Staking a tree

[BennyC]

Hi,

I have two Ash saplings at the end of my garden, they've been in about 18 months now.

I staked them with some timber about 1.5m high. The trees are now approaching 4m and 3m and we had a very windy weekend resulting in one of the rubber coated wire ties breaking and the tree flopping over completely down to the next tie.

I'll be getting some rubber ties as I know rubber coated wire isn't the best.

I'm just wondering how much longer I should continue to stake them for? If I were to take the stakes away they would both definitely fall over.

They've been staked moderately tightly so I'm thinking if I loosen these up a bit and allow the tree some room to move it'll encourage it to thicken up, along with purchasing some proper tree stakes.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

BennyC

 

[BigBoy]

4m tree 3m stakes above ground, it nerds to be a good 2x2 thick and the ties/rubber bands need to be loose do you can get two widths of the trunk in it as the tree has space to grow. Keep it that way, loosening the stakes over the next 3 or 4 years. Ash will grow tall before it grows fat, might be worth taking the top most branches out to make it bush more.