Hedges
Improved growth rates and protection
Overview
Our tree shelters support hedge planting by improving growth rates and providing reliable protection against environmental stress and animal browsing, helping to establish stronger, more uniform hedgerows with less intervention.
Problems and Benefits
Tubex tree shelters promote stronger, more consistent growth while protecting young hedge plants from environmental stressors and browsing damage. This results in healthier, more resilient hedgerows that are easier to manage and more cost-effective to establish.
Problems
Animals such as rabbits, hares, and deer, pose a significant threat to newly planted hedgerows.
Young hedge plants sourced from nurseries are typically fertilised and nutrient-rich, making their main shoots and terminal buds especially attractive to grazing animals.
While fencing can protect specific areas, it often leads to increased animal density and browsing pressure in surrounding, non-fenced zones.
Newly planted hedge saplings can struggle when exposed to climatic extremes – sometimes leading to losses.
In open or exposed sites in particular, fluctuations in temperature and humidity can stress young plants, slowing their development and leaving them vulnerable to pests, disease, and competition. Without a stable, supportive microclimate, early growth is often uneven and delayed — compromising the hedge’s ability to form a dense, healthy structure in its formative years.
Benefits
The vertical slit of Tubex Easywraps makes both installation and removal for maintenance and recycling much easier than spirals – which is more brittle than PP. Our twin-walled wraps provide an enhanced microclimate compared to single-wall spirals, leading to hedge plants’ improved growth and survival rates.
Made from polypropylene (PP), Tubex Easywraps remain flexible and easy to handle after several years, preventing shattering and making removal much simpler.
Hedgerows are vital ecological corridors and support a wide range of species by providing food, shelter, and safe passage through the landscape. However, young plants are especially vulnerable to browsing by rabbits, deer, and other herbivores, which can damage or kill saplings before they mature. Tubex tree shelters offer essential protection during this critical stage, shielding plants from browsing pressure and environmental stress.
By creating a protected zone around each sapling, Tubex shelters reduce the encroachment of competing vegetation, helping young hedge plants access the light, water, and nutrients they need to thrive while also reducing the reliance on herbicides and manual weeding. At the same time, the physical support provided by the shelter encourages upright, uniform growth, protecting plants from wind distortion and uneven development. This results in stronger, more resilient hedgerows that are easier to manage and better equipped to deliver long-term environmental and agricultural benefits.
Product
Solutions
Product Solutions
The Tubex tree protection shelter range are designed to offer solutions for all tree species – whether just browsing protection, microclimatic or ventilation is required to optimise tree establishment.
Find the best Tubex solution for your specific needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
The ratio of root to shoot and also of height to diameter is sometimes affected when using very tall tubes. For example in a 1.5m tube, compared with a tree planted without a shelter, the tree inside the shelter can sometimes grow a little taller than would naturally occur given the diameter of the trunk, but this only happens whilst the tree is within the tube. As soon as the tree exits the shelter then the natural growth ratios return. If this is a concern then using ventilated shelters such as Combitube and Ventex will slow the growth of the tree/vine and actually enhance the root and stem growth beyond that achieved with no Tubex shelter.
Once the tree gets out of the top of the Tubex tube there is still a growth benefit – Tubex tubes reduce weeds and maintain moisture around the tree, so the tree continues to grow with additional strength if using Tubex.
There is almost always an increase in temperature inside Tubex tubes (less so with ventilated tubes such as Combitube and Ventex) but our experience tells us that even in hot countries such as Spain, in most cases this is not enough to damage the tree or reduce growth rates. The increase is only around 2-6 degrees depending on conditions (wind etc.
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Effective
Protection