groundbreaker
movers & shakers
Like many new things, the Stretch-Tie was developed to replace
outdated technology. Josh Long, with help from Erin Parra, tells
the story of how he came up with the idea for an expandable
twist tie after a lifetime of staking plants with ineffective
machinery and intensive manual labor.
P
lants need support for various rea-
sons. Some crops require support due
to high yields of fruit or flowers. Some
crops are staked to spread them out for
maximum light exposure. In horticulture,
the leader of a young plant is staked and
supported to establish a straight trunk. No
matter the motive, the reality is that most
commercial crops are staked at some
point in their life cycle.
As a kid growing up on a commercial
nursery that raised high volumes of
various landscape crops, one of my first
jobs was staking plants. At the time,
there were two main methods that most
nurseries used—practices that continue
to this day. There was a mechanical
method using spools of stretch tying tape.
Stretch-Tie: Makers of the Expandable Twist Tie
Location: Portland, OR
Phone: 1-503-651-2776
Web: stretchtie.com
Number of years doing business: 8
150
groundbreakers
A machine looped the tape around a
branch and a stake, then stapled the
loop together. There were many brands
of these machines. Right out of the
box, they worked all right. However,
over time, they were very frustrating.
Jamming was frequent and reloading
the consumables could be difficult when
working in harsh outdoor environments.
Anything sticky, such as sap or dirt,
really slowed down the productivity. The
staples also often pulled through the
plastic, leaving you with unsupported
plants that you would have to rework.
Later in my career when I was manag-
ing large crews, I began to loathe these
machines. Between the purchase costs,
downtime, reworking, and repairs, I
figured there had to be a better way.
The other most common method
was, and still is, hand tying using
a type of expandable tape. This
method was effective, but labor
intensive and extremely slow. In fact,
we measured that hand tying was more
than 60 per cent slower than machine
looping. The only good thing was that
you never had to go back and fix failed
ties when you did it by hand the first
time. Again, if only we could combine
the benefits of both, I thought.