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My favorite sale

My favorite sale is every sale, no matter how big or small.  This spring I have had orders of 5 tubes and 500,000 tubes.  When the phone rings I never know what the call will bring.  Sometimes people apologize because their order is small.  I always say the same thing:  there’s no such thing as a small order.  Every project is important.  Every single tree is important.

Example: this morning we sold 3 tree tubes and stakes to a customer in the northeast.  Yes, 3.  And it was my favorite order of the week.  Those 3 tree tubes are going on American chestnut seedlings the customer has grown from nuts – specially bred chestnuts that are the resulting of the amazing work of the American Chestnut Foundation to cross the majestic American chestnut with the blight resistant Chinese chestnut, and then back cross with Americans over successive generations to locate those progeny which retain the blight resistance of the Chinese while exhibiting the outward characteristics of the American.

In the early to mid 1900 something like 3.5 billion American chestnut trees were wiped out by a combination of chestnut blight (a fungus unwittingly imported from Asia on Chinese chestnut planting stock) and well-meaning but in retrospect disastrous advice by forestry professionals of the day to salvage log all standing American chestnuts (had those trees been allowed to stand there is a very high likelihood that some would have exhibited resistance to chestnut blight, and hence could have been the building blocks on which future restoration could begin; instead the dedicated staff and members of the American Chestnut Foundation had to start from scratch).

So back to the customer with 3 American chestnut seedlings.  Who knows?  It might just be possible that one of those trees, out of the millions of chestnuts being planted, exhibit resistance to chestnut blight but are otherwise fully American in their growth.  Every single chestnut that is planted turns the odds in our favor; every single chestnut seed or seedling planted matters. Every single one must survive and grow, and so every single one needs a tree tube.

That’s why I’m committed to selling any quantity of tree tubes you might need, from 1 to 1 million.  So please don’t apologize for a “small” order.  First of all there’s no such thing.  Second of all sometimes the smallest orders are the most rewarding.

Still looking for the “typical” planting project

I have been in the tree tube for 23 years without interruption.  I just realized I am the only human being on the North American continent who can make that statement.

In all that time I haven’t been right very often.  I was wrong about vented tree tubes (the orthodoxy in 1989 said tree tubes should be solid; man was that ever wrong!).  I was wrong about bamboo stakes (as evidenced by the number of old customers who would like to wrap their broken bamboo stakes around my neck, but who – I am grateful to say – still do business with me because I make things right in the end).

But I was right about one very big thing.  I based Wilson  Forestry Supply’s tree tube business on a simple concept:  Don’t charge people for tree tubes they don’t need.  Don’t do like hot dog and bun manufacturers and force folks to buy more of one or the other than they need (I’m still searching for the lowest common denominator in dog/buns for the family cookout).

Have warehouse guys that count.  Sell tree tubes in any quantity, in any combination of sizes.  Sell 37 tubes and 23 stakes if that’s what someone needs.

If a customer orders 1500 tubes and then realizes she needs another 200, don’t penalize her by charging a higher price for the 200.  I consider it an extension of the earlier order.

After 23 years ‘m still looking for the “typical” tree planting project that can be well served with pre-packaged “you’ll order in 25s or 50s because that’s how they come” tree tubes.

Every project is different.  Got rocky soil?  I’ll through in a driving collar to facilitate driving the PVC stakes.  Need thirty-seven 5ft tree tubes for the crab apples getting planted near the woods, and eighty-three 4ft tree tubes for the sawtooth oaks getting planted in the woods?  Done and done.

23 years and I have never seen a spring like the spring of 2012.  Every day has brought the joyful drudgery of digging out from under a massive pile of orders.  I have never sold so many tree tubes in my life.

Every day as I dig to the bottom of the order pile, and as I talk to hundreds of tree planters on the phone or correspond by email, I keep looking for the typical order.  I have yet to find it.  But every day reinforces the fact that I was right:  People really appreciate the ability to order in a way that fits their project, not the manufacturer’s packaging or shipping requirements.

Thanks for an amazing spring!

10 months since acorns germinated red oaks emerge from 4ft tubes

Keep the photos coming!  They never fail to amaze me. This might be a new growth record – not just for oaks but for kudzu, corn or hops as well!

This set of photos is from a grower in Mississippi.  Here is the chronology for the trees shown below.  No, these are not typos.

July 2011: Hybrid oak acorns are sown in the nursery (Mossy Oak’s awesome Nativ Nurseries)

November 2011: They are planted in the field as 10 to 12″ seedlings, protected with 4ft Tubex Combitube Plus Tree Tubes.

March 2012:  Seedlings break dormancy and begin to grow.

