A lot information said deers are so resistant to pawpaw. They don’t like to eat any pawpaw leaves, trees, or unripe pawpaw fruits…I feel so confident to plant a couple pawpaw trees in my property at Belfair Hood Canal Washington without any protection last week. Today one week later, I come back so surprise to find out deers ate all my pawpaw leaves. This is my real experience . We should rewrite this helpful information for Pacific Northwest gardeners.
Thats quite unfortunate. Hopefully they will grow back quickly.
It’s okay. That’s a land of deers. My pawpaw trees have no leaves, won’t get hurt again. I be back to fence around them in Spring time next year Ram.
Deer eat our plants out of spite sometimes. If we get our scent on things they will do this. Deer will eat/destroy almost any plants, they can’t be trusted to leave anything alone. If they don’t eat it, the bucks will rub on it and break the branches and the bears will sharpen their claws on it as they climb as far as they can get.
Deer that haven’t seen or tasted a pawpaw tree before will not know that they aren’t the greatest snack. They will taste them a few times before learning that there are better things to eat. Pawpaws aren’t immune to deer, it’s just that deer have a pretty low preference for them after they learn what they’re like to eat and digest. In their native range, pawpaw saplings are much more successful than most other tree saplings around large deer populations since the deer prefer almost anything else.
That is so sad, and I feel some what responsible , as I told you in another post that the deer don’t eat pawpaw leafs here.
I do have MANY young pawpaw trees planted, many deer, no protection, NO damage.
Pawpaw is one of the few plants I can set out without protection ( cage) here.
So sorry if that was bad advice. ? It is working for me here.
And I have a lot of deer. Glad I don’t have YOUR deer.!
Sorry about that ( bad), advice.
Hillbillyhort
That is okay. Just all the leaves not the trees. All leaves will fall off in Fall anyway. I will make bigger and taller fence around in early Spring. Don’t feel bad. I still have a lot of bigger pawpaw trees at my house. @Hillbillyhort.
I would have given the same advice as hillbillyhort: have never had deer browse on unprotected pawpaws here in Md in 12 years. Sorry you had this experience.
@Hillbillyhort
White tail deers they are different species than black tail deers. They’re not the same behavior. I think only black tail deers in Northwest really like to eat pawpaw leaves as the new delicious food to them.
If it’s any consolation, I think those deer are in for a heck of a bellyache tonight.
I had a friend who had his pawpaws completely defoliated by whitetails. I fenced my first 4 pawpaws when I planted, but when the leaves started to poke outside of the fencing, they were quickly munched off by whitetail. That didn’t last too long, probably less than a week from what I can remember and then they stopped getting eaten. They have grown well out of that fencing now and don’t have any protection from being eaten by deer since they won’t touch them anymore.
I would imagine blacktails will have the same reaction. Just like humans who eat too much food that is spicier than they can handle; all it takes is one time, your digestive system unleashes hell, and you won’t make that mistake again.
Sound very good to me . But if all population of deers around that areas try to taste the flavor of pawpaw leaves there once in their life time. It’s still take a lot of time for the trees grow back healthy and fruiting. Hihi , Will find out . Thank you for sharing Tony. @TJ_westPA
Yeah, I wouldn’t risk leaving them without protection until they get big enough to handle some browsing. I’m not sure if deer can learn what not to eat from other deer or not, especially fawns from their moms. It seems that way but I really don’t know. Good luck with your trees and may the deer suffer from horrible nausea if they even think about tasting your pawpaws again!
Deers recognizes the foods really well by smell. I think they will eat again no matter what. I will fence around the trees in next Spring . Hopefully trees get tall over 6.7 ft quickly. I would not move the pawpaw to somewhere else. Thank you Tony.
I live in an area where wild pawpaws are common, and the deer NEVER chew on the pawpaws in my yard. They are the only tree I grow that the deer refuse to eat.
That being said, they are more than happy to rub all the bark off of a pawpaw with their antlers in the fall. So even though they won’t eat it, I STILL have to protect my pawpaws with a small fence around the trunk. I hate deer so much.
I’m sorry to hear that Vincent. I was wondering where your property was. That is a beautiful area.
I can commiserate with your deer plight. On our new property on Shaw Island, I brought a few plants: native flowering currants, red twig dogwood and a rare magnolia which were seen by the deer as a welcome package after I read they were “deer resistant”. They didn’t kill anything outright luckily. I learned that deer love to browse new tender growth so everything needs protection.
I love having the animals visit too. There is a large population there as no hunting is allowed. I will put an 8’ Deerbusters fence (PVC coated welded wire) around the small existing orchard and add an electric fence to stop the raccoons. On one evening I watched as a racoon climbed up one apple tree, who shook it while a fawn ate the rewards. I have alot of clover in the lawn that they like as well as a small pond to drink from. On another note, beware of ticks. I check for them every time I’m in the yard.
That why the wild pawpaw can survives in the East. Deers in west coast eat everything except bearded iris and some Daylily. They ate all my Peonies as well. Thank you for sharing Doug .
My property at Hood Canal area in Belfair City . 1.24 acres, we do not live there. Every fruit trees have to be over 7 ft tall if I like to plant them there. Thank you for sharing Q. I also love animals too. Just find something to eat when hungry .
My deer eat my iris and daylily. So at least there is some advantage to those blacktails 
Pawpaws my deer never touch, they don’t even eat the fruit on the ground. Some critters will occasionally eat the fruit.
Hi Scott.
Seem like black tail and white tail deers have opposite favorite plants to eat. Last summer I planted whole bunch of peonies because of garden books recommending they’re deers resistance plants. It so surprised me because of black tail deers eat them all. It’s lucky black tail deers not in SE of the country otherwise pawpaw were not the wild plants there anymore.
Below 2 of my plum trees Italian and Stanley I had to prune all branches and just keep little top out of reach of deers if I feel lazy to fence them . Black tail also don’t eat bamboos, Salal berries and Huckleberry.
