Replies

1. 
   DanH | Nov 10, 2009 08:59pm | #1

   Of late when I've seen this sort of thing the stuff has been attached with cable ties. The cable ties will need to be "refreshed" every 2-3 years as they break down in the sun (or every 6-12 months if you use clear rather than black ones).

   A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity. --Jimmy Carter
2. 
   CapnMac | Nov 11, 2009 01:38am | #2

   I always used weather-tight MC, fastened with galvanized clips using smooth box nails, in a short a lenght as would hold.  Nails will "slide" with bark growth.  If they set loose, a match stick will firm them up a bit.

   I always told clients they needed to get into the trees about once a year and look over the fixtures and see if they were loose, infested with ants (who seem to like the current), or being over-grown by bark.  Or, to have a decent tree service do the work.  Dunno how many did.  Couple had me back about once a year for a while re-aiming the fitures into the fuller canopies.

   Oh, and the install that always seemed smartest to me was to run rigid (EMT or NMT) to the drip-line/root ball.  Then have that turn up some nice descrete distance to terminate in an outdoor box.  Then run the MC under the soil to the trunk then up.  You wind up with a point that can be a disconnect if there's a future problem up the tree (or if it needs to be felled).  And you can have an outdoor convenience outlet, too, with the right sort of planning.  (Yanking up long runs of either direct-burial or tubing which then runs right up a tree can be under fun--even better is trying to tap in for a DPCV for holiday lighting or the like <sigh>.)

   Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
3. 
   popawheelie | Nov 11, 2009 07:21am | #3

   I put three strings of lights in my tree and i just loosened all the staples a couple of days ago.

   There was a section that had broken off. So I soldered it back together and noticed a lot of the staples were tight.

   What i ended up doing was pulling one leg of the staple out of the tree but still having it hook the wire.

   If you want something more permanent you might have to have a fastener that stands off the tree. It would put the conduit an inch or so off the tree. 

   Personally I would just loosen the staples every year or so.  

   "There are three kinds of men: The one that learns by reading, the few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves."
   Will Rogers