# Tree planting (staking) question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-planting-staking-question/135944
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [November 8, 2002, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-planting-staking-question/135944 "2002-11-08T21:48:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-planting-staking-question/135944/1 "2002-11-08T21:48:05Z")
Went for a run along the Chicago lakefront over lunch.
They just put in a TON of new landscaping S of McCormick Place - associated with a park to commemorate fallen firefighters. They must have planted over 100 sizeable deciduous trees in the 3-5" caliper range. Various species - I noted several locusts, oaks, and maples, tho tree and shrub ID is definitely not my strong point - especially when they are losing their leaves.
They also planted a good number (maybe 20+) really large specimens, at least 8-10" caliper. My question is about these larger trees. Each of these larger trees had 4 large J-bolts driven into the trunk, which were cabled to stakes. I wondered why this was done. I would have figured that it would be preferable NOT to screw large bolts into trees if it could be avoided.
The only thing I could figure was that when dealing with such large specimens, you had a relatively oversized crown compared to the recently transplanted root ball. As such, they might be more subject to being toppled by wind.
Of the smaller trees, only a very few were staked. There were a few that looked like cottonwoods - all of these were staked. And a couple of maples were staked. These were all done with saddles made of rubber tubing, instead of the J-bolts.
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### Author:  [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2002, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tree-planting-staking-question/135944/2 "2002-11-08T22:32:31Z")
One more vote here that it’s to keep them from being blown over by the wind before they get their root systems established. As it is, they’re top-heavy.
It doesn’t hurt a tree to have hardware inserted into its trunk, otherwise all those maple trees that are tapped for syrup every year would die from having the spigots pounded into them.