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Carlton Plants has developed a more efficient staking process for its field-grown material. Workers use a specially designed cart equipped with an air compressor to drive four rows of stakes at a time.

So much at stake

The use of smart staking techniques will help save time, money and trees

By Curt KippWhen it comes to growing decidu-

ous shade trees, proper staking achieves several important objectives.

It trains the bud to grow up straight. It stretches out the head of the tree so branching begins at the desired height. It keeps the trunk vertical and straight. It permits a healthy amount of wind movement, protecting supporting the trunk as it develops the strength to withstand storms.

Depending on the method used, it can keep container material from tip-ping over. And, in all types of material, staking prevents the tree from bending over or snapping due to the weight of rain, snow or ice.

In all of these ways, staking pro-tects the grower’s investment, increasing the likelihood of a tall and healthy tree.

“(Trees) don’t just grow up per-fectly straight,” said Rich Regan, a nurs-ery extension agent with Oregon State University. “When you’re looking for a consistent product, a straight trunk is very important to the consumer. A crooked trunk isn’t favored.”

“People want telephone poles with limbs on them, even though in nature they may not grow that way,” said Mike Lee, production manager at Kuenzi Turf & Nursery in Salem, Ore. “That’s what the customer expects.”

Different stakes for different folksShade tree growers have long real-

ized the importance of proper staking. “The growers understand staking,” Regan said. “Generally they do a good job of it.”

This is not to say that all growers are doing exact the same thing. Staking techniques vary, often depending on the production method that grower is using, as well as personal preferences and other factors. A container grower

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may stake differently than a bare-root grower, a pot-in-pot grower, a B&B grower or someone using grow bags.

Tim Sester is the production man-ager with Sester Farms, a wholesale grower in Gresham, Ore. that offers field-grown and containerized shade trees. Both types of material are staked during their first few years of growth. The initial staking trains the bud to grow upright. As the bud develops into a central leader, workers tie the trunk to the stake every 6-8 inches to keep it straight.

“The absence of a stake during the growing season is detrimental to the growth of the tree,” Sester said.

It’s possible to hand-tie the tree to the stake, but most growers avoid hav-ing to do that. “The labor would kill you, if you were actually tying each

one,” Regan said.Instead, they use a device called a

Max Tapener that wraps a strip of non-adhesive plastic tape around the tree and stake, closing the loop with a sta-ple. This stabilizes the tree while allow-ing for some freedom of movement.

Growers spend a lot of time on staking and tying. The material grows so quickly — sometimes even a foot a week — that the ties must be redone as frequently as every five days in the height of growing season, depending on the tree. The cost is significant.

Because tapener ties can pop loose under pressure, some growers like to hand tie once near the top for extra security. For this, Kuenzi uses T-shaped orchard ties. These have a loop on one end that hooks around the “T.”

Carlton Plants in Dayton, Ore., has Carlton Plants developed these "squiggly ties" to secure trees to the stake while permitting growth, flexibility and expansion of the tree trunk.

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developed what they call a “squiggly tie,” with curls like those on a tele-phone cord, but less flexible. When these curls crisscross, the plastic squig-gly tie stays securely in place, but can stretch if the trunk moves or grows.

The growers we spoke with all use stainless steel stakes for shade tree pro-duction, unless the species has sensitive bark. It can develop cankers from the rubbing. In these cases, fiberglass stakes are a good alternative, though they are more costly and can develop thorn-like burs after years of use.

Staying uprightWhere the differences between

growers really arise is in the staking method. For field growers, staking is done to straighten and stabilize the tree. But for container growers, there’s an additional benefit to staking. It can keep the material from tipping over.

For its container material, Sester Farms first places the pot on the ground. If the ground is sloped, workers place a block of wood under one side to level the pot. Then they drive three or four short, hooked stakes through the drain holes of the pot and into the ground. These resemble tent stakes, hooking around the lip of the container.

But that’s not all. The central stake — the tall one that stabilizes the tree — is then driven through the center of the pot and into the ground.

“If the growing media of the pot was the only thing the stake was in, that’s not enough to keep it straight,” Sester said. “It has to go through the bottom of the pot.”

Sester likes this system as opposed to pot-in-pot, because of the flexibility. “You can put any size tree anywhere you want at all times,” he said. “Pot-in-pot is limited by size and location based on the socket pots you already have installed in the ground.”

It’s true that pot-in-pot contain-ers don’t blow over, he said, but in his opinion, the central stake needs

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more stability than the in-ground pot alone provides. This is because a stake shouldn’t be driven through the bottom of the nested pots. That would damage the socket pot and probably also the drain pipe beneath.

“You really need a trellis wire with that system,” Sester said. This attaches the top of the stake to an overhead wire, for added stability.

Time and money at stakeAs a leading grower of high-quality,

field-grown, shade tree material, Carlton Farms long ago mastered tree staking. But in the last 10 years, the company has gone further, making its processes more efficient and cost-effective.

These processes are exhaustively documented, and overseen by a staking foreman and crew. Production Manager Carlton Davidson is ultimately in charge. He creates a color-coded plan and chart

that the staking foreman and crews fol-low. The plan is different for each of the 650 tree species that Carlton grows.

Staking is a significant portion of Carlton’s production process. They stake around 750,000 trees a year. “It’s the single largest labor consuming task that we do at the nursery,” Davidson said.

Considering those facts, the nursery had every incentive to be more efficient.

“From the simplest to the most complex thing in the process, we ana-lyzed everything to make it easier,” Davidson said.

Employees at Carlton figured out a way to mechanize the staking process for field grown material. The resulting process takes about half as many peo-ple, but is twice as productive.

First, a worker drives a high-clearance tractor down the rows, creat-ing furrows where the stakes will be placed. Workers pull stakes off this

Sester Farms secures containerized trees to the ground by driving stakes through the inside perimeter of the pot. A fourth, taller stake goes through the center of the pot and into the ground. The trunk of the tree is then secured to this tall stake. Wood blocks keep the container level on a slope.

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tractor and set them in place by hand. Then it is time to drive them deeper into the ground.

The foundation of the setup is a Damcon three-wheeled tool carrier, imported from Holland. Shop workers at Carlton have customized it, attaching four booms to the carrier.

Each boom supports a suspended, compressed-air palm nailer tool, with a cone that fits over the end of each stake. When the worker pulls the device down onto the stake, it activates the device, driving the stake deeper with a vibrating motion.

“It’s so powerful, you could drive a seven foot stake all the way into the ground,” said Allan Elliott, operations manager at Carlton Plants.

The suspended device has an adjustable pole attached as a guide. When that pole touches the ground, the operator stops driving it. No stake is driven deeper than necessary.

With this customized staking cart, the crew can tackle four rows at a time. Other workers then follow up with ties.

Ties need to be replaced periodi-cally, depending on the tree. The tie replacement interval varies. It can be every few weeks (birches, every 10–14 days (maples), weekly (crabapples and willows) or even every five days (black locusts).

ConclusionIn a highly competitive market-

place, customers demand shade trees with strong, straight, vertical trunks. Successful growers must meet this stan-dard while managing their costs care-fully. Through a careful examination of their processes, many growers have found ways to be more efficient without sacrificing quality. After all, the custom-er does not care about time or cost, but product quality and performance.

Curt Kipp is the editor of Digger maga-zine and the senior publications man-ager for the Oregon Association of Nurseries. He can be contacted at 503-682-5089 or ckipp@oan.org.

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