How to Remove Tree Stakes & Save Trees Before Too Late

If you don’t know how to remove tree stakes and leave the stakes with trees, it can cause severe damage to your trees. Though stakes for trees are essential, they can become a reason for rot or other tree diseases if not removed timely.

After a certain age of the tree, it needs no stake or support. Then, we must remove the stakes for not only you are told to remove but also crucial for the trees’ healthy growth.

An easy way to remove tree stakes is by pulling them out with hands. It can be an easy practice but becomes challenging when the stakes are too tight.

Don’t worry; we have covered from the ordinary and most effortless steps to the professional level methods here. Today, the chief guest in our context will be tree stake and its removal processes.

Let’s get started.

How to Remove Tree Stakes from Ground?

Yes, you must remove the tree stakes, but there is a specific time when you can remove them. It’s not like just pulling them out any time you wish. So, before directly jumping on to the removal process, let’s know when it is the right time to remove tree stakes.

If you are confident enough with your tree ages, skip this part and check out the removal process next.

When to Remove Tree Stakes?

You see, when there is a chance of the plants hit by a car or the tree has not got the robust root yet to hold on itself, you put stakes around them.

Again, if the trees were planted in a windy season or in a heavy traffic side road, these stakes are a must to protect them until the tree trunk gets solid enough to support itself well. The stakes can be of wood or any metal fence post.

But after a certain period, this is not a good practice to leave the stakes with the tree. So, you must remove them and let the trees swing with the air. It’s really essential and beneficial for the tree’s growth and keeps them free from diseases.

When people use wooden stakes, by the time, it can be dampened and rotten. As a result, the tree trunk gets affected too. So, before it’s too late, you must remove the stakes and save the trees.

So, when to remove nursery stake? This question we often get from the gardeners. You should remove the tree stakes when you can see the tree trunk has been solid enough and does not bend down with air.

Some tree roots are stiff from the very early stage of their growth, such as the Bonsai. These plants don’t need stakes for long. You can leave them free without stakes after a few weeks of planting.

However, if you are still confused about when to remove stakes from trees, then around one year after planting is the perfect time on average to remove tree stakes.

Moreover, if you are not sure of the time when planted, take a measuring tape and measure the tree height. You can remove the stakes when the trees are at least more than 2 feet from the ground.

How to Remove Wood Tree Stakes?

The most common and easy way to remove tree stakes is by dragging them with your hand. Yes, your hand is the best tool ever to remove landscaping stakes.So, if you are searching for ways on how to remove wooden stakes from the ground, this way is applicable.

1. Take out the string/rope tied with the tree trunk. You can use any scissor or wire cutterhere.
2. Now hold the stake with two hands and push it back and forth to loosen the bottom soil of the stake. Keep doing the same until you feel the bottom of the stake is quite loosened.
3. After that, pull the stake out by pulling it upward. If there is a single stake, then here your task ends. But if more than one stake, meaning double or multiple stakes, then repeat the same with each.

Pro Tips:

• Must wear gloves before holding the wooden stakes. There can be worms or tiny wood sprinters that are hard to notice. These can pinch into your hand and cause severe injuries.
• Must fill the hole of the stakes with loose soil correctly.
• Make sure the stakes are pretty away from the tree roots.
• Be careful when pulling the stake out lest you should damage the trees.

How to Remove Metal Stakes from Ground?

If the stake is a metal stake, you can also apply the same process as shown above for the wooden stakes using hands.

If you find moving the stake bit tough, then use a hammer and hit on the stake from the opposite side after every hit. Keep doing this until the stake bottom is loose enough to pull out with hands.

But how to get a stake out of the ground when it is driven too deep? You will need a few tools that are available near your yard or lawn. And you can do it within a minute.

Tools You Need

• A lifting chain with a grabbing hook
• A piece of metal pipe
• Some wooden blocks/ brick can do as well

Steps to remove the stubborn metal stake/ fence post. And if you need to know how to remove a metal fence post, this method just insanely works. This will be basically a lever where the wooden blocks will work as the fulcrum to lift and pull out the stake easily.

1. Tie the metal stake with the chain. Make a few loops to tie it hard. Then, tie the chain hook.
2. Place 2 wooden blocks as much close to the stake bottom.
3. Take a pipe and place it on the blocks. Then, tie the end of the pipe with the stake chain very well. Your DIY lever is ready to use.
4. Now, on the opposite end of the pipe, push downwards using your leg. You can even jump on the opposite end of the pipe or push using all your body weight.
5. Readjust the chain if needed and repeat step -4 until the stake comes out of half of its way.

When you see the stake is almost out. Pull it out with your hands. In this way, you can remove any tree stakes, no matter how deep it’s driven.

You can do the same method using any lift jack if you have any. The technique is the same; just instead of the wooden blocks and pipe, you can use the lift jack.

However, if you are available with any drills and use small stakes, this Keyfit ToolsAnchor Speed Staker can be beneficial. It not only anchors the stakes fast within a second but removes them as well. It can cost you a little more.

Some fence post poppers are available in store, like the Hi-Lift Jack Wooden or Metal Fence Post Puller, work fantastic in place of a DIYlever.

These can be used as tree stake removal tools also. But make sure to use gloves and goggles to avoid any incidents.

Wrapping Up

As a lawn owner or gardener, you must know how to remove tree stakes from the ground for the sake of your trees.  But no worries, if you are one of them who just started gardening, check out the methods shown above.

The easiest handy ways to the professional level method using tools are discussed here in detail. So, read it out and apply them quickly to save your trees.