Feeling heartbroken and dumb (young apples, mostly girdled)

Last year I bench grafted 30-ish apples for my first bench grafting. 2/3 of them went into a garden bed, and the rest in containers. Overall, they did great, with a handful of losses. I knew better, but didn’t protect the bottoms of the tree, given I’ve never had any rodent damage to any of my trees previously. Come winter, some rodents (either rabbits or voles) went to town and fully girdled most of those in the garden bed… hence the heartbreak and feeling dumb.

A couple are not fully girdled, but 75-90% girdled. A couple questions…

  • Have you all had success with tree recovery for those with 10-25% cambium strip remaining, or should I cull them?
  • Do you all think this came from rabbits or voles?

I guess the plan for most is to order new rootstock and cut the scion from the top, with the hope they haven’t dried out.



Here are a couple examples of a few, not quite fully girdled… do you think they have a chance?


Moral of the story… protect your young tree’s lower trunk, even if you’ve never had an issue.

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As long as you can trace a path of intact bark up the tree, then the tree should remain viable.

If I were in your shoes, I’d re-graft to the existing rootstock, either in-place or perhaps at a bench. Regardless, you do not need to purchase anything to solve this problem. You are set back a year and it is some extra work, but it is not a total loss.

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I think the trees in the lower two photos should have a good chance.

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Sorry to hear/see the damage that’s been done.
However i think you can recover with minimal losses. And you’ve learned something from it :slight_smile:

If there is a full strip from the roots to the scion. They usually are fine.

You could cut off a scion and regraft to the existing rootstocks beneath the damage. (might have to dig up a few for that)

Or if you can buy some extra rootstocks for cheap. I’d snip of a scion of each variety (leaving some on the old scion on the tree in case it recovers) and graft an extra one.

I would not dig up/remove the damaged tree’s. Even if the scion part of the tree dies. The rootstock will usually survive and grow a new shoot. And you can regraft on that this summer or next winter.

If this ever happens again. When your tree’s are older. Bridge or inarch grafting might be an option. But i personally with these young tree’s would not bother. Easier/better to order an extra rootstock and graft an extra one.

Keeping a rootstock ungrafted for scionwood or to stoolbed multiply might be a good idea. That way you have more options in the future when something like this happends.

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Possibly rabbits are the culprits? I suggest covering them ASAP with some of wire having small enough grid so their heads wont fit thru to prevent more damage… Best of luck with them recovering. Please keep us updated! Randy/GA

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Definitely looks like rabbit work. We are not seeing them as much as we were turning loose one of the dogs in the evenings. He has caught 8 so far.

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Buy plastic trunk covers.

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I know the feeling. Last year a mouse or vole completely stripped the bark off the rootstock from a graft of aprimira on brompton plum.

I completely covered the rootstock in loose potting soil and also took off some of the scion to regraft on another rootstock. The tree actually survived. I haven’t dug up the soil but presume my last ditch airlayering efforts caused roots to form.

Edit: I don’t have access to the tree right now but this is what it looked like when it was stripped

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I was a bit worried when i got hit for the first time too but the trees both look great today.

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From what I can see, a lot of cambium is still left even in chewed areas so the trees should be able to survive and heal.

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I agree rabbits – damage is high up on the trunk. Vole damage is normally near the base, at least until the vole eats through and topples the tree. Also judging from the marks, the teeth are fairly big.

After learning the hard way, i always put a cylinder of hardware cloth aound the base, fastened with zip-ties.

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I agree with others here, sure looks like rabbit damage. Voles are smaller bite marks and dont go up this high unless in protection like snow or a tree protector or excessive weeds.

A good tree protector will usually solve your problem. If you also have Voles then use the spiral wrap type of protector. These stay fairly tight to the trunk but do allow for expansion. The large diameter, fixed ones can just make a good home for Voles.

It does look like those trees will be fine though.

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Hi all - thanks for all the thoughtful and helpful responses!

First off… DAMN THE RABBITS!!

@ZombieFruit, @ltilton tilton -
After reading your responses, I went and had a more detailed look. Based on your input, it seems like maybe 1/2 of them might have a chance, though the other half are down to wood and fully girdled.

@oscar - that’s wild! I didn’t know about bridge grafting and inarching before. Thanks for teaching me. Am I understanding correctly that you’re suggesting to not stress the trees, and leave them in the garden bed another year (or at least until the fall)? I was curious if (given the narrow path of nutrients/water), if the top should be reduced (even on those damaged, but more likely to survive)? Your strategy of taking some scion will do that on some, but just getting a sense of if that balancing is generally needed.

