Q: We planted some small trees last year and this spring. We tied stakes to them to hold them up. We tried untying some of last year’s trees and they seemed to be wiggly, so we tied them back up. How long should trees be staked after planting?
A: You didn’t say how tight the tree was tied, but I am assuming that the tree was tied too tightly. The ninth video in the “Trees and Shrubs” playlist on the Greener View YouTube channel will answer all your questions.
Let me summarize the video here. Swaying in the wind causes plants to produce lignin. Lignin cements cellulose fibers together, making cell walls stronger. A wind-blown tree will be shorter and sturdier and have a thicker trunk than a tree that is not in the wind or that can’t flex in the wind. Trees allowed to flex in the wind also develop stronger root systems….