May 8, 2012:  Photos taken, with many of the seedlings already emerging from their 4ft tree tubes!

You are reading that correctly.  It has been 10 months since these were planted as acorns in the nursery – they are not even 1 year old.  There has been less than 2 months of growing weather since they were planted in the field as 12 inch seedlings.

Many of them are 6 inches out the 4ft tree tubes – an astounding 54 inches of growth in 10 months… and the first true growing season in the field has barely begun!

Acorns sown in pots July 2011. Field planted as 12 inch seedlings November 2011. Photo taken May 8, 2012.

One of the hybrid red oaks planted as acorns in July 2011 with its 4ft tree tube removed to show the growth. The leaves virtually glow they are so healthy and stress-free!

Keep the photos coming.  I love my job!

American plums flower in second growing season!

Wow.  These American plums were planted in March 2011 as 2 foot seedlings (click on photo to enlarge) and with 4ft Tubex Combitube Plus Tree Tubes…

American plums planted as 2ft seedlings in March, 2011. Photo taken May 8, 2012

For those of you keeping score at home that means these trees have been in the ground about 14 months – one growing season plus one month of a second growing season.

Even more incredibly 3 out of the 5 trees in this grouping flowered this year – one year after being planted as 2ft seedlings!  A late frost prevented the flowers from pollinating, but the grower expects a nice crop of plums next year.

The grower said it best:  “I would think these trees were in their 4^th growing season in the field if I didn’t know their real story.”

Awesome.

Tree Tubes for riparian buffer projects

Tubex Combitube Tree Tubes from Wilson Forestry Supply at work on a riparian buffer restoration planting in western Pennsylvania.

Photographs continue to roll in from around the country, faster than I can get them posted.  I love this part of my job!  (Actually I love every part of my job, except maybe the 90% of the time I spend on logistics trying to drive costs out of the supply chain to keep prices as low as possible – but I even enjoy that work because the more successful I am with logistics the more of these photos I get to receive!)

This is a scene from a riparian (creek/river side) buffer strip planting in western Pennsylvania, part of the Herculean effort to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  These plantings are immensely important to prevent creek side livestock grazing, stop soil erosion and sedimentation and to reduce water temperatures – basically to restore the watershed to its pre-agricultural productivity with trees lining the waterways feeding the Chesapeake.

However there’s one big difference between then and now:  deer.  The whitetail deer population is about a jillion (approximately!) times bigger than it was 100 years ago.  These critical plantings would be critical failures without tree tubes.

I love the use of weed mats for weed control as well!  I have been out of stock on weed mats for much of this spring, but a new shipment is on the way.  Weed mats are a great way to stop competition from weeds and conserve soil moisture.

After 23 years I never get tired of seeing photos like this… you can practically hear the trees growing inside those tubes!

And keep the pictures coming!

Tree Tubes – Making Plans (Dreams) Come True… Again

I have two favorite parts of my job:  Helping landowners achieve their dreams for their properties, and getting photographs from them so I can remotely watch those dreams come true.  It amazes and delights me that I can be a part of helping landowners achieve their varied goals (from re-establishing the mighty American chestnut to providing mast-rich deer habitat) in every corner of the country, all from my desk… and that I can actually see it happen!

Every project is special, every one is important – from planting a single oak seedling to commemorate a birth or special event to planting 1/2 mile of windbreak trees.

I just got some photos from another special project in Ohio.  The story starts with a heartbreaking event: last year a tornado ripped through this customer’s beloved woodland, uprooted or snapping off mature trees.  Most importantly, his family was safe.  Also reassuringly the same soil that produced those beautiful mature trees was still in place, ready to produce another generation of trees, ready to restore his treasured woods.

My customer marked his planting spots with orange paint, carefully planted a mix of hardwood seedlings purchased from the county conservation district, and protected them with 4ft Tubex Combitube Plus Tree Tubes supported by PVC tree tube stakes.  He did a beautiful job!

Planting site marked for planting

Carefully planted oak seedling, with tree tube and stake ready to install

Tree tubes installed and protecting seedlings from deer browse. You can see the damage to residual trees from last year's tornado. It is incredibly rewarding to help put these woods on the road to recovering.

In the photo immediately above you can easily see some of the other benefits of tree tubes:  Come June it would be extremely difficult for the customer to go back into this site and locate the seedlings he planted, let alone control the weeds and brush around them.  I jokingly told this customer that he is now in the full time weed control business!  You can see already how fertile and productive the site is, and the added sunlight hitting the forest floor due the loss of trees in the tornado will quickly product a jungle of competing vegetation.  Wilson’s Tree Tubes make it easy to locate your seedlings in the midst of that jungle, and the protect them from the spraying, mowing, brush hogging that needs to get done.

