Smart Garden Smart Lok Plant Ties 35cm 6 Pack

Smart Garden SmartLok Plant Ties – 35cm, Pack of 6

SmartLok ties are 35cm self-locking plastic straps for tying a stem to a cane, stake or trellis. The locking head lets you feed the tail through, pull it to the tension you want and release it again later, which is the difference between these and a one-way cable tie that has to be cut off and thrown away.

Six in a pack, 35cm each, which is the longer of the SmartLok lengths — enough to go round a stout stake and a thick stem with slack to spare. Smart Garden list them under plant ties in their Useful range.

Performance & Benefits

• 35cm length, long enough to take in a stake and a thickened stem together.
• Self-locking head that holds tension but releases when you need to slacken it.
• Reusable season to season rather than cut off and binned.
• Six ties per pack, so a row of newly staked plants is covered.
• Broad strap rather than wire or twine, spreading the load over more of the stem.

Suitable For

• Young trees, standards and whips tied to a stake.
• Climbers and wall shrubs being trained to wires or trellis.
• Tall herbaceous plants, cordon tomatoes and dahlias on canes.
• Tying netting, fleece and windbreak to posts temporarily.
• Too long and too coarse for soft seedling stems — a soft twist tie or garden twine is kinder there.

How to Use

• Pass the strap around the stake and the stem, feed the tail into the locking head and pull up.
• Leave a finger's width of slack; the tie should support the stem, not clamp it.
• Figure-of-eight the strap between stake and stem on a tree so the bark is not rubbed against the stake.
• Check and slacken each tie at least once a season as the stem thickens.
• Release, wipe and keep the ties for next year rather than leaving them on a dead stem.

Specification

• Tie length 35cm. Pack of 6.
• Self-locking plastic strap, reusable.
• Barcode 5050642051446. Listed by Smart Garden under plant ties.
• Smart Garden publish no strap width, breaking strain or polymer type for these ties, so none is stated here.

Care & Caution

• A tie left tight will girdle a stem and can kill a young tree above the tie. Check and slacken every one at least once a season.
• Do not leave used or broken ties on the ground in a field or yard. Loose plastic straps get picked up by horses, cattle and dogs and can cause a gut blockage.
• Count them out and count them back in when you are working in a paddock or a grazed orchard.