Sorry this happened to you. I concur that the trees should make it through ok. Do you have racoons there? I will probably have to add an electrical component to my future fence on my property to deter them. My home orchard has racoons and squirrels which do more damage to the actual fruit. The 20+ year semi dwarfs on the property get minimal damage from 
. I was surprised to see the deer pretty uninterested in the fruit itself. The good thing about vegetable gardens is that they are mostly annuals. Did the deer bother your figs?
1 Like
@lodidian, the WA dept of wildlife also states fence needs to be at least 8 feet tall. I was skeptical about my 7 foot fence but so far, so good. We have Columbian Blacktail Deer which may be shorter than other species and not able to jump as high. I don’t know.
@quill, we have raccoons. I don’t often see evidence of them. I wondered if they are our chicken predators although there are other options. Most of my damage to fruit seems to be from Steller’s Jay, which are common here and aggressive. They take chunks out of red apples at tree top, and ripe persimmons high on the trees.
As for figs, the deer here are not enthusiastic about them. They browse some low growth and low figs. I have to protect fig trees for their first few years, then I remove protection. Once the leaves and fruit are above about 5 or 6 feet, they don’t seem so interested in fig growth or fruit. That’s different from apples, pears, cherries, plums which they browse up to 6 or 7 feet. I lose more figs to yellow jackets and some times, birds.
2 Likes
Ah, my east coast bias was at fault. Reading up on the smaller blacktail deer, I see that 7 feet fits well within the range of recommended fencing.
1 Like
I prefer to put a wire cage around each tree. That way when the fence is broken or the gate left open (when, not if) you don’t lose it all. Yah, it’s a pain, but you will sleep better. My sister in California left her gate open once and the deer even got up on her deck and ate her potted plants! A woven electric fence 4’ tall has kept the groundhogs and coons out of my vegetables, but the gophers still do a lot of damage. Jaws rat traps at the mouth of their holes catch quite a few, but they can be very prolific. I hear you about feeling like you are in a war!
1 Like
My condolences. I have a 4 foot fence around my vegetable garden and then had some white twine around 7 feet. This spring deer jumped between them into my garden. I’ve never seen them jump over even a 6 foot barrier here. I think they have too many options to put forth the effort.
They have laser focus for the apple trees. They ate every leaf and every little forming apple off of my esaplier trees that were bearing their first apples 
Like with you, they ignored young plum leaves and some other things.
1 Like
Problem for us was the whitetail bucks rubbed their antlers on the young apple trees and broke them and stripped off the bark. Lost several trees that way - got a permit from the Game Warden to kill the pests. But the most effective way is to erect an 8’ fence which is what we did. White tail problem solved so far. As for coons, hand traps work great (then a 22 through the head). In the old days folks used to poison them but that is too risky. Rabbits will gnaw the bark around the bottom of young trees (mostly in the winter) and do real damage. So, buy hardware cloth and put around the bottom of the tree about 5-8” from the tree in a circle - use hog clips (or flexible copper speaker wire) to hold together and then next year cut the clips off or untie the speaker wire (- at that point the shape is saved) so you can clean around the roots and below the graft. Wait until you get apples and have to deal with crows and other birds - now that is a challenge. I think it is fair to say that nothing is harder than growing apples and pears, especially in the Shenandoah Valley where we have every pest and disease known to nature. If you cannot use Restricted Use Pesticides (requires a license) you will be frustrated.
3 Likes
Maybe I’m missing something… But couldn’t a spring or some other simple device be installed to automatically close the gate like a storm door?
2 Likes
Yes.
On the other hand, having made that mistake once, I haven’t done it again in the past five years. Live and learn 
1 Like
I hope those trees recovered! Any other updates on how the fence has performed?
We wrap our trees in chicken wire. Once in a few years some bucks will rub their antlers on a wrapped tree and girdle it or scrape the bark (better case due to being only one sided damage). I have since started wrapping the trunks in dog-rose and blackthorn branches and also leaving some lower “decoy” branches on fruit trees as an obstacle for antler-rubbers and sacrifice for snippers, who will grab the first branch they reach an rip it as they go.
We could, of course, throw out some money on a proper fence, but where’s the fun in that? (and in living inside one)