I put chicken wire as fences for my apple and pears trees. Last summer I took all the fences off to use them for another purpose. I forgot to put the fences back when winter arrived. Those are are about 4-6 years old, most are on B9.
We also had over foot of snow in the ground for a few weeks. Earlier this week snow melt. Saw the damage. 6 apple trees and 5 pears. Speechless. Most gotvdamage all around the trunks.
@Ahmad , @SMC_zone6 can’t let your guard down.
Sorry to see that, Tipi. I hope your trees recover quickly!
Thanks, Mark.
Most of the damages are all around the trunk so I think the trees are toasted. I am not interested in bridge grafting. I don’t care for the 5 pear trees so that gives me good excuse to remove them and reclaim the backyard. Losing these multi grafted apple trees hurts for sure.
I hope you can save scions from your multigrafts. Are the apples completely girdled? Otherwise they might survive.
If you hurry and cut the tree off the rootstocks will likely shoot new growth up from the roots. The trees are done for. They will bloom etc and use all the energy then die. Like a graft leafes out and may even bloom but will die without the roots. If you cut them off at ground level you wont have to regrow the roots and the tree can rebound.
Did the rabbit unwind that? They are the same ones that come on my trees, and I trash them.
I use these…
I used to use these. But I trashed most of them when I thought I was finished planting trees about 5 years ago. I had to buy all the deer and rabbit protection all over again. These are pretty $$ when you factor in the exorbitant shipping.
I caught these guys red handed chewing on my cherry tree last year. Luckily they didn’t got too far into the meal. I quickly dispatched them with my air gun. I tried a couple of recipes but didn’t care for the cleaning and the tough meat of wild free ranged rabbits.
Well that totally sucks. If I can provide you with any scion just let me know.
How did you cook them? If you slow cook them in a crock pot the meat is much better.
I braised it. Yeah, I realized after the fact that wild rabbits should be slow or pressured cooked since their meat are much tougher than farm raised ones.
We eat lots of cotton tails. They are great with biscuits and gravy, also breaded and pan fried. We generally bone them out. Though the legs are tough the backstraps are generally pretty good fare.
Can only give you 1 heart.
Thanks for the reminder. I’m really sorry for your losses. Years ago I failed to protect some apples, with similar fatal results. I’ve been pruning recently and the cut branches all show rabbit damage within a few days. So they’re lurking.
I’ve used a pellet gun but honestly unless you sit in the orchard 24/7, you are guaranteed to miss some damage. I use traps for squirrels and raccoons. I need a good rabbit trap.
@clarkinks not sure some of those trees would re-sprout at the base but I would try.
@marknmt -I did collected a few scionwood namely, SunCrisp, Golden Russet and Baker’s Delight. The rest, I could not because I only have a few apple trees left to graft on. Those trees are already multi-grafted.
@AndySmith - thank you very much for the offer. Will need to find rootstocks first. Could be a few years.
@Zone6 - Don’t think rabbits peeled off those tubes. They could do it accidentally.
@jrd51 - Yup. I should not have underestimated them. It did suck.
Sorry for your damaged apple trees. I learned my lesson many years ago and always protect my fruit trees with chicken wire.
Tony
We have been on this farm for 13 years and once my trees get about 7 years old, I had been in the practice of removing the protection. This is the first year ever that rabbits did the same thing to our trees. I hope my trees recover.
Does anyone know if rabbits will leave the trunks alone if they are painted with latex paint?
Edited to add: Interestingly enough, they only snacked on the trees that are at the back of the property and I think they only went for the apple trees.
Oh, no, Tipi! I thought I had seen it all. Looks like you got hit pretty hard. Rodents are so bad for those of us who love to raise our own fruit. I have an infestation of voles. Trying to control them with castor oil and peppermint Castile soap. It looks like the entire yard and garden is affected. I know the deer and virtually all rodents dislike castor oil and peppermint so I’m hoping for the best. We’ve lost roses (yes I am a rosarian), blueberries, tomatoes, strawberries, onions, and even garlic (yes the voles will eat garlic root). I’m a bit afraid to transplant anything into the garden but I’m going to give it another go before giving up completely.
Now THAT’S what I’m talking about, Fish. I have an R9 Goldfinger 20 cal with a scope and if they come into the backyard despite my castor oil and peppermint sprays they will be quickly dispatched and become fox food.
Have had them eat through paint. I used pruning seal tar one winter they were so bad. The best way is seen here Living with the cottontail and growing fruit
