Favorite go to options for protecting young trees

A question for Grant or anyone else who cares to chime in.

What are some unique ways you've come up with to keep the animals, hogs or cattle especially, from ravaging newly planted trees? On small acreages it's hard (mentally and maybe economically) to give up areas for many years while trees grow up enough to stand on their own. Temporary fencing can be used to squeeze in tighter but takes time and material especially if the area has the usually desired irregular edges. I plan on using some large (about 20" dia.) plastic tile sections anchored with T posts, not too quick or economical with large numbers of trees though.

What are your ideas?

S Haze wrote:A question for Grant or anyone else who cares to chime in.

What are some unique ways you've come up with to keep the animals, hogs or cattle especially, from ravaging newly planted trees? On small acreages it's hard (mentally and maybe economically) to give up areas for many years while trees grow up enough to stand on their own. Temporary fencing can be used to squeeze in tighter but takes time and material especially if the area has the usually desired irregular edges. I plan on using some large (about 20" dia.) plastic tile sections anchored with T posts, not too quick or economical with large numbers of trees though.

What are your ideas?

I'm a big fan of biodegradable tree tubes for very young trees. We had a semi truck load of these made up, and pass on the savings here.


The versatubes reduce girdling potential from rodents et al.

Protection for trees smack dab in the middle of a pasture is easiest by screwing 3 or 4 pallets together. Costs nothing, reasonably robust.

I am using hardware cloth wraps for vole protection as seen in the Permaculture Orchard videos. I need permanent vole protection, and that is the cheapest permanent solution I have found.

Grant has good tree tubes, as they do compost in place. Most tree tubes leave plastic bits in your field for years...

I use temporary electric fence for grazing near to them. Doesn't help if you have a deer or feral hog problem, though.

These are a little more fancy than pallets, silvopasture in Germany.

A cheap option I'm using, though I don't deal with with cattle or hogs, has been black drainage pipe, the kind you attach to gutter downspouts and such. Roughly $6 for 15 feet. Cut it to length, cut a slit down the length of it and slip it around the tree. Also found it useful in small sections to keep mulch away from the bases and grafts of trees. About the only "livestock" problem I have is the neighbors cat and dog tossing mulch everywhere and burying the tree trunks in it. Fits lose enough to allow airflow and keeps rodents away from the bark.

Blake Wheeler wrote:A cheap option I'm using, though I don't deal with with cattle or hogs, has been black drainage pipe, the kind you attach to gutter downspouts and such. Roughly $6 for 15 feet. Cut it to length, cut a slit down the length of it and slip it around the tree. Also found it useful in small sections to keep mulch away from the bases and grafts of trees. About the only "livestock" problem I have is the neighbors cat and dog tossing mulch everywhere and burying the tree trunks in it. Fits lose enough to allow airflow and keeps rodents away from the bark.

I've found ADS-type corrugated drainage tile to be detrimental. Black color is too prone to solar gain and cooking trees, too opaque to encourage growth, and only functionally useful to discourage girdling after the tree is of sufficient height to be above the tube...meaning it was entirely exposed when young.

White drainage pipe, if available, is marginally better in my opinion.