I have difficulty dealing with weeds with just one layer of fence. That space in between looks like a blackberry and thistle haven. It would have to be only a couple of months and then detangling it from the weeds would be a big hassle.
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Standard root stocks with the limbs out of deer range. Then add squirrel baffles. Over power the birds with shear quantity. One foot rings of fence for buck rubs. This is the approach I have taken. With some exception, has worked well for me.
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The heirloom blackberries my grandfather grew make an inpenetrable fence for free deer will not attempt to cross.
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That is what i do in the outer orchard the standard pear trees are tall. The mulberry trees are target fruit to keep the birds busy.
Invest in a quality electric fence tester! Grabbing the fence to determine if it has a current is not advised. 
One the other hand, it is amazing how animals seem to always know if the fence has a current or not without touching. Supposedly sensing the current thru the moisture on their noses. If they sense a current the animals will shy away. If they do not sense a current, they will often do whatever they wish. Like just walk thru the fence. You will be surprised at how often you think the fence is hot when in reality it is not. Shortages do occur.
I grew up on a dairy farm (some fifty years ago) and we always had electric fences. Once my older brother and me was fooling around. I had rubber boots on. He did not. I touched the fence with a wet stick without getting shocked at all. He touched my ear with a finger and got the hell shocked out of him. Haha, revenge for the beatings he gave to me over the years.
Don’t underestimate the need for a great grounding rod. Better to have three. Tractor supply is where I got mine. Something like about 8 feet.
Also, I like having both a solar powered and an AC powered fence charger. Seems like my solar powered is less dependable than the AC. It is important to purchase the correct wattage for the length of fence.
Ask questions. Plenty to learn.
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Thanks for the links @clarkinks. I have some like those 6’ steel posts but they are heavy so will make it harder to carry around. I was thinking of using some flexible 1/2" fiberglass posts which are super light, like these… also pretty cheap. The deer push them around but not permanently and with a wire on them I think they will be a good deterrent. I did look into getting electric fence around the whole yard for the deer at least but in suburbia I don’t think it would go over too well … I sent out a couple probes to check and did not get good feedback. I am thinking that if I use full height deer fence on these as an added security measure plus allowing me to put an 8’ high wire to give the birds some zapping as well.
Re: weeds, I mulch under my trees. I still get some weeds in there but it is not too bad. I have maybe 20 trees fenced now, any small tree is fenced year-round now as otherwise it would be chewed and rubbed to bits.
@Robert like I said I have mulled over all the standard options. I have too many things they can jump from and to for the baffle idea to work. I am working on getting the trees higher, but deer can get fruit as high as 8’ and it is very hard to get a peach tree with all the peaches more than 8’ off the ground. I had several trees where the lowest fruit was maybe 6’ high that got stripped. Maybe one of these years I can baffle a few of the taller more isolated stands. It still won’t keep the crows away though, and they will strip me clean if I don’t go after them. Crows are skittish and I am hoping the fence all around the trees spook them a bit. I did better crow control this year by hanging a bunch of fake dead crows in the trees and moving them around. Plus yelling them away every time I heard them out there. Real chickens.
Thanks @tennessean advice much appreciated! I did notice the testers when shopping for the other parts. I don’t get the grounding aspect too well so will need to read up on that. the grounding posts can double as posts to hold the fence in place so I could easily put in several of them. I am a bit reluctant to get an AC one as running the wires is a pain, but it might be worth a go. There are also some DC battery ones that might be worth considering.
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Forgot about neighbors and mail men. Even in my area i raise eyebrows sometimes when i drop ship bees through the mail or a semi shows up. Hopefully you can use some of the information.
I see “homesteaders” often recommending Premier 1 fencing for livestock. But yikes, I didn’t realize how expensive it is… Electric Netting Kits - Premier1Supplies
Anyway, the 5’ tall one at 100’ long could make two circles of ~17’ and ~14’ diameter so perhaps around a “few” trees. Following the notion that deer can jump high, or far, but not both at the same time.
Not sure how effective this would be against those other critters mentioned though…
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Keep in mind you are in a residential area. No matter how hard you try a kid is bound to wind up touching your fence. On top of that, if there is room the deer will jump it and the smaller critters will go through it. I was tempted by electric myself, but in the end electric fence is just better for cattle.
Someone else on here created a movable net structure that they could move from tree to tree as they were ripening. Have not tried it myself, but appears like it could work.
One final thought. If you have an HOA they may not be down with electric fence.
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Your prescription sounds right to me. Plus rabbit protection for the bottom. And achieve canopy above browse with semi-vigorous stock. Just takes a little longer.
For an electric fence to work the animal touching the hot wire must be grounded. A bird landing on a hot wire but not touching the ground or a ground wire won’t get shocked.
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Lot’s of info on Solar Electric Fencing in this thread: Solar Electric Fence Charger - General Fruit Growing - Growing Fruit You don’t need a system this extensive, but it will give you some good info on how the systems work.
I think in the video he means that for ‘training’ So whatever predators and critters get pinballed they never ever want near it again… I dont think its meant for long term. Probably if it were me i would put it around things i know that would get hit hard …maybe even throw some fruit in the middle to entince… then scar them for life psychologically.
I am thinking what i would like in my situation is some kind of solar powered motion light with some wolf noises or something that i could place in certain locations. Not sure if such thing exists but i would buy some. Like a strobing light and something frightening as far as noise.
We picked up some fiberglass posts, and I will never repeat that. UV damages them, then they shed fiberglass shreds into your hands. If you go that route, wear gloves!
Btw, the ones I got were supposedly UV resistant as well.
Deer are scared of motion. If those little automatic electric lawn mowers were cheaper it might work. Take the blade off. Program the path. Tape a stuffed dog on top and let it run all night. It will return to it’s charging station and return the next night on it’s own. You could even use a dog house for the charging station.
Just joking, but who knows it might work.
Here is a legitimate idea. Make some good size light weight panel frames. Put net over them. Tie panels together in a sort of an accordian of panels. Then just take your panels and create a box where and when you need it around a tree. Support if needed. When done the panels fold and stack thinly on top of each other taking little space.
Have any of you tried those flashing lights that are meant to scare of deer? I know that having a bunch of lights flashing would be annoying, unless it’s far enough from the house. Just wondering if anyone had tried it.
Doh! This is why I posted this, thanks for pointing it out. It looks like I would need both + and - on the top, I see they sell stuff called shock tape for this. It also will be needed for squirrels who jump on it, they will not be grounded.
Same here. I ordered the ones I linked in fact. I was not planning on using any more but they are very light weight and relatively more durable than most of the posts I used. Only those thick metal ones lasted longer. The shreds are a total pain, I had to pick out fiberglass from my fingers several times.
I don’t think those things work very long. I invested a lot of money in motion detector sprinklers and they worked for about a month.
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You’re right about the weeds. What a pain.
I just got done tearing down my 60’ x 100’ deer fence. I had it for about 10 years. It served it’s purpose and the trees are big enough to make it on their own now. The bottom 3 ft of the fence was welded wire because tearing the plastic fencing from the weeds (especially wild rose) two or three times a year destroyed it in no time. I used the 24-in ground sleeves driven into the ground to put the fence posts in. Had to pull a few dozen of these out. In case anyone is wondering how to get those out of the ground, I made this pulling clamp out of angle iron and pulled them out with a T post puller and chain. Had to wrench tighten the clamp on each sleeve, kind of a pain.
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Clever. Maybe not too bad with an impact wrench.
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