I’m looking at building some wire cages to protect some fruit trees and also some Romance series bush cherries from deer. What height of fence do you all recommend using and what diameter? Thanks!
I went with 5ft tall fencing and rolled out 12ft for each cage this spring. That gave me a good sized cage that should last for 3 or 4 years i hope, by then the tree should be able to handle deer browsing. I learned from experince to go big or you just end up making new cages right away. Also, the romance cherry bushes are like crack to deer. I swear the deer would make a special trip into town just to devour my bushes.
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I use 6’ fencing. Cut a 50’ roll into 2 pieces. Make a 6’ square with four t-posts on the corners. It will give you two cages with just enough overlap for closure. Anything smaller you will just need to replace in a couple years. Also put hardware cloth around the trunk.
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We made a garden fence with 16 ft long “stock panels” that are just over 4 ft tall. I think they ran about $16.00 each. They can be cut into 4 ft lengths to make a box around the tree. They’re fairly heavy duty and will last for years and years. I used annealed wire to hold the pieces together. A box will hold itself up, or you can make a more permanent installation with a wooden base and 1/2 inch square steel bar, as we did.
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I use 16’ ft cattle panel and bend one panel into a square. I used to use two T-posts to hold them up, but one is sufficient. Often I use none, but that can occasionally cause an incident.
Deer can poke their head through, so side branches that are only a couple feet off the ground may get their outer leaves browsed. They can’t reach very far in above a couple feet. That’s okay with me because those bottom branches aren’t going to be there long term when I remove the cage and allow the canopy to grow above deer browse.
I’ve been lazy about weeding inside the cages. But they lift off pretty easily as long as they aren’t too entwined with trailing blackberries or such.
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Before my permanent fencing was in around the orchard, I used to use a circle of 5 or 6’ wide concrete reinforcing mesh, sized so that the cage would be 3’ out from the tree branch tips ( or where you hope the branch tips will be in a year or two). You can buy rolls of it at any lumber yard. It is self supporting when formed into a circle.And it rusts, which I prefer as it becomes less visible that way.
As others have said, the deer will eat whatever they can reach, so you need to keep the circle far enough from the tree branches to protect them. And they will try and push the cage, so it needs some anchoring to the ground.
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I started using 3ft welded wire fencing with 1x2" openings, in rolls of 100ft. That height proved inadequate, so since then, I’ve used 4ft to good effect. I have removed some fencing from pears as the deer seem to leave them alone. Since some trees have gotten bigger, I’ve opened up the cages a bit, so they aren’t completely enclosed. But because of that, I had a couple trees chewed on down low, so I put tubes on the lower trunks.
I will say because of caging in my trees, I’ve been lazy to not weed them like they should be, there’s some trees that really need to be weeded, and it’s June already.
Btw, the 4ft x 100ft rolls cost me about $70 at Tractor Supply. The cages when formed into a circle can usually stand on their own, but some are anchored down with metal stakes.
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I think a 3ft circle is a good size.
I use the 2x4 welded wire 6ft. Tall.
If I only raised a few trees , that’s the size I would use.
Painted white so I can see it if it gets misplaced in tall grass on the farm. ( I have brush hogged a few )
That said…
I have many ~ 16 inch size diameter cages , I can make a lot more of this size for the money.
I go for 3 yrs. in a cage, with high fertility.take it off while you can and wish them luck.
This usually works, they will usually out grow a deer by then.
I have many small size cages that have lasted many years
(20 + yrs.)
And raised many trees
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To support the cage,
I like two stakes several ft tall, wood or metal,inside the cage.
The cage can be easily lifted up for weeding , etc,
Also I only “fasten” the cage closed ,at the top, middle , and bottom. The minimum amount . So you can easily get in there.
I used to fasten every thing too secure. It was too much trouble to get back in. Now I just do the minimum.
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This is an older thread, and there are so many on the forum talking about tree cages. A friend is going to be constructing tree cages soon and has some questions. I couldn’t find an answer to this question though.
Will a deer jump INSIDE a tree cage when the tree is small, if the diameter of the tree cage leaves ‘sufficient’ room? And what constitutes sufficient room to a deer’s perspective?
The answer is probably, “maybe, yes, that depends, etc.” Has anyone had experience with this?
Is 8’ diameter circular cage too big or just right?
5’ diameter? Opinions?
The goal is to make one metal tree cage per tree, and not have to replace it with a larger diameter after a few years.
I was comparing cost of various materials and sizes based on local availability and what my friend would like to use…
If the tree cage has an 8’ diameter, this leaves a lot of room for the tree to grow unhindered by the cage, and will keep from getting the tips browsed. If the height is only 4’ or 5’, my thought was a deer may actually jump in there when the trees are whips, or very small. In which case a smaller diameter tree cage may be better than an 8’?
A 4’ high fence with a diameter of 5’ doesn’t protect growing branches as well, they will soon be growing out through the cage, but wouldn’t leave enough room for a deer to jump inside either…
I appreciate any experience you all could share. Thanks!
I think basically the larger the better. Narrow cages interfere with horizontal branches and you often end up with branches that are horizontal that bend into the vertical when they reach the fencing. I have cages that are 18 inches in diameter and 36 inches in diameter and the 36 inch cages are much better. I wish I had some cages that were much wider.
