Anyone who has an orchard or garden knows how frustrating it is to work day in and day out only to find that deer have eaten your lettuce, trampled your tomatoes, pulled up turnips and carrots, ruined your flower beds, ripped the leaves off your young apple trees, or eaten the fruits right off the trees. 2. Caging the Apple Trees for Deer Protection. Apple trees (including crabapples) come in hundreds of varieties, are very adaptable, and can provide tons (literally) of soft mast per acre each year. Mulch a 3-4 ft. circle around each tree 2-3 inches deep to help retain moisture and suppress weeds (weed competition is one of the most limiting factors for all newly planted trees). Berries. But they usually make up less than 1% of the nutritional content of apples. Debate about this type of barrier fence usually focuses on height. Most problematic for deer hunters is the long list of improved crabapple varieties from which to choose. The wires should be stretched to 250 pounds tension. Staking a deer fence can be impractical and unsightly around young trees. And that list is a long one: pine trees. Deer Deterrents. Placing a tall fence around your garden to help keep deer out is an effective method. The Deer Rut and Deer Candy Trees are registered with the U.S. government. We have an orchard of ~20 trees and didn't want the aesthetic or cost of fences around individual trees, or a massive fence around the whole area. Deer damaged fruit trees Asked October 21, 2017, 8:37 AM EDT We just came to our cabin in northern lower Michigan (Alcona county) to find our deer fences smashed in and branches eaten and broken from our three year old fruit trees (apple, plum, cherry, pear). The apple trees were left standing with only minor damage to the foliage and fruit. I put some fencing around each tree but now the trees are taller than the fence and the deer are biting the tops of them off. ball44. As we mentioned, most people assume you’re talking about apple trees when they think of orchards and tree plots for deer. Deer stripped new growth off young fruit trees, cats used vegetable plots for litter boxes, and visiting dogs dashed through flower and vegetable gardens, trampling as they went. Brought to you by The Wireless Deer Fence®. 10 years ago. Saturday we went out to the land to try get some work down. You can also slant a 6 foot fence outward at a 45 degree angle. Caging the Apple Trees for Deer Protection. Using smelly deterrents like Scram works well, but so does offering the local deer an alternative food source. White-tailed deer have the ability to jump almost 8 feet (2.4 m) high, so fences need to either be just as tall or angled outward to compensate. So, for the cost of about $1660, I’ve had good deer control for the past three years. However, this option can be costly unless you choose to make a fence from pallet woods . Below is a drop time chart giving you an excellent idea of when fruit will be falling. Drive in one staple at each cable tie to prevent the ties from shifting out of position. I have some trees that I grafted last year. As the trees grow out of the fence the deer are allowed to graze on them to help quickly train them above the browse line. i was thinking about fencing in each individual tree but as that would involve about 400 meters of wire plus 160 posts, materials could end up costing about 500 euros, can any one … Tying in apple trees with food plots can be like comparing milk and cookies, ducks and water, or muskrats and cattails. They are also a royal pain in the you-know-what, if you try to grow anything that they like to snack on. Deer repellent sprays (when they do work) can be effective but thats only when you remember to apply them. I weave the fencing lightly onto the post with the flush side sticking out a couple inches from the post for easy hooking. Topic: Planting Apple Trees for Deer Hunting: Hi Bill. While establishing new food sources on your property can positively impact the herd’s nutrition, the abandoned, overgrown orchards that pepper the landscape in some regions can offer a great deal with some revitalization. Therefore, in our 26-acre apple orchard, I put up a second type of fence – an eight-foot high woven wire barrier. For good reason! They wrap right around your tree’s trunk and prevent deer from rubbing up against the bark. Protein and Fat – apples also contain protein and fat. This will prevent the deer from reaching the tree what so ever. This is not as high, but it is wide, which may make up for lost height. Grafted apples trees will be fast growing apple trees and begin bearing fruit in 2 – 4 years. The photo at left illustrates the most common form of deer