A friend’s 30 to 40 year old apple tree is riddled with sapsucker holes from base up to about 15 feet. Tree is 25 feet tall. It produces full annual crops but shows little tip growth.
Before I saw it today I had planned to do a three year restoration to bring it down to about eight feet and graft over to good varieties.
Any ideas if it’s worth working on or are the holes too debilitating?
Keep the tree- try to scare off future sapsucker attacks. If you bring that tree down in size it will respond from an ample root system and give you plenty, even too much, wood to work with. Your main job will be to control its architecture. Trees that age often don’t show much tip growth, so I don’t think that needs to be an issue for you.
I’ve seen apple trees much older than that keep on producing even while battling fireblight. A friend has a Wealthy that just won’t give up, and after considerable judicious pruning over the last four years is producing nicely- and, apparently, still keeping the fireblight at bay. That tree was old when he moved into the house 30 years ago.
Wealthy, by the way, is really a very nice apple, albeit given to fireblight issues.
Others may disagree, but I’d keep the tree. (At the very least you’ll learn from the experience!)
Good luck,
M
Thanks Mark. I appreciate your perspective - it reinforces the way I was leaning. Steve
PS I have seen people put window screen over small areas of sapsucker damage but not sure how to scare them off of an entire big tree. Metallic tape? Eye balloon? Not sure what really works. Hope to hear ideas.
I agree that you should go ahead with your plans . The issue is going to be that sapsuckers have a habit of returning to the same tree year after year . You will have to come up with a solution on dealing with them before they damage any thing you graft onto the tree. I have the same problem with my Dolgo crab tree and right or wrong I used lethal means to help with my problem.
Seems like you could construct a skirt out of some kind of shade fabric. You could staple it directly to the tree. I’d experiment a bit if there is no effective known way to repel them from the bark of fruit trees. Nylon screen might work also. The question is what would stop them from pecking through- you might need to create some kind of frame to push the barrier a bit away from the trunk (brackets of some kind?). If it repelled them from even half a side of the trunk, enough cambium would be protected to restore vigor…
I just searched this up, which is funny because they recommend tangletrap, which kills birds when they get it on themselves- then they go on to say that it is illegal to kill them. I guess when you kill them this way it isn’t considered intentional. Or maybe “bird tanglefoot” isn’t lethal for some reason.
To discourage sapsuckers from feeding on a favorite shade tree, wrap hardware cloth or burlap around the area being tapped or smear a sticky repellent material, such as bird tanglefoot, on the bark.
In commercial forests or orchards, leave favorite feeding trees of the sapsucker untreated. Birds will concentrate their feeding activities on these favorite trees, which often protects nearby trees from serious injury.
Sapsuckers in search of nesting sites are especially attracted to aspen (Populus tremuloides) infected with Fomes igniarius var. populinus, which decays the heartwood and enables the birds to excavate a nest hole. To protect a valuable timber stand eliminate such infected trees within the stand during a precommercial thinning; this may discourage sapsuckers from using the area.
The Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Federal regulations promulgated under its authority prohibit shooting of sapsuckers. Shooting of this species would be an ineffective control anyway because transient birds tend to replace occasional losses to local sapsucker populations.
Thanks Alan- am thinking along those lines of burlap and scare tape. Once I’ve got the three main limbs lowered- by end of year three- the tree will have much less bark to attract them. Plus burlap in winter for a couple years on the remaining trunk (I think they head south in summer) should do the trick.
I have taken over the management of hundreds of such trees over the last couple decades plus- but without the extensive sapsucker damage. Sometimes the lack of vigor can come from excessive spurwood, but cambium damage can cause excessive spurring in itself. One must be careful with drastic wood reduction of trees lacking vigor- especially big, old trees. I would remove a lot of spur wood and fertilize the tree with 2-4 pounds actual N per 1,000 feet under and several feet beyond the canopy- one feeding (half amount) at first growth and another a few weeks later. True reconstruction can come once tree has restored its vigor- especially in late summer or early fall after first vigorous growth. Down south, I’d wait to late-sept to reduce potential cambium scorch risk.
