North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[RW Spalinger <rwspal@earthlink.net>]

On Sep 7, 2004, at 8:40 PM, breezyhill wrote:

> My fruit trees are sited next to the hay field...He ran into one of 
> the apple trees and tore off a branch of about 5" diameter...He 
> skipped a tree, and then skinned a pear tree, knocking off a chunk of 
> bark about 1/3 of it's diameter, and abourt 5" tall...What's the best 
> way to "fix" it?  Have put up a temporary fence to warn him off the 
> trees when he returns to ted and bale.

I finally decided to spend the money and labor on constructing a fence 
around my orchard to protect the trees. Seems as whenever anyone comes 
into my area for any reason, a tree gets damaged, sometimes fatally. 
More than once a tractor has pulled a hay baler against a tree.

Also, the deer have practically decimated my orchard, scraping bark off 
the trees, breaking branches, and eat the fruit before I can get to it. 
No type of repellant seems to work on deer. They eat around the 
repellant. People can't seem to stay away from the trees-won't leave 
them alone. While stealing fruit, they break off small limbs rather 
than pick off the fruit properly.

So, I'm building a 7' tall fence around the orchard. A deer can 
actually jump over that, but I'm betting that it won't be worth their 
effort, considering all the grass and such in the area. Maybe visitors 
to my property will also get the idea. Once the fence is done, I'll 
start replanting.

Randall Spalinger