Hi all! Wasn’t expecting deer damage to my new orchard, but they came by and took off the top 12 inches of new growth on this nectarine. New bareroot planted one month ago, 42” tall. Should I just cut it down to the new growth or leave it be?
Nothing looks exposed or open to disease. Just do your trimming during the dormant winter.
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Leave it be. You need a better fence though. I usually start the fence off wider till the top is out of deer range. Then I shrink it to about a foot wide to stop buck rubs.
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Now might be a good time to select few scaffolds by pinching off the growth you don’t want. What’s left behind will grow really fast.
Just don’t let deer eat it again this year and it should be a great tree.
If you don’t want to fence, you can make free deer deterrent by soaking green vegetation in a 5 gallon bucket for a week. The result is a putrid, anaerobic solution you can spray on leaves. Respray after rain.
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I’m not sure if you have rabbits and other rodent pressure. Rabbits will chew through that and a ring of hardware cloth is definitely more effective for those.
The deer haven’t been bothering my trees too much when I added 5 or 6 foot 2"x4" fencing but did return before that was in place.
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Thanks, all. I know a fence is best, but it’s out of the question for me. I tried some deer repellent - garlic, putrified egg, essential oils etc. and it has worked so far.
Fortunately, we have a surplus of feral cats and foxes in our urban neighborhood, so rodents should almost be non existent. Haven’t seen a rabbit in 3 years.
The fence a lot of people, myself included, use is a circle of 2"x4" welded wire with a stake of some kind to hold it in place. It’s not much more intrusive than a tomato cage, doesn’t cost much to get a 50’ roll good for several trees, and actually works. I didn’t want to put fences in either, but the third time a deer mauled off all the new growth that season I changed my mind.
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