Some years, even in sites like that, here in NY the squirrels would rather risk predation than starvation. They strip every piece of fruit in the entire region and many other species suffer even though the squirrels are still doomed to winter starvation.
Iāve seen people construct 1" chicken wire peach houses.
It wasnāt intended as a slight. In my already very long post, I simply didnāt take the effort or space to footnote everything. At some point knowledge becomes so common it becomes sort of pedant to try to keep giving credit. At least thatās the way I view it with my own techniques of growing fruit, which I think a few (very very few, actually) are proprietary. I actually didnāt even know you developed the baffle method, though I was aware you have promoted it extensively.
Just about all the knowledge here, relevant to new backyard growers, has been mentioned and built upon by the membership. Itās my opinion that it would clutter up posts to try to mention references of individual contributors of the knowledge base we use. Iām not opposed to citing bibliographical references, and frequently do. I just donāt feel obligated when it comes to things so frequently discussed as mitigating squirrel damage, or other topics with which there are hundreds of threads and thousands of posts addressing the subjects.
I know this is a long answer to a relatively short comment. But I sensed you felt slighted by the lack of credit (I canāt see any other reason for your mention of it.) So wanted to mention my thought process behind my post.
The real point of my post is that there are many methods to control squirrel predation of fruit. I mentioned my own methods most commonly used (short trees and trapping) as well as others Iāve seldomly/never used, but have been used with success by others.
The good news is that there are plenty of methods available so that we donāt have to surrender all our hard work and efforts of fruit growing to wildlife.
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I didnāt want credit, no need for that, Iām too old for that kind of pride, although my writing style seems to suggest something else. I just would rather someone else steer them to my advice so I know someone listened- and without mentioning my name.
the greatest credit is merely having information that is useful sited, and I didnāt take it as a slight, just as an inadequate answer for my neck of the woods where Iāve seen many a net ripped open by squirrels and coons. If you let drops in nets sink the net to within a coons grasp, expect a big repair job, even on baffled trees.
The spacing and a very active hawk population I know has really helped me . I also bag some, and even make my own sleeves to hold 3 or 4 per sleeve . I usually donāt even bag any upper branches I just let nature take its course. If I produce 60 to 80 high-quality peaches, thatās plenty for me . I am the only one in my family that really eats them and Iām certainly the only one that cares to put any work into my orchard . So I donāt mind sharing with the squirrels . However, raccoons are a totally different subject they donāt believe in sharing
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Itās a bit funny how we as people are obsessed with doing what appears to be imposable. That is growing fruit with so many obstacles.
I planted our 3 peach trees, that were 3 ft tall before topping them. Did nothing and we got 2 nice sweet peaches. I regret saying, āthis is so easyā.
The next year, and the second year, the OFM found me! From this message board I leaned to spray the effective materials in a timely manor. The deer and raccoons appreciated my new learned skill.
Installed a simple electric fence and stopped all deer issues, but the raccoons moved in. I trapped and killed many raccoons but there was a never ending stream of backup raccoons. So I added 2 x 4 welded wire fence to the bottom 2 ft.
That did it! Until the squirrels saw all the competition was gone.
One last attempt to win this! Added 2 ft high chicken wire. Burying the bottom of the fence with gravel. Used insulators to hold the lowest hot just 2 inches above the chicken wire. Walked around the fence perimeter many times thinking like a squirrel. Closing any potential gap.
Years 4, 5 and 7 have been varmint free. Year 6 we were hit by the sudden polar plunge that killed the buds.
In the photo below, the fence is nearly invisible.
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@Olpea Would like to know what to do with (leave or remove) Sylleptic shoots that have grown along with their parent branch in the same year. Are these shoots going to be fruitful or continue their growth next season to be selected as secondary branch. I have marked a few such shoots in the picture below.
Whether or not sylleptic shoots will be fruitful depends on when they were formed. If they were formed earlier in the season, they generally have lots of fruit buds. If they grew later in the season, generally not many (if any) fruit buds.
You can tell if there are lots of fruit buds at a glance. Fruit buds are almost always paired with a leaf bud. So if you see multiple buds at one location, you have fruit buds on that shoot. If there are just singles, then those are almost always leaf buds (although sometimes there can be a few single buds which are actually fruit buds).
Fruit buds are mostly formed on wood which emerges earlier in the season. Thatās why itās ideal to do pruning very early in the season for maximum fruit production.
In terms of pruning your tree, you have a challenge in that you have to work with the privacy fence behind the tree.
Your options are to let the tree grow taller than the fence (as itās doing) or keep it pedestrian height.
There is a quad method of pruning which would probably work with your fence. but that means you will be picking/pruning/thinning off a ladder. There are 3 legged orchard ladders which are probably the safest to do that kind of work. I think if I were relegated to a tall peach trees for a back yard, Iād probably invest in some snap together scaffolding to make it safer. Ladders are one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment (ask any ER doctor).
If you want to keep the tree pedestrian height, you might consider pruning your tree to a āYā method. Or you could just train it to an open vase without any scaffolds going toward the fence. If thatās the case youāll want to cut all that stuff growing straight up. Prune to an outward facing bud or shoot. If my pruning vid above didnāt answer your questions, you might take a look at Mike Parkerās vid below.
I pretty much agree with everything he does in the vid, except we donāt prune off the last third of all the fruiting shoots. We have lots of frosty years here, so we want the maximum allowable bloom. Mike Parker also has a vid on pruning newly planted peach trees and pruning mature peach trees.
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Thanks for the reply. I was planning on a hybrid training approach, let the leader closer to the fence grow un-headed with fruiting stubs and branch the other two scaffolds. In this case does the sylleptic shoots on the top on the un-headed leader inhibit shoots from growing at the bottom part of the branch, is there a way to ensure the branch grows shoots up and down the leader.
Yes, the unheaded shoots at the top will inhibit lower branching.
You can keep tipping/pruning shoots to encourage lower branching. You can also put a notch in the bark above the bud you want to encourage to grow. Make it a good notch just above the bud. That disrupts the natural growth hormone flowing down from the above growth and encourages the bud to grow.
It doesnāt work 100% of the time, but it works a good amount of the time. If the lower emerging shoot doesnāt get enough sunlight, itās still going to grow weakly.
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Gray squirrels breed mostly in Dec, Jan, June, July. Anyone trying to reducing populations should be doing it now.
