Plant Protection
If you recently bought native plants from sales at the Land Trust or one of the county conservation districts, you have your plants in the ground by now. What a great first step in strengthening your property’s ecological health. Wait. Isn’t planting the last step in this process, not the first?
That may depend on whether or not your plants need protection. While heat and dryness are probably the biggest threats to your plants this spring and summer, so is predation. That word seems so awful when describing what is in fact a natural process of fungi, insects, and animals using your plants for food or habitat.
But when predators threaten to kill your plants simply because they’re young and vulnerable, it seems justified, and intervention seems warranted. After all, natives can’t provide ecological services if they die. You want your plants to grow enough to accommodate some level of predatory feeding or colonizing and still do well.
Among smaller predators of your new plants are fungi and insects. The good news is that native plants have co-evolved with their pests, which means your plants can likely survive average pressure from these munchers and symbionts. When things get out of balance, though, you should act, at least this first year. Simply squishing bugs or picking off affected leaves and stems works best. Keeping your plants strong by watering them helps them accommodate predation.
Among the Island’s larger predators, the two most common and most damaging are voles and deer. Voles are rodents that use tunnels to eat roots and, above ground, chew bark where they can reach it. Deer are ruminants that browse leaves and tender shoots. The best defense against both is a physical barrier. Grow tubes, typically blue and sold under many names, wrap around the base of your plant and keep voles away from the trunk, preventing eating that will girdle the plant. Netted tubes, often called vexar tubes, fend off deer browse without shading the plant. Both kinds of tube typically need to be attached for support to a wood stake or steel rod. The taller the better with vexars, since deer can browse as high as five feet. Deer repellants containing blood, urine, or aromatic plant-oils can also be effective browse-stoppers if routinely applied.
One more strategy for plant protection: sacrificial planting. Plant so many plants that predators won’t get to them all. Place the plants you care to sacrifice near where predators live or travel, on the theory that they’re smart and efficient in their predation and won’t exert more energy than necessary to make their living.
