NursiTree: The Reusable Tree Bunker |
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A standardized tree container that can be replanted through multiple planting cycles
In 2024, former Tree Wardens Tony Hoekstra and Gerbrand van de Weerd started their new company NursiTree. Their main product is a concept centered around a standardized tree bunker, which is movable and can be replanted for multiple planting cycles.
| Cross-section of NursiTree Tree Container |
Tree managers have come to recognize the benefits of tree bunkers over the last ten to twenty years. A tree bunker allows trees in urban areas sufficient underground growth space to thrive for decades. The challenge is that you do not always have enough space for a bunker in which a tree can do its thing for 40 or 50 years. For such situations, the fledgling company NursiTree by Gerbrand van de Weerd and Tony Hoekstra developed the NursiTree tree bunker. It is essentially a tree bunker, but Hoekstra and Van der Weerd prefer to call it a growth place or tree container. The system is distinctive in that the container is reusable and movable and is particularly aimed at trees in parking strips. Hoekstra: 'We see that the underground growth space in these places is the most under pressure.'
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It is essentially a tree bunker, but Hoekstra and Van der Weerd themselves prefer to use the term growth place or tree container.
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Bunker or Container
The NursiTree tree bunker has standard dimensions of 2.50 by 3.30 meters and a height of 1.30 meters, which seamlessly fits the usual sizing of parking spaces. An empty NursiTree bunker weighs about 8000 kilograms. Filled with substrate and a mature tree, the total weight would be around 16 tons. A NursiTree bunker accommodates seven cubic meters of substrate, which is enough to let a tree (depending on the species) grow for fifteen to twenty years. After this period, you remove the tree from the container, plant it in another location in the municipality, and the bunker gets a brand-new tree.
Hoekstra: 'The market we want to serve involves places where you want to plant trees but where there is insufficient underground growth space available. With our concept, you can still plant a tree. Once the tree has grown and consumed the available substrate, you can hoist it out of the bunker and replant it somewhere else where there is sufficient growth space available.
The tree can be hoisted out of the container because a system of hollow tubes (think drainage hoses, but different) is installed at the bottom of the container during planting. With this tube system, standard lifting straps, and a specially developed lifting frame, the complete contents can easily be hoisted out of the NursiTree system.
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Once the tree has grown and consumed the available substrate, you can hoist it out of the bunker and replant it somewhere else where there is sufficient growth space available.
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Hoekstra: 'Afterwards, you can refill the bunker with substrate and a new tree. Theoretically, you could also move the bunker including the tree as a whole, because it is equipped with lifting eyes. Usually, you would install the NursiTree completely underground, but if desired, you can also install it at ground level, or halfway up, so you can finish the edge with a bench.'
 | | Product Image |
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Water
Naturally, watering the tree has also been considered. At the bottom of the NursiTree system, there is a water reservoir that can hold 1200 liters of water. In times of abundant rainfall, this reservoir discharges to the surrounding ground, but the overflow can also be connected to the stormwater sewer. The reservoir is equipped with a capillary material, which ensures that the water from the reservoir is delivered to the root ball.
 | | Gerbrand van de Weerd |
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 | | Tony Hoekstra |
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Standardization
Creating a good growth place is often custom work. Each location has unique conditions, such as a varying groundwater level. This makes installing traditional tree bunkers and other growth places time-consuming. However, with the NursiTree system, this process is much simpler and more efficient, the gentlemen find.
Management
The NursiTree concept is completed with a nursery management system in which all trees and all locations are included. Hoekstra: 'Four years before a tree reaches its maximum growth in the NursiTree container, the involved manager gets a notification. The manager can then start looking for a new destination for the tree in question. You can compare it to a tree nursery. The tree grows to a certain size and is then brought to a new destination somewhere else in the city. The city as a tree nursery!'
This article was previously published on March 10, 2025, on the Boomzorg website.
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