The most important part of having a great orchard has nothing to do with trees. Building great fences is the first thing you better do in deer, hog, bear, moose, elk country.
The soil matters a lot. Sometimes i have raised the soil several feet to ensure my trees were not in standing water. Soil fertility matters more than you think. Some aged compost and wood chips help a great deal. I use terracing throughout my properties and have large water catchment ponds
I’m not suggesting you fence the deer out necessarily. You could grow standard trees that live longer instead of dwarfs. I built fences deer could jump intentionally in some cases and focused on making wildlife habitats.
Water like i said is very important
Now you are ready to read the rest of the forum on selecting variety of fruit trees.
Yes, fences make or break the trees here. I can’t have a perimeter fence where I’m at. I have to fence induvial trees. But it is still better than Richard fencing individual fruits.
I had an in-ground fig do poorly because of too much standing water. Never thought about raising the soil. I tried to amend the soil but didn’t raise it. It worked out poorly.
we are blessed with a very low deer population but the last couple years ive been seeing deer everywhere. i may need to think about fencing in the future. had a big buck and a doe go through in the snow 2 weeks ago and nibble on my aronia. in 34 years we never saw deer or tracks here. just a few moose passing through.
I have 0 deer at all. What i do have are raccoons, rats, squirrels and rabits. and opossums. Mostly its protecting the trunk from rodent and rabbit damage in the winter and then the fruit from grabby hands.
the rabbits we have here are snowshoe hares which are a deep woods species that eat mostly fresh conifer buds. if a fruit trees bark is eaten its either pine voles or porcupine. cottontails arent this far north and are endangered where they are found in s. Maine.
Second most important to me is having habitat for pollinators. Without them i wont have much if any fruit.
Third most important to me is having predator insects and birds. I dont spray. Without them i would either have to spray or grow fruit for livestock.
Fourth most important to me is Dogs. Squirrels, Possums, Rabbits, Raccoons are not totally banned but will remove all fruits while you are asleep or at work…even with fencing. Not to mention the vole digging…and fence enforcement.
Fifth for me is a means to dispose of windfall, spoils and worthless fruits. Chickens for me. Before chickens a good compost area was needed.
Sixth is where to put prunings. Growing brambles and fruit trees add up to alot of prunings. If not for my unused property i would have to burn or haul off those things. My prunings are all ‘habitat’ for me.
Seventh is the areas that are needed to store woodchips, tools, pots, mixes, amendments, and all that comes with growing things… it has gotten out of hand for me many times and i feel as if i am in a growers junkyard.
The desire for more and variation and diversity as well as the overwhelming choices has been the hardest steps for me.
Number one for me is the desire and willingness to expend the time and energy to the creation of and retention of an orchard.
The next seven are exactly correct. Where I live the only wildlife problems come from voles and rabbits that chew on the bark and raccoons that DO eat all the fruit the night before harvest. Big fences will not keep these critters out. Deer are a problem but only get the lowest hanging fruit. Our bobcat population has kept deer to a minimum and the deer seem to be more interested in my wife’s flowers anyway.
Maybe KS deer are athletically challenged, but NY growers need 7-8’ fencing to keep deer out. I’m not sure if that is to keep them out during winter when snow might shorten the leap, but they don’t tend to do that much damage to my trees by true winter (when bucks have stopped rubbing trunks). However, in commercial orchards, perhaps bud browsing is intolerable. When they get hungry they have jumped my 5’ vegie garden fence in the summer, though.
Deer are a problem in my nursery and populations are excessive, as working class hunters are becoming increasingly scarce- taking their pensions and moving to the Carolinas and Florida- stretching the income they get from NY taxpayers to other states. The newcomers in my county don’t tend to hunt.
I rely on repellent to protect my nursery trees but last season was the first time deer started getting on their hind legs to harvest fruit from my orchard trees. I protected the trees whose fruit I most wanted by sticking pieces of rebar in the ground and lacing them with high-test deep sea fishing line. This trips them up enough to discourage their fruit snatching two-legged dance.
If you put such fishing line in front of a 5’ fence as a 2nd fence about 30" high they seem much less likely to jump a short fence. You put it 2 o3’ in front so they cannot just sidle up to leap a fence. They are timid and, when not panicked, seem to take their leaps cautiously. .
No kansas deer are not challenged in the high jump competition. Kansas fence builders are familiar with these things also. Thats 5 ’ of woven wite and three strands of barb wire. A deer might get lucky but i wouldn’t bet on him. This is one side of my new orchard. i suppose an electric wire in front is a given. That is only 1 side of my new orchard.