damage--buck rub. I close the fence with the fencing itself only using 2 or 3 wires so it opens easily. My young boys and I are big fans of your show and watch is regularly. Deer love eating apples and apple trees.Many plant apple trees for themselves, some for wildlife, including deer. One of the best ways to keep deer away from your trees is to build a mesh fence around each tree. All the latest breaking UK and world news with in-depth comment and analysis, pictures and videos from MailOnline and the Daily Mail. 5. Apple trees can provide an ample supply of quality food to whitetails and often retain fruit late into the season, continuing to drop apples into the winter. Sand and seal the wood to help the tree guard last for several years. If repellents become ineffective or too costly and time consuming, a fence will exclude deer from the area around your peach trees permanently. When I fence trees individually I use 4 T-Posts spaced to make a 5 foot square around the tree and fence it with 2"X4" - 6' high welded wire fence. Five Strand Deer Fence: This low-impedance electric fence uses five smooth 12-gauge high tensile wires and a low-impedance electric charger. The best way to protect your tree is to physically block off deer with a fence or tree guard. I am preparing to plant 40 apple trees and I am wondering if any one has any ideas about how to protect the orchard from deer as the deer can easily jump over the 3 foot sheep fence. Construct the fence or inner area of the bench to be large enough to allow for several years of growth. Deer populations across the US have exploded making it increasingly difficult to grow young pecan trees. Published on November 4, 2013 by . No matter whom you expect to harvest the apples, one thing is for certain: If you do not protect the newly planted and young trees from deer, the trees will never reach maturity to bare fruit. For us – simple deer netting has worked well to protect our young trees in the orchard. For permanent plantings, such as apples, fences are needed all year. Installing your deer fence in a way that coordinates with other natural barriers like hedges, walls, and natural deterrents is the smartest way to reinforce your fence. You can construct around the trunk of your tree in a triangle, square or pentagon shape. Plastic or mesh tree guards are a quick fix. Another way to protect small trees and shrubs is with less expensive deer netting. Saturday we went out to the land to try get some work down. So many things. The Deer Rut Tree can be grafted with the Deer Candy Tree for an earlier partial drop and a later drop, or both. 3. Choose a privacy fence so the deer don‘t see your fruit trees and will be less tempted to jump. Fruit trees are prime targets too. I bought 3/4” metal conduit from the local electric supply store (only $3 or $4) each, used an angle grinder to cut one end into a point, and spent less than an hour by myself driving them in with a ladder and large hammer (spaced ~12 … We have so many plans for it, but honestly time, money, and circumstances have made things move slower than we had hoped. Well… you get the idea. You can buy a 100’ x 7’ roll of deer netting for around $35 – and its enough to do about (10) 6’ trees. The low maintenance grafted apple trees we grow and sell for wildlife are genetic clones of the original tree. Buck deer rub their antlers on 1 to 2 inch diameter pecan trees to remove the velvet from their antlers and mark their territory in preparation for mating season. Hold the netting to each post with three or four cable ties. Wrap the deer netting around the wooden stakes, securing it to the stakes at the very top and bottom with ½-inch staples. By browsing on trees, shrubs, and ornamental plants, deer have been known to cause as much as $20,000 damage to a single homeowner’s landscaping. Our handy rolls are a great deer deterrent for odd shaped plants and especially young trees. Fruit trees. Apple may be a favorite for deer but they are not the only ones they enjoy. Electric fences also can be used. Do not plant pear trees in close proximity to apple trees as they are a good host of Fireblight. The fence stayed intact, which kept the deer out. Thanks for all the management and hunting tips and the entertaining content. Garden veg. It may be necessary in high deer density areas to fence each tree. My dad and I have some land in central MN and have done many habitat improvement projects on it over the years. Buy 6 to 8 foot (1.8 to 2.4 m) tall deer fence posts per 15 feet (4.6 m). Using a deer-resistant hedge of shrubs around your property is also a great option. 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