Nest in azalea standard girdled with green tape-ironic, huh??

There is a myth that green plastic nursery tape cannot hurt a plant as it “just stretches as the plant grows”.  It has its limits, believe me . Let’s focus on trees as defenseless victims of  ”forgotten” green tape.  Most are grown by being tied to stakes, very tightly, as if they were going to try to escape. They go from being tied to little stakes to being tied to bigger stakes and often times, by the time the stakes are to be changed or removed, the green tape has reached its limits and has ‘grown’ into the bark of the tree. This is called “included bark”. Sometimes it ‘grows’ into the crotches of the branches, essentially separating the branch from its parent branch (the trunk or the nearest bigger branch.)  And, although it looks like you can just pull the tape out, (or clip off the ends so no one else sees it),  the damage has already been done. The slightest pressure on the branch separated from its parent by hidden tape (or old labels, or wire from some kinds of tags, or string) and off it comes, taking another part of the tree with it, many times with fatal damage. It has no choice but to die–in agony. OK, maybe that sounds a bit extreme, but do you know for sure that they don’t die in agony?  

Let’s say you buy a Japanese maple. You plant it, it looks great, and the customer loves it. Yeah, you saw those little pieces of green tape sticking out of the trunk here and there, but heck, green tape is good—right?  Someone will brush past a beautiful branch and off it will come, revealing the hideous truth hidden under its poor bark-GREEN TAPE-just a little piece, but enough to not let the branch have any true attachment to the parent branch or stem. Your customer calls and says, “Hey! Whaddaya tryin’ to pull, huh?” Now, you are out looking for another tree, maybe not finding the “great deal” you got on the first one, and in the meantime the tree is bigger, the customer loved it SO much and they are talking about poor business practices and what a creep you are.

Let’s go a step further. This can happen YEARS later as well, in bigger trees with huge, heavy branches. That hidden tape can cause a mature tree to split right down the middle, or, “all of a sudden”, to lose a major limb, which might go crashing down on a home, or a customer, a child, a beloved pet. Occasionally a large tree just falls over–”for no reason”. Well, if an arborist comes out and finds that a tag or tape from long ago has girdled the root crown of the tree, (probably the REAL reason it fell down), he is going to ask that customer who planted the tree. ( Hope you have moved to another country if this happens.)

The moral of this story??

 #1: Choose your trees carefully. If there is foreign material (tape, tags, wire) in the “Vs” of the branches, avoid the tree. Remember that it can happen anywhere, and is usually just an oversight, BUT an oversight that could cost you much more than the price of the tree. 

#2: Do not leave the  green tape and growing stake,  on the tree once it is planted. TAKE IT OFF!!!!! It is not needed –especially if you have placed 2 lodge pole stakes as well. There may be rare cases where the growing stake needs to remain  in place for temporary stabilization of a very thin trunk, but this is rare. AND TEMPORARY. The stake will keep the tree from flexing and  prevent the young tree’s trunk from developing properly. The green tape will girdle the trunk, and eventually kill the tree.