I was wondering what you all use to protect your young fruit trees from 1st year grafted trees up until they are mature and established. I have seen people use hardware mesh, welded cage, tree wrap, black plastic gutter drainage piping cut to size, even tin foil around the base. I just want to know what give you all the most success against rabbits, rodents and deer.
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First off, I live in the suburbs with moderate deer pressure from a nearby park. I installed a fishing line fence using green garden poles purchased at The Home Depot. I then surrounded my area with the poles at about 10 feet apart around the perimeter and wrapped two lines of fishing line, one at about three feet and one at five feet, around each pole.
This deterred the deer for about two months I’d say. One morning I found obvious deer damage on my first year trees, so I surrounded them with green wire mesh fence, 5 foot tall. Be sure to use at least one garden post to attach the fence or it may fall over (as it did with my Gold Rush two years ago, breaking the tree at the graft.
I have been spraying with a spray someone gave me and haven’t had any attacks since.
In the winter, I do wrap the base of the trees with a guard purchased from Stark Bro’s. It is the white one that spirals up the tree. I take them off in the summer because the internet told me to (before I found this forum).
Our neighborhood has had an influx of foxes. I take credit for this because of my chickens (probably not). I haven’t seen a rabbit all year.
Hope this helps.
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I drove some 3 ft rebar about 2 feet away from my trees, then wrapped hardware cloth around that. So far, so good. It’s kept the trees safe from the small critters we have around here. Don’t know if it would work for deer, though, as they aren’t a problem here.
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What is Hardware cloth? Any chance you could post a picture? Thanks
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Hardware mesh. It’s a type of wire netting. I used it underneath flower boxes, it’s good for drainage
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I have two pics of it…Sorry they aren’t better, but best I can do for now. The first is a long distance photo. Sorry I couldn’t get closer, but I took it just now and it’s raining. The second photo is actually of a graft but in the background you can see the hardware cloth and the rebar. Like I said, I don’t have deer, but this helps keep the smaller mammals from getting to the trees. You can put metal brackets at the bottom to keep the cage firmly in the ground. Hope this helps.
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That’s awesome. It’s much more dense than what I use and appears it will be far more effective. All of my trees are young and i have had a few that deer got every leaf on the whole trees. I love seeing all the great ideas on here. Thanks
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Like I said, just hope it helps. There’s ways I thought of to make this setup better, like setting the rebar in there with concrete, buying taller/thicker rebar, weaving the mesh in and out in a double layer, making a “trench” where you’re going to put the wire and burying it like a foot in the ground, etc.
But what I have works good enough for my situation, so the simpler setup works for me. 
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We drive rebar to 2’ next to the tree and wrap chicken wire around the tree with 3" buried. We also drive a t post and wrap the tree with 48" field fence to keep the deer out. In the fall, we drop a weather proof mouse bait block in side the chicken wire and several inside the field fence.
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I was told long ago by Stu (SmSmith) the cheapest and most effective tree trunk protection is aluminum window screen cut into 12" strips then stapled along the edge into a tube. Slide the tube over the seedling and bury 2" with dirt or pebble stone. They’ll keep out mice/voles, rabbits, and most insects. For northern areas I’d get 36" screen. I tried 24" once and we had 30" snow pack. The voles girdled at the top of the 24" screen. Make sure you use aluminum instead of plastic. This will far outlast the infamous plastic tree wraps. I then use a 12-15’ section of concrete wire as protection against deer. The concrete wire comes in a 150’ roll and is available at Home Depot orvother building supply stores. I now drive one stake in to secure the wire. I use 1/2 bag of pea stone around the base of the tree to prevent vole digging.
What do you all use to weigh branches down to get nice angled scaffolding branches?
I have used tooth picks or clothes pins as spreaders on very small shoots.
Baton sticks with either a notch in each end, or a finishing nail in the ends to spread branches.
Have used bags of dirt tied on branches.
I start with a brick or rock. I string the twine from the rock or brick to the branch, cross the twine and tighten until the branch reaches the desired angle. Tie off. Cut and trim line.
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I use clothes pins on smaller branches jute twine tied off on my cages on branches as they get larger. If I get too fancy the bear will investigate and rip things apart.
@NHMountains I have a vole problem. They attack trees above and below ground. Do you have a photo of your window screen tube you could share?
Below ground are pine voles- at least in the northeast. They are subterranean an can be tricky to trap. I’ve read they only come up for food in the fall and otherwise forage on food below, presumably a lot of worms and other insects. You can use poison bait in stations set in early to mid-fall. You can also use baited traps covered with trays to keep birds from them.
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Baitblocks are a wax block with grain/bait and poison. They are used in a weather exposed environment. I use the Tomcat brand, one block inside the rabbit fence and one block outside the rabbit fence but inside the deer fence.
The poison is usually an anti-coagulant. There are 2 common ones and need to be rotated yearly
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