North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["tanis cuff" <tanistanis@hotmail.com>]

One winter (late Oct or early Nov chore) I think I did 30 rootstocks and 
newer grafts, and maybe 20 trees up to 4" diameter.  I've switched to 1/2" 
hardware cloth for the larger now.  It was an experiment the first year; I 
wanted to try something I didn't need to remove & re-install every year.  
Two or 3 winters, and no voles or mice have climbed in.

Another helpful technique, especially if you are seeing vole activity early, 
is to check the bases of trees about once a week while the soil is trying to 
freeze.  Make sure mole tunnels at the root flairs are filled, and that no 
voles have moved in.  I don't believe voles can do much excavation of frozen 
soil.

As per the foil wrap killing trees, it should probably be removed for the 
growing season, especially for rootstocks which form adventitious roots 
easily-- Bud 118, for example.

tc, s.WI, currently worried more about buck-rubs than vole damage


----Original Message Follows----
From: Charles Paradise <machelp@attglobal.net>
Reply-To: machelp@attglobal.net,North American Fruit Explorers 
<nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] bunnies (furry)/vole protection too
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2003 12:12:51 -0500

I wrapped a grafted chestnut tree in foil and it died dead.    Perhaps it 
wasn't the foil that
killed it, but I won't try it again.  It's interesting Tanis has had success 
with this though, it
certainly would be easier than cutting screen up.  Cheaper too.   How many 
trees did you try this
on, Tanis?
Charlie Paradise
zone 5 / Massachusetts


tanis cuff wrote:

> In a pinch, you could also wrap trunks with foil.  It's available
> everywhere, and the extra wide heavy-duty is about as much protection as 
you
> need.  But, a tiresome job on a windy or sunny day.  For best results,
> gently pull soil away from root flair, and gently tuck the foil down, 
then
> bury the edge with the soil.
>
> Tanis; s.WI

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