Put a Tree in Turbo Mode - The Tube and Cage Debate

I'm probably going to ruffle some feathers here, but I'm going to explain why I chose tree tubes over tree cages. So tubes are a tool. They can be used the right way and they can be used the wrong way. We've learned some hard mistakes, some hard lessons on these. Here's a chestnut tree, year one in a tube. Tree starts out about this tall. This is the magic of a tube. A tree this tall in one year is going to about triple, quadruple in size to grow out of this tube, but this soft green growth needs to be supported. If it's left alone, prevailing winds could hold it and harden that tissue off like that. You do not want a 90 degree tree coming out of a tube. I planted this whole chestnut orchard and I used tubes and we saw a one-year-old chestnut tree. This is a two-year-old chestnut tree. This is exactly what I was talking about. When it grows out of here, it needs to be able to keep going up and it needs to harden off in this vertical position. So you see this plastic stake on here. Next year, this tree is going to throw out branches to the side and it's going to have a beautiful form and that is the way to use tubes. You cannot leave this alone. If you leave this alone, this tree is going to bend over. It's going to look horrible. It's not going to look like this. Chestnut trees grow amazingly fast inside of these tubes. That's one of the biggest benefits of having a tube. You will not get rapid growth out of a cage or a tree sitting in the open. Let's keep looking. We've got another tree here. You can see a chestnut tree. If we did nothing, the west winds will blow the tree to where it's leaning over that way. So we've got it staked. We've got a piece of plastic on here holding this tree to keep that main leader branch growing straight up and down. So tubes require extra work. You will get extra growth, but it's extra work. You have to do these steps or else I would not use tubes. Benefits of growing this hazelnut here inside this cage. It's going to keep any deer out. It does, however, take a lot more effort, a lot more cost up front in time when you have to have this the stake. We've got to build the cage. We've got to put it on here and then we have to keep that ground clear. So that's a lot more effort than having a tube and keeping the ground around a tube clear. Let's look at a hazelnut that I did not take care of. So this tree right here, there's a hazelnut in there if you look close enough, but I've got to weed all this. I've got to pull this cage off, which is a huge pain. I've got to clear all those weeds out and then I've got to put the tube back, the cage back on. This chestnut tree grew for four years in a tube. It outgrew the tube and started bursting. I took it off and we put a cage around it. This is to keep deer off of it. So the tube did a great job keeping deer off of it for four years. Now we have the cage. Put in the comments if you have a better way that we can keep deer off of this tree because I would rather not build hundreds of these if I can help it. So let's come up with a better way if we can. Planting hundreds and hundreds of trees at an orchard scale I would use tubes again. Tubes give you the benefit of rapid growth. They are more work, I agree, than putting a cage on something like this and then just leaving it forever. Survival rate, it's going to grow faster. It's going to get up above the grasses that you see here. It's going to be easier to maintain a weed-free zone. It's going to be easier to water, easier to fertilize, easier to take care of that tree to get it growing up. It is going to require staking. It's going to require extra care, hands-on, making sure that that tube is always straight and not ripping off, bending over, having issues from wind. It's extra work, but tubes give extra growth. It's not a cheat code putting a tube on and walking away. That's a good way to kill a tree or have a deformed tree or a stunted tree is to put a tube and walk away. Can't put anything on and walk away. We put a cage on and walk away. You're going to have a cage full of weeds and you're going to have a tiny little tree in there and it's not going to grow fast and it's going to be a nightmare to work around and kill all the weeds. The best thing about a cage is strong, slow growth that doesn't need any staking or support and protection for life. The worst part about using cages is the cost to install this up front is much greater. The tree will not grow as fast and maintaining weeds inside of the cage is much more difficult. The worst thing about tubes is maintenance. Fixing these zip ties when they break in the wind and weak, softer growth that needs support. So you need to stake anything coming out of this tube. The best thing about tubes is better weed control, earlier production, and faster growth. The answer may be cages and tubes. Tubes for your fast growth up front. Extra work but you'll get a faster growing tree like we did here and then some form of cage for deer protection in the future.