Wish I could tell you more about this project, but it’s spring and the phones are exploding – more chances to help more landowner dreams come true!

Hidden Cost of Tree Tubes: Stakes

When comparing the costs and benefits of various tree tubes on the market it is easy to overlook the cost of tree tube stakes.

The inherent strength & rigidity of Tubex Tree Tubes allows you to use a 4ft tree tube stake for a 4ft tube.

With many types of tree tubes you have to purchase tree tube stakes that are at least 1 foot longer than the tubes.  Due to the pliable nature of these tubes the stake has to do 100% of the work in supporting the tree tube; after driving the stake the top of the stake must sit nearly at the top of the tube (or even above the top of the tube) to provide the support the tube – and the tree inside – needs.

Tubex Tree Tubes are so well made they do not ask as much of their companion stake.   The stake’s only job is to hold the Tubex Tree Tube upright.  You can use a 4ft stake with a 4ft Tubex Tree Tube; you drive the stake 12-14″ into the ground so that the top of the stake sits well below the rim of the tube.  The Tubex Tree Tube won’t buckle or bend.

A tree tube that requires you to buy a 5ft stake for a 4ft tube is increasing your stake cost by 25%!

We’ll look at more hidden costs of tree tubes in coming posts.  We offer Tubex Combitube Tree Tubes not just because they are the best tree tubes on the market, but also because they offer the lowest total cost of use with no hidden costs!

The importance of 75

75 is another number that’s been on my mind.

Order 75 tree tubes from another supplier and you’ll probably end up paying one price for the bag of 50, and a much higher price for the bag of 25.

To me that doesn’t make any sense.  Once you reach the threshold of 50 tubes you should get that same great price for every additional tube you need.

Sadly my shopping cart is just as dumb as everyone else’s – there is a bag price for 50 and a bag price for 25.

But if you contact me directly – and that’s how I prefer to do business anyway – I’m happy to give you the 50+ price on the whole order… and even let you order 76 or 79 tree tubes instead!

The importance of 4′s and 6′s

23 years since I sold my first tree tubes and one thing never gets old: entering new orders.

Back in the day I generally took down orders the old fashioned way, pen on paper.  I have come a long way.  Actually, no I haven’t.  I still take down orders with pen and paper.  The only difference is that these days I’m probably behind the wheel of my truck on my way to selling more tree tubes!

Whether you place your order online, email or phone it to me, or talk to my awesome colleagues at Wilson’s one thing is true of every order:  I personally review every order to make sure you’re getting all the discounts you’re entitled to and you’re not over paying for freight.

In reviewing stacks of orders these days 2 numbers keep popping out at me:  4 and 6.

Here’s what I mean by that.  Most tree tube makers pre-package their tubes in bags or boxes of 25 or 50, and force you to order in multiples of those quantities.

I don’t.  I make my warehouse guys count!  Only need 46 tubes (see, there are those numbers again)?  Great – why pay for 50?  Want 64 tubes (noticing a trend)? No problemo!

It’s a simple idea:  We don’t make you pay for more tubes than you need.  It is amazing to me how big this idea has caught on, and how many of our orders are for quantities that aren’t easily rounded off – but are easily counted when you have a dedicated warehouse crew!

6 foot Tubex Combitube Plus Tree Tubes now in stock!

Our most popular product is the 4 foot Tubex Combitube PLUS (large diameter) Tree Tube.  In most cases 4 foot tree tubes provide enough protection from deer to safely shepherd seedlings past the browse line.

However, in many cases – notably in the upper Midwest, much of the Northeast, and anywhere there is a very high density of deer – deer will continually browse trees as they emerge from 4 foot tree tubes and 5 foot tree tubes are necessary to provide safe passage past the browse line.

In the past few years we have seen an increasing number of cases where even 5 foot tree tubes are not quite tall enough to do the job.  Where there are enough deer, and those deer are big enough and hungry enough, and what’s growing out of the tubes is tasty enough – they will get up on their hinds and browse trees emerging from 5 foot tubes.

If you are “lucky” enough to fall into that last category (lucky in the sense that it’s a sign your deer habitat efforts are paying dividends!) I’m happy to announce that we are now stocking 6 foot Tubex Combitube PLUS Tree Tubes.

We don’t have pricing on the web site just yet – and given the volume of business we are doing these days that might take a while.

If you are interested in 6ft tree tubes, please give me a call or send an email and I’ll be happy to provide a price quote.  Remember to let me know your zip code so I can check on shipping costs and quote delivered pricing to your door.

~ Christian Siems, Wilson Forestry Supply staff forester