Do you see much deer rubbing on your trees? That’s been a real problem for me. I’ve had a few nice trees that I pruned above the browse line, have their bark completely rubbed off on one side. It’s to the point where I’m rethinking my strategy. On my newly planted larger trees I’m thinking about keeping a set of lower branches to act as a stand-off to the trunk. Can’t seem to win with deer.
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Yes, that is a huge problem. It’s not hard to solve by wrapping the trunks of the younger trees. They got one of mine last month, they lifted up the fencing and completely girdled the tree (I only fenced the upper part because it was mainly for leaf protection). I will re-graft at the base next spring.
Each year the deer get better at getting into my protection on the younger trees. I had a few wrapped in fencing where I used fiberglass poles which were too bendy. They just bent the poles and got at the tree. So now I am using the C-shaped metal fence poles on vulnerable trees. Also the fencing needs to be attached solidly or they will lift it up. All of the protection itself is the plastic deer fencing you can get an 8x100’ roll of. If I am only protecting the trunk I will put a few stakes right by the trunk only, and maybe also wrap with fencing right around the trunk.
Once the trees are 5 or so years old they can fend for themselves. They may get an occasional rub but its more cosmetic as opposed to killing the tree.
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Not sure elsewhere. But in my area the few commercial orchards I visit to pick apple varieties I do not have are growing on tall spindle. Can’t say I am a fan of this system. I hear all the benefits but the orchards around here get a lot of small apples on this system.
Same orchard that used to have Golden Delicious and ginger Gold on semi-dwarf trees had much bigger fruit on the semi-dwarf than the tall spindle planted 4’-5’ apart that they now have.
Perhaps this is a thinning issue on behalf of these growers. I currently have some apples on bud 9 (not tall spindle just staked) and the fruit size has been great.
I do recall someone once telling me apples on MM111 seem to have smaller fruit too? But hard to say if rootstock, growing method or lack of thinning.
Anyone else having fruit size issues with tall spindle growing?
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I use 3’ tall cylinders of 14 gauge metal fencing and the bucks here have never bent them down. When I used a slightly thinner wired black plastic coated fencing the bucks have bent them down to girdle the trees at a couple of sites, but I’ve never had a protected tree killed by bucks, even where bucks get huge because of a lack of hunters.
In my nursery I keep my eyes open and when a buck starts to girdle a tree I put up a cylinder on that particular one and usually the buck doesn’t even go to nearby trees.
I have an active and plentiful deer population at my orchard, nursery and at probably half the orchards I manage, and in 30+ years I’ve never actually had a tree killed by buck rubs although an handful have been badly scarred. More than a handful in my nursery- maybe 4 or 5 a year out of a few hundred trees.
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Good question. While recent rootstock tests give excellent fruit size(by weight) data for more modern rootstocks varieties; older reports for Malling are less informative. Lacking “average weight per 100” or "size over 70% "and “color up %”.
Best I saw was one AI response of medium sized fruit on M111. What ever that is.
Perhaps there are some UK reports that could shed better light here.