Properly Staking Trees and Other Plants in Desert Soil

 Q. I have a tree that was staked and now the wires used in staking it are starting to strangle the tree trunk.

Fairly common forgetfulness of homeowners and plant maintenance companies. Tree staking. Proper staking removes the stakes after one season of growth.

A. That's a common problem on large, staked trees planted in home landscapes. It's a gamble on the wind whether to stake or not to stake. I encourage people to stake nearly all plants. It's cheap insurance. On smaller 5-gallon plants (sometimes even 15-gallon shrubs) the small, square, green nursery stake found in the container may be adequate if cut loose from the plant, driven or pushed into the moist, solid ground beneath the plant. Retie the plant when you’re finished. Always have some half-inch, stretchable green nursery tape on hand. It's very useful.

Green stretchable nursery tape is used to tie one inch caliper bare root trees to a wooden stake.

The purpose of staking any plant is to keep new roots from being damaged during establishment. The movement of roots usually happens during strong winds. Planting in wet planting holes and amending the backfilled desert soil may get around the use of stakes with smaller plants. Use your judgement.

Wind blew over this cactus either because it was watered too often, watered too close to its center. If the soil surrounding the roots were moist, this cactus would find water further from its center and resist blow over.

Typically staking is only needed for one growing season and then removed. One growing season is all that is needed to establish plant roots in the surrounding soil and make the plant secure against wind. 

Some homeowners may think the reason for staking is to hold the tree upright. That's only partially true. On occasion more than one growing season of staking may be needed when planting trees grown too close to each other in wholesale or production nurseries. In cases like these, metal ties are loosened and then retightened at the end of each growing season to prevent “choking the trunk” as seen in your picture. Remember, plants grow in two dimensions; length AND girth. Sometimes excessively tall and weak plants must be pruned smaller to encourage new, stronger growth. 

The proper way to stake a tree is to allow the canopy and trunk of the tree to move but not it's roots. Movement of a tree’s trunk allows it to gain taper (become stronger) as it grows in size. Trunk taper may or may not be missing because of production nursery practices. Properly grown trees have a tapered trunk as you look at it from top to bottom.