We just planted them last year. Now this year something is breaking branches on them. They were good till about 4 weeks ago. Now they have broken branches about 4 1/2 feet off the ground... The base of these trees are about 1 1/4". The broken branches are about 5/8". Any thoughts?
Yup, deer. I planted a bunch of apple trees the first year I bought my house, but I never fenced them off. The deer found them and decided to keep them pruned pretty short... I'm letting some raspberry and black locust brambles grow up around them now, hoping the thorns would be a deterrent, but it doesn't seem to bother them. They like to browse my young oaks too. Wish they'd go after the poplars or multiflora rose or something instead.
I'll check out the deer mesh. Never heard of it. This valley is beautiful but there aren't many farms left as it's getting developed like crazy. Which means nobody can hunt it. The deer population is high. Thanks, lukem
Tim, even with the older trees, they will prune them heavily at this time of the year. Even oak trees and maple trees and etc. They just love the new leaves. Tender stuff it is. The others are correct in that you have to fence them in. It does not take a lot but be sure they can't reach the branches after the fencing. If fencing a large area, you need a minimum of 5' high and higher is better. We do get by with 5' but also tie plastic grocery bags to each t-post and that keeps them out. Without the bags, they occasionally will get in. You may have noticed when you were here some of our fencing got beat up a bit. Some of that happened from deer running into the fence from the outside and some happened one time when a deer got inside and couldn't get out. Well, she finally made it but made a mess of the fence. One more thing is to make sure you wrap that tree before winter and don't put anything near the trunk of the tree else mice will nest there and chew the bark. Good luck.
Shawn, the raspberries are a bad choice. Why? Because deer love them! Not only the berries but the leaf too and will even eat the leaf in November, or long after the berry is gone and for sure before the berry comes on. Another one is coon and they can do some bad damage too.
