelters. As you can see in the pictures, affluent locations were featured.

I was so excited to see the trees. The trees look great. There are no signs of girdling roots - so common when transplanting large balled and burlap trees. The trees have the same buttressing and taper seen in healthy wild trees. The dense root systems of many large potted or balled trees choke the tree as it grows. Natural trees have wide-open root systems that allow the roots to grow large and old without crowding.

This owner on the left is also doing his tree a great favor by protecting the base from mower damage. Urban trees like the unprotected tree below are bumped and scraped continuously at the ground line. This damage kills the thin layer of living tissue just under the bark. These wounds allow deadly pathogen to enter and weaken the tree. If the damage encircles the tree, the effect is to block transport of water to the leaves and the return of food to the roots. Mulches are effective but require replacement. Personally, I prefer shade tolerant perennials. Hosta plants are a perfect choice is many locations.

The number of gorgeous homes and well cared for trees amazed me. These trees are healthy and add thousands of dollars in value to the homes they serve. Below are some more examples of beautiful homes and gorgeous trees.