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The Tucson Gardener |
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Staking Trees Too often when you get the plant from the nursery it has a slender wood stake placed in the container and the tree's trunk is tied to the stake with stretchy green plastic. The easy thing to do is to stick the stake and tree in the hole you dig and hope for the best. Although simple it's not the best method for staking the tree nor is it always necessary. In a perfect world all the trees purchased at nurseries and garden centers would have strong, well formed, tapered tree trunks. Unfortunately that's not the case and gardeners purchase staked, spindly trunked trees thinking once they're put in the ground and watered the trunks will quickly grow stronger. Apparently there's been research done measuring the effect of staked trees vs. the unstaked. The unstaked trees had greater trunk diameter than the staked ones. The tree's swaying in the wind may be one way of telling the tree to fatten up, both its trunk and supporting root system. When you purchase your staked tree you don't know how long that stake has been with the tree. There's a chance it's already begun to rot below ground and its strength diminished. One stake tree staking has never been the best method especially if you add the stake after the tree has been planted. Driving the stake into the ground next to the tree trunk can damage the tree's root system. No matter how you stake your tree, you want some movement in the trunk when the wind blows. If you use one stake and allow for tree movement the stake can rub the bark off the tree -- another reason not to use the one stake method. A better method for staking trees, which can often be seen around town at new construction sites (see photo below), is the two stake support with large wooden stakes or poles down each side of the tree outside the rootball. That way no roots are damaged. The support wire or rope has protective tubing around it where it makes contact with the trunk or branches of the tree. Allowing sufficient slack in the support wire enables the tree to move in the wind. Another method of staking trees is the three guy wire method which doesn't allow for much tree trunk movement and can add a hazard to the environment. People can trip over the stakes or wires if they're not looking for them or they are hard to see. If the method is used, be sure to flag the wires and stakes so they are visible at all times.
Once your tree is able to stand on its own the support system should be removed. The sooner the better. Being more selective in your tree purchase may eliminate the necessity of staking the tree. If the tree doesn't develop a healthy root system it could still blow over during a storm. (1998) |
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