Tubes to protect saplings?

prettypennies

I am planting 35 saplins with my class this week. Can anyone suggest a cheap or free source of the tubes you put round them to protect them?

maow425

Wrapping paper rolls? They can usually be unwound, or you could buy some cheap plastic tubing from a DIY store, if the saplings are strong enough to stand properly you could possibly use cable tidy (very cheap from Ikea). I know that plumbers use that foamy-type tubing to insulate waterpipes, maybe that would work?

scbk

The proper tubes are dirt cheap when they're bought in the big quantites. And they'll do a much better job of protecting them. Some of them wil bio-degrade after a few years aswell. Since it (sounds like!) it's education related, get on to your local forestry commision office, they'll hopefully give you some tubes, stakes and ties or maybe even send round a forest officer to teach the kids about trees etc!