@randy_ga, @dannytoro1, @jrd51, @jcf -
Thanks for confirming this is rabbit damage. While we have both, I suspected rabbit, given they’re right around head height. The population of rabbits was none 2 years ago, and last year totally exploded. Like rabbits everywhere, all the time… and so dumb… you could walk right up to them and not have them run off, though they wisened up a bit over the year. I think there’s going to be some rabbit control going on this spring. Darren, I just need to borrow one of your dogs for a week or two!

I’ve never had any of my older trees (say 5th leaf) bothered by rabbits (and still not today). Will they go after the larger trees, or just the young tender ones? I’m pretty sure I know this answer and have gotten lucky, but would be good to hear.

The protectors I bought were 2’, and I was planning on cutting them in half. Is a foot enough, or I should definitely keep them full size?

@mrsg47, well, I actually have a number of the spiral plastic ones. When I ordered rootstock from grandpa’s, I ordered some of those, but like a big dummy, never put them on! Won’t make that mistake again!

@Nicholas - That’s a real mean rodent! Pretty amazing that rootstock survived… I guess just rooting above the damage.

@JohannsGarden - I see what you’re saying… I did assume that once the outer bark was gone, that cambium would likely perish not being protected, but it sounds like that is a bad assumption. Thanks for helping to educate me.

All - is there any need to ‘clean up’ any of the chewings or bark, where it’s rough? or, just let it go?

Also, is there any special protection needed the damaged rootstocks, outside of using a spiral wrap? We have pretty intense sun here, and it can be very dry most of the year (our wet months are March-May.

Thanks for the assist, everyone!

Fun Rabbit Fact of the Day - Rabbits have two uteri and can have two ‘batches’ in the oven at the same time. It’s why they are the ultimate lab testing specimen for certain types of birth control.

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Other than protecting your tree trunks, I would also trap rabbits 365x24. I use a live trap.

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I don’t think those are girdled in spite of how it looks.

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I don’t think pruning the damaged tree’s back will have any major effect. Either positive or negative.

If you cut of some of the tops as scions to use for grafting. It might be worth it to use some grafting tape or wax to seal of the pruning wound. To lessen moisture loss so the damaged part of the tree has more time to regrow before the tops dry out.

luckily i have no experience with damage like you have. I think if it happend to me. I would try and wrap some of the damaged area’s in grafting tape. And leave some unwrapped to compare.

wrapping might speed up healing. But also might seal in dead material to rot. I would be less worried about wrapping if you have parafilm or material that lets trough oxygen. I would not wrap with cling film like plastic.

reducing stress always speeds up recovery. So i would not dig any up. Unless there’s a good reason to.
The ones that are completely girdled will probably regrow from the rootstock. And you could regraft them end of summer or next dormant season.

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I had rabbits girdle and kill an apple tree that was at least 6” in diameter, maybe even 8”. Don’t ever underestimate the harm they can do.

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i’ve never had rabbit damage on bigger trees but many of them are still protected – rabbits aren’t the only problem. I can get seriously damage from whitetail bucks rubbing their antlers, so any tree that is not inside a fence gets wrapped in wire fence up to ~3-4’.

If your only issues are mice, voles, and rabbits, then 12" should be enough to protect the bark. There’s a whole separate issue of how to protect the fruit from squirrels, possums, racoons, and even woodchucks. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a fat “ground hog” 6’ up a fruit tree eating peaches or mulberry leaves.

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@ramv - I think after this there will be some more rabbit control going on

@murky - I’m quickly coming to the conclusion my understanding isn’t right. thank you.

@oscar - thanks. the trees were going to get relocated to their permanent location this year, but at this point… preservation is priority. I have both buddy strips (parafilm) and doc farwells.

@northwoodswis4 - that’s really telling. May be less common, but good to be aware of, and I guess I’ll get some wraps on my bigger trees, as well.

@jrd51 - we used to get deer here, but since the county removed brush from a nearby open space, they’ve pretty much disappeared… maybe once a year. That’s good context. I wasn’t clear how aggressive the rabbits would get to chewing (i.e. standing on their hind legs), but they do seem inherently lazy… at least her. Yes, I’ve been robbed of a lot of frui by the squirrels and racoons. Luckily no possums or woodchucks - sounds like quite the sight to see!

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Don’t forget that rabbits can climb over snow drifts, too.

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