The oldest damaged trees are 7 years old but they are B9 and G 41 so the trees don’t grow big. My guess is that the bark is still tender for those vermins.
@Sharbecr - chief suspects are rabbits. We have voles. The kind of voles we have do underground damage to roots and near surface,not really above soil line.
@tonyOmahaz5 I protect my trees every year. But this fall, nothing bothered them and I got busy after spending Nov in Thailand. Well, these opportunistic animals taught me not to let my guard down.
Apples can be pretty hardy. So long as they are not girdled, probably will make it.
I thought I was pretty clear than many trees are totally girdled. I have apples damaged by rabbits but not totally girdled in the past. They have survived with scars. This time complete girdling was the rabbits’ destructive work.
I have suffered from the same issue but mostly to trees i want to replace anyway. Im thinking every tree is going to get chicken wire around it at some point soon. Also need to learn how to use a snare because im going to war with mine soon!
You did say you had a foot of snow on the ground for a few weeks. We typically have 1-2ft+ on the ground for a couple of months up here and the voles tunnel right through the entire depth. I had a galarina taken out by them last year that was gnawed a good two feet up…and we have no native rabbits up here. There was a 4ft diameter 1/2” hardware cloth fence around it too. I could see the tunnels coming out of the snow and when it melted, the tunnels going under the fence.
I will say they definitely preferred the white birch I cut down on the side of the yard over anything else. They had that tree almost entirely skinned.
I vote for bridge grafting. Rabbits totally girdled two of my young Cox Orange Pippins, and in the Spring, I bridge grafted em, two scions each, and they took off.
This has to be the most discouraging thing to find in an orchard. My condolences.
Awefull…
I would eat their livers with fava beans and a nice chianti !!!
This one damaged some new bluberry shoots… my son and I ate it all… keto fried.
Much like squirrel, chicken… nice flavor.
TNHunter
If you’re planning to give up on these anyways, is it possible to try chopping 1/2" above and below the damage (removing damaged section) and grafting the whole trunk? I’m new to grafting, but would that have a chance? Sorry to hear about the damage.
During the winter of 2021, I was away from home for a long while - several months.
I lost easily 50-60% of my trees to rabbits including rare loquats, figs, persimmons, apples, etc. All loquats that were girdled eventually died. But many apples survived. But only one is actually well enough to thrive.
Since then I’ve resorted to trapping them all winter long. In addition to protecting all the trees with rabbit proof barriers.
I know it comes as no consolation but the best course of action is to rip the tree out and replant a healthy one in its place. The girdled tree will only keep reminding you of the nasty winter of 24-25.
Ughh. That’s awful.
Not that this is a solution for your loss, and you may already have something similar, but I have always kept a small supply of root stock plants growing just to have a place to go with surprise scions. I think of it as a sort of safety net to catch cultivars that would otherwise be lost.
@TNHunter
That’s quote from Silence of the Lamb was funny. What a fantastic but terrifying movie!!
Thank you you guys for the suggestions.
We have more rabbits than anyone can count. They are everywhere in this suburban town. No one eats them. I could say I should have, could have, all day long but it was what it was. Careless once, they made sure I feel the pain.
I have a row of B 9 and one persimmon tree on that side of the yard. All apple trees (not protected) got chewed badly. Nothing has touched the unprotected persimmon tree. That persimmon tree is younger than some apple trees by a few years.
Maybe, persimmon trees are not tasty to rabbits.
The 2024 - 2025 winter was hard on the rabbits it seems. Snow cover all winter without a thaw. Things look the same at my house. The spirea bushes around the house have been reduced to a pile of sticks, and this seedling apple tree I was watching has been dispatched. Not a young tree, either.
You have my sympathy.
The 2-3 weeks of frigid temp frozen ground in Feb must have been tough for rabbits, food-wise.
I would have been sympathetic to them, had they munched my persimmon trees and left my apple trees alone.
The person doing this planting must not have any vole pressure. The thatch on the ground around the trees is ideal vole habitat. Actually, only one thing in this picture is better vole habitat… the tree protector.
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I’ve tried a bunch of differnt trunk guards. I settled in on 2 foot wide hardware cloth, which is readly availible from home improvement stores. It has it’s advantages of air flow and its steel so it should last a while, i can also spray the truck through it. I use a coffee can as a template for the diameter. So I can reach down in there and remove any suckers.
Newly grafted utah giant on mazzard.
We do have vole pressure but hundreds of snakes, hawks, owls, and coyotess keep their populations in check usually. The rabbits and pack rats are serious problems here. Voles typically devour all roots of an apple tree here before attacking the trunk. The trunk is an after thought. If they crawl up in the tree guard the apple is already dead. The easier solution is plant thorny bad tasting rootstock like callery pear.