Even a dwarf tree trained to the tall spindle system will have a canopy diameter of 3-4 feet and a height of 10-12 feet. If it’s trained to the central leader it will be 6-10 feet wide. Small trees take up a lot more horizontal space than you think. Small young trees on M111 will quickly reach a size as large as this.
For height I would try to go for 6 feet or higher. All of my cages are 6 feet high now which is a common welded wire fencing height. Deer can reach higher than you expect.
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I made mine 3-4 foot diameter across (circles). If you make it too big they will just jump inside. 6 foot is no problem for them to jump. Fences are more to keep them from rubbing. Browsing they will maintain your height for you.
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That’s what I was afraid of, yet I haven’t read of anyone saying they actually have this problem. Maybe not many people make cages wider than 4’ or 5’ diameter?
I know they can jump 6’ easily, even 8’ to 10’ is not a problem. If they are motivated, they can and will jump anything under 10’.
The problem I see with going smaller diameter, like 3’ to 4’, is that the cages will affect the growth of your scaffolds, as @mroot said above. This has caused rubbing of branches on wire and permanent scarring on some of mine. As well as forcing some to bend and grow vertical if they don’t grow out through the cage.
I would especially not want them to nip off the central leader, so the 6’ height would alleviate that issue I suppose. It seems there is no perfect answer, but you have to choose the lesser of 2 (or 3) evils. 
I certainly appreciate both yours and mroot 's input.
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Another cheaper idea that I employed for a while. E-bay has super cheap netting that only last like 2-3 years. I bought 100 x 100 for like $20. Get tall stakes and you can make the fence as tall and wide as you like.
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There are several types of deer fencing recommended for containing orchards. One of the types is double fencing. In this system two fences 5-6 feet tall are placed 3-5 feet apart around the orchard. Using a cage is going to be similar to using a double fence system. I think you would be fine with a larger diameter cage.
Of course the real answer is to fence the entire orchard which will save you a lot of grief in the long term but no one wants to hear that (including me 
).
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I buy 50’ rolls of 6’ fencing. I cut each roll in half. That allows for a 5’ by 5’ cage with a foot of overlap for closing it. I’ve not had any deer get inside. Sometimes I overlap the wire to make a smaller cage to start with, then expand it as the tree gets larger. I have also damaged trees In the past with too small of cages, which cause the branches to crowd or rub, so now I find it easier to just go with the 5’ by 5’ cage from the start. I also put a cylinder of hardware cloth around the trunks to protect from rabbits. I can squirt the white paint through the cylinder using a dish soap bottle.
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I think this would be ideal, given the situation my friend is planting in.
Too bad prices have gone up on just about everything lately. I didn’t realize how much until we started pricing fencing materials, both wood and metal.
I appreciate all the tips and advice. There isn’t one solution that works best everywhere, so it is super helpful to have input from different locations. A lot of trial and error goes along with learning how to grow an orchard successfully.
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I should have said 6’ by 6’. That would come out to 24’ with one foot extra for overlap. I am not one to measure precisely. I just eyeball it most of the time.
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I think it depends on species of deer, but just guessing, because with white tails around here you generally only 5’ tall fencing of 14 gage with a single stake and 10-12’ circumference.
I always run with the minimum to get the necessary results and this is what I’ve used at many, many sites for the last 30 years. In all that time there was just a single site and single season were the dear would push in the fence to eat leaves, and out of 50 varieties of fruit trees they only did it to two of them. I added two more stakes to only those trees and that put an end to it. If you run the fencing through the stake and close it with only two or three of the wire of the cut fence you can easily open up the cage to tend the trees.
Once trees are adequately above the browse line the fence is removed and a 3’ tall cylinder made out of the fencing is all the height you need to protect the trunk.
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you did mean circumference, correct? so your inside diameter is between 3.2’ and 3.8’. On my trees, I didn’t prune out the lower branches, so that diameter cage was too small and crowded/damaged some branches. I don’t have any deer pressure here (yet) so I wasn’t concerned about removing limbs below 5’, but should have removed cages sooner or pruned correctly. I put cages around my younger trees for the first couple years to protect against dogs, cats, but mostly wayward cattle that get through a fence (or through an OPEN gate! 
). So I have a few questions about training trees to be above the browse line when using your size cages…
When using a 3’ to 4’ diameter cage, do you let lower branches grow out at all, or do you pinch/prune back to direct all growth mostly vertical?
If you let side branches grow initially, do you pinch them back when they begin to grow out, allowing a little growth but not more than say 6" or so, or something else?
As the tree gets enough height and upper growth above the cage, then do you remove all the lower growth below 4’ or 5’?
Thanks for tell me about the 3’ trunk protections too. We were wondering how tall that needs to be to protect from rubs.
The type of fence, gauge, height, and diameter of cages to make is a little difficult to decide on at this point. Largely because cost of materials is high, and you don’t want to spend money where it isn’t going to be needed, or worse it’s needed but you didn’t build it big or tall enough. But you don’t know for sure what you will need until the problem rears its head, and by that time you have damage and have to play catch up. As you and others mentioned, Alan, some deer just aren’t as aggressive or persistent. What works well in one location, doesn’t necessarily apply in another.
But all of this info is very helpful and is much appreciated.
Our local ag supply stores are selling 2"x4" welding wire fencing,
5’ x 100’ for $110.
6’ x 100’ for $150.
If you go with the 5’ fence, that’s about $27 per tree for an 8’ diameter cage, or ~ $14 per cage with a 4’ diameter.
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