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["del stubbs" <pinewoodel@hotmail.com>]

Phil, this sounds like just the idea I've been needing. I've now got enough 
free window screen for 200 trees and have started stapling the tubes around 
them. It's easy! Should lsat 5 years.  I'm going 2' high wherever possible 
because that is above the normal snow line and voles are the main problem 
here. But in discussions this winter it became clear that screen is a 
perfect permanent deterrent of borers. My orchard is too young to know if 
they will pose a problem, but the foam seems to be a great solution to how 
to seal the top from them and not cause abrasion or constriction.
The screen prevents the dreaded weed-whip disease also, and perhaps most 
importantly....it allows me to start heavy green manure mulching near the 
trees - which my heavy clay is so in need of.

Question....I think most foam would sun deteriorate, what material and what 
thickness does your friend use?

>From: Phil Norris <COUSINPHIL@ACADIA.NET>
>A nurseryman friend has come up with a pretty effective borer cage.
>A collar of soft foam is wrapped around the trunk about a foot up.
>Then a piece of screen about 15 inches wide is laid around the trunk
>and stapled together tightly around the collar.  The lower edge is
>buried in the soil.   The beauty of it is that the cage can expand
>with the tree.

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