Winter is a Good Time to Tend to the Trees

We have used the cooler weather also to work on our various soft mast trees.  During the summer the ground can be so hard that it is almost impossible to clear out any weeds around the trees.  We just have to put down a deep bed of mulch and hope for the best.   After a few recent rains we found it fairly easy to pull out most of the weeds that can overwhelm the smaller trees. 



Tree Protectors Also Protect Weeds



Since many of the trees that we have planted were initially quite small, we used tree protectors to help them get started in the sandy soil.  Moisture and heat trapped inside the blue tubes create a mini greenhouse effect that can provide a safe environment for small trees to take root.  However, we think that we might have protected the trees for too long.  Trees that have wire baskets around them to protect them from deer and rabbits are developing more quickly. 

The trees that had the tubes around them for more than a year or two seem spindly.  Part of the problem is that weeds also proliferating inside the tubes are taking some of the nutrients away from the trees.  So another winter activity is the replacing of all of the tree protectors after a year or two with wire baskets.