I’m planting a Red Haven peach on Lovell. In the past I started the laterals on my dwarf peaches low (24"), which was too low for mowing and critter control. With the Lovell I am expecting a larger tree. I’m thinking about starting the laterals (“vase”) at 48", based on Alan’s ideas. Alan–I hope you will chime in here. This should make mowing easier and perhaps discourage coons and squirrels if I place a baffle on the trunk. However…I try to keep all my trees under 10’ in height (not getting any younger). With laterals starting at 48" in an open shape, is there enough fruiting area on a 10’ tree?
It depends on the critters. Squirrels can jump close to 4’ to reach a branch from the ground, while coons can’t clear more than 3’ to reach bark or a branch to pull themselves up (I think coons halve less jumping ability than the average white basketball player). Deer often leave fruit alone if it is little more than 4’ above the ground, but sometimes go up to 6’ or higher on their hind legs. Customers of mine have seen bucks actually ram trees to force fruit to drop- but that is not common- at least with white tails in the NE.
In my nursery, I actually train my trees to have 4’ of trunk before first branches. It is a struggle to keep peach branches growing horizontal from this starting height but if you say on it, no hinges should be needed. I maintain a central leader that is branchless above my scaffolds to employ spreaders, which works for the first couple years, but then tying is required for another year or 2 to keep scaffolds horizontal.
I generally use aluminum roof flashing stapled in cylinders around trunks and painted with a mixture of motor oil and axle grease (motor oil disappears too quickly and axle grease alone seem to provide traction on cool nights). For lower branches, sometimes you can create a cone to elevate the protection.
When I had an old fashioned pear it was highly sought after by deer. It was before I fixed the pond dam a pear grew there in the way of where the dam needed patched and expansion of the new pond would need to be. White tail would pick pears 9’ off the ground by jumping to get them. That pear was no doubt put in by the original family that settled here in the late 1800’s my guess around the early 1900’s or late 1800’s sometime. There was water there so they thought it out well. I saw other pear trees that were non productive on neibors property. It was never a great pear but the deer had grown to love it. I picked the pears in the old days and caught what sounded like people stealing my pears. I heard the trimming around and loud noise when branches were picked off leaves shaking and more pears dropping. Imagine my surprise when I caught several deer with one on her hind legs jumping!