I purchased my tubes and stakes from Chief River Nursery in Grafton WI (800-367-9254) and no I have no relationship with them. They sell quality materials and they included a stake pounder and heavy duty rubber stake ties, The 6' tubes are heavy and have holes in them that I ran the ties through around the stakes and back out and tied it to the tube. The trees and tubes have been out for three years and are 6'-8' and producing apples. In a couple of years I will remove the tubes and put 3 'T posts around them to eliminate the bucks from rubbing them. We do not fence them and have been doing this successfully in a heavily deer populated area in SWWI for years. The last pic is the end results that has 4 T-posts to protect it from bucks rubbing, no fencing to fight weeds etc. and working great. BobHeaded over to the farm today and had a couple tree tubes off their stakes. Didn't know if I should blame the recent storms, someone, or something. Luckily I caught one of the perps on trail cam. This is why we can't have nice things...
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