Chartman,
I’m sure when you say lethal you meant you applied tin or screening to the trunk and the bird damaged itself since it’s prohibited to damage them intentionally. You do have a right to protect your apple with screening or other methods that might be best for your Apple. I had chicken hawks stealing chickens 20 years ago and I screened the top of the pen and needless to say they developed a bad habit but fortunately there were no casualties but the birds were pretty angry their chicken dinners were no longer free and the buffet was closed. One particularly angry bird sat on top of my pen the better part of the day staring down at his would be meals. If one crashed in the pen and broke his neck which fortunately did not happen that would not have been my fault. Though these animals are protected that does not mean it’s my job to provide them food.
To me, trap targeting is subjective thing. It’s obvious that traps are non specific and can accidentally kill protected species. So, I looked up the the NY trapping guidelines for accidental death of protected animals. The guidelines say NOT to contact authorities and dispose of the entire carcass properly. Apparently it is only a violation of protection laws if you keep any part of the animal. Seems like all you need to do is prove that your trap isn’t specifically targeting a protected species.
[quote=“clarkinks, post:9, topic:9021”]
If one crashed in the pen and broke his neck which fortunately did not happen that would not have been my fault.
[/quote]What about all those windmills killing protected bids of prey? 
Excellent point about the windmills.
Re: sapsucker damaged trunk, it just occured to me I might paint the trunk up to six feet or so with John Bunker’s mix: interior latex plus joint compound. This might discourage the sapsuckers and protect the trunk from insects, gnawers and sun damage. By end of three year restoration the only portion of old damaged bark that would remain would be protected by white mix. I think this might work. Let me know if you see a problem. Thanks for all the ideas.
Just a random thought. I’m wondering if the paint might prevent the tree from healing its wounds in the natural way - if they are fresh wounds, that is. I have a pecan that looks like that. I might be inclined to use some cheap screen door fabric to wrap it for a year or two and when the wounds are closed some, then apply paint.
That is what I thought at first, but then I noticed online that they attack houses painted different colors. I think it will take some kind of chemical deterrent mixed in.
It is designed for animals that eat the bark. The sapsucker would likely not be deterred because it drives through the bark and sucks the sap. Just guessing, of course, but I’m trying to think like a sapsucker!.
Anne- yes that thought occurred to me too. Will ponder this. Thanks. The old apple tree is considered expendable by my friend so this will be a giant experiment.
What’s the circumference of the trunk? I would give him tin chimney pipe to peck on or plastic drainage pipe.
I found some bird damage (maybe flickers?) on my peach trees today. This was a week after I painted the trunks. The birds appeared to avoid the paint. I’m going to try painting more of the tree to deter them.
I’m unaware of flickers doing that kind of damage. Looks like the sapsucker holes that I see here. The best solution I’ve found for sapsuckers (besides illegally removing them via 12 gauge) is to wrap the damaged area(s) with aluminum window screen.
I like the aluminum window screen idea, but I wouldn’t pursue it for the minor damage there. On old apple trees major sapsucker damage is very common but lethal cambium damage is pretty rare. On some old trees it may be the final straw, but adequately vigorous trees usually outgrow the damage. I once managed a young Fuji tree, however, that apparently lost an important scaffold to sapsucker damage, so your mileage may vary- same species often behave differently at different sites, let alone regions. I’ve never come close to losing a peach tree to the damage or anything outside of Malus. Maples and white pines seem to attract a lot of damage and I have clients that have used various mechanical deterrents including wrapping very thick black plastic netting of the type used to discourage buck rubs. If you use screen, don’t be afraid to use staples to attach- the staples are very minor damage compared to the sapsuckers. Let me know if your paint works. It would be useful info.
