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nafex - [NAFEX] Grow fruit higher than deer can reach?

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  • From: Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Grow fruit higher than deer can reach?
  • Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 13:19:20 -0500

Suppose I conceded that in a particular orchard deer would occasionally get in and browse my proposed planting of apple and pear trees.

You may have seen pictures of trees grown on the African savanna, where the tree is leafless up to about eight feet high, then the foliage grows with the bottom branches looking like they are growing flat on a tabletop, because the foraging animals below have gnawed everything they could reach up to. So the first 8 feet of the growing tree has been conceded to the wild animals in Africa.

For an example of how this browsed tree looks in Africa, see:
http://www.blueplanetbiomes.org/acacia_tortillis.htm

I'm asking for opinions about the practicality of growing apples and pears on standard seedling rootstocks, and trimming so the first branches occur several feet off the ground - not easy, I know, for pruning and harvesting - but as a proposed way of avoiding the necessity of repelling deer.

So, what's your opinion? Possible? Practical or impractical?

Charlie Paradise
zone 5/Massachusetts




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