LakeSmart Tip: Live Staking
- Brenda Hambleton
- 2 hours ago
- 1 min read
by Roy Lambert
Could your shoreline benefit from more vegetation? Early spring provides a short window of opportunity to quickly and inexpensively add plants with minimal effort. Live stakes are cuttings from woody shrubs
that root when planted. Installing live stakes can be a free or very affordable way to increase vegetation along your shoreline. Most species that are suitable for live staking are shrubs – they don’t grow very tall and provide excellent shoreline stabilization.
Live stakes are typically 2-3 feet long and are planted directly into the ground in the spring while they are still dormant. New cuttings typically take 1-2 years to establish new roots, so be patient the first year!
Species well suited for live staking are listed below, and both native or cultivated varieties will work. You can collect cuttings yourself if you know a landowner with established plants who will allow you to harvest, or you can purchase your stakes
from a local nursery. Edgewood Nursery in Falmouth offers cuttings of several willow varieties, and Fedco Trees Co. has cuttings available for pre-order in the winter. Let us know if your local nursery also carries live stakes.
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