@zendog It is crappy but that is part of the game. Me and my daughter took count the other day to see what we had left. 9 honeycrisp, 2 airlie, and 10 winesap. This morning 0 honey, 2 airlie, and 10 winesap. Not going to be a great year. Makes me wonder if it was squirrels since it happened overnight and 9 is a lot for one night. Cant see anything on my camera but the corpses look like squirrel nibblings.
@alan Baffles do work where they can be applied. Like you said though, f%ckers can jump. I’ll have to find something else.
Yes, my own orchard has branching too low, but I’m in the process of changing that. I’m 72 and would like to leave my Elmer Fudd identity by the time I’m 80. I’m really sick of killing them since I don’t eat them.
In my nursery I train most of my trees with scaffolds that start high enough to baffle the tree. The only customers I have with no squirrel issues have dogs that control the grounds. In that case, you still need to have enough property to have trees where the squirrels have to approach them from the ground.
Training the peach trees in my nursery requires repetitive summer pruning because shoots grow straight up from close to horizontal scaffolds.
The 3 peach trees that were here when we bought our property have scaffolds that start too low for baffles. Im starting a new small orchard and will be pruning for higher scaffolds so i can use baffles effectively. And we will be able to create electric fencing there.
Where the existing peaches are, there are too many other trees that provide squirrel cover and jumping off points.
Im resigned to losing my peach crop this year, but it still hurts.
I feel the pain. I think we all wish that we could send our current knowledge back to our younger selves. Especially with such a time hungry hobby (or profession depending on your situation). I’m not sure that I could train my trees differently due to all of the jumping off points but I could make it more of a challenge at the very least. My dog helps but since she is stuck to my side more often than not it leaves plenty of gaps.
@alan I’ve had to murder a good number in my past. Like you said, feels like a waste. Reminds me of my grandmother before she passed. She’d spend her days shooting them off of her feeders. Understandable but she kept a tally in a grim manner. Shed cut off their tails then add them to a string with the rest. Lover her to death but she could be pretty damn dark.
If I do start to shoot them I’ll probably throw the bodies to the chickens as supplemental feed. Waste not.
I am glad I am not the only one having a year like this I don’t live to far away from you @Drew51 but my trees are getting decimated. It’s too bad because this is my first year where I started getting an actual crop from some of my trees. Its really discouraging.