North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["H.Dessureault" <inter.verbis@atreide.net>]

>>I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to wrap the metal mesh around the tree and hold the ends parallel like a keyhole and staple, rather than overlapping them and having a bit of difficulty stapling.

 

You are quite right. It is a few years since I bothered with such time consuming efforts and I had forgotten the details. Yes, just wrap the screen around the tree and staple together, as simple as that.

 

On the subject of rodents, maybe what I meant is moles. They live underground and have palmed feet. They are black with short greyish legs, sort of a long face with a piggish nose (for burrowing). Their usual fare is worms and insects, they take bites in beets and carrots in the Fall occasionally and tree bark when desperate in the Winter and Spring, so maybe they eat roots of other plants as well. Since I am currently on a campaign to promote cats as a protection against fruit trees damages from mice, voles and moles, I will tell you that cats predate on those too, although they don't eat the moles, just kill them.

 

On the subject of frost, if it snows before the ground is frozen, then the ground does not freeze much as the snow insulates. Sometimes it turns cold and stays very cold long before the snow falls, then the ground can freeze to four feet. It varies that much from year to year.

I don't know what moles do when the ground is deeply frozen, but I can tell you the difference between a vole nibbling a large area of fruit tree bark and a mole munching. With the moles you can see traces of teeth. They take bigger and deeper bites and they seem to take on bigger trees, with thicker bark.

 

Put a few cats to work!

 

>>Alt 0233 gives you the é and Alt 0232 gives you the è!! 

 

Thank you, I took note as I didn't know the codes for accents on English keyboards. Following your cue, I discovered a whole new spectrum of possibilities and that alt 0234 gives you ê, which is your third accent in order of most frequently used.

 

 

Hélène, zone 3

 

----- Original Message -----

From: dwalsh/wchase

To: nafex@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2001 12:33 PM

Subject: Re: [nafex] screen & prunus

Helénè,

 

Voles (meadow mice) seem to like young M9 and M26 rootstock, but I have never had them damage St Julien A (Prunus r/s) or quince.

 

They usually seem to damage young apple trees only, but last winter they've eaten a lot of the roots of my eight year old M9/Dolgo (I noticed it because tree is 'loose' in the ground).

 

A friend tells me they like blueberries best of all!

 

They devoured all the roots of my phlox in the garden (near the Dolgo).

 

I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to wrap the metal mesh around the tree and hold the ends parallel like a keyhole and staple, rather than overlapping them and having a bit of difficulty stapling.

 

On the rainy south west coast where the land doesn't freeze for long, the below ground damage is harder to control than the above ground nibbling.  Perhaps in Quebec, the frozen ground is too hard for them to burrow?

 

I cage my blocks of nursery trees with chicken wire to protect against rabbits.

 

PS for those using Outlook Express for email,  Voilá  Helénè!

 

Derry

 

Derry Walsh & Bill Chase  email:wchase@interchange.ubc.ca
Aldergrove,  B. C.,  Canada
phone/fax (604) 856-9316  
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Home web page  http://www.interchange.ubc.ca/wchase/HTML
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I folded the screen to make sort of a tube around the stem of the small tree and I used a regular paper stapler to staple the overlap at the top and at the bottom. I put a staple as far as I could reach by inserting the bottom smaller part of the stapler inside the tube, and then I put one staple near the edge, bringing the overlap tighter.

 

Though, I am under the impression that prunus are not a mouse favorite food. Has anyone ever experienced mice damage on prunus?

 

Hélène

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