North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[nottke1 <nottke1@earthlink.net>]

Dan,
I live west of Winston-Salem, NC, and the deer eat all the young foliage off 
the thornless blackberries if I don't keep them fenced out.  
Haven't had any girdling problems, but a neighbor who does not keep the grass 
away from his canes has had that problem.  I keep mine mulched with leaf 
mulch, only an inch or two thick.
Jim

-----Original Message-----
>From: drbeckl <drbeckl@yahoo.com>
>Sent: Feb 2, 2007 1:12 AM
>To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
>Subject: [NAFEX] blackberry plants and deer
>
> Hi;
>I have bot 25 blackberry bare-root plants last fall, and have them
>heeled-in
>the soil to plant in a new garden area in March or April.  They are all
>thornless varieties:  Arapaho, Navaho, Ouichita, Triple crown, Apache,
>Chester.
>
>I am going to plant them in a old hayfield, that is not yet fenced in.
>[
>against deer. ]
>There are deer around this area that come in and eat at nite.  I have
>noticed that deer here do not seem to eat the wild blackberry plants
>that
>grow around here; but the wild b.b.'s have thorns on them.  They also
>mite
>taste differently to deer than tame b.b.'s.
>
>I also have another main garden area fenced in with a electric fence to
>protect the food crops from the deer; but there is no room in that plot
>for
>the blackberries.
>
>My question is:  Will the deer damage the thornless blackberry plants ?
>i.e.: Do deer like to eat thornless blackberry plants ?  Should I fence
>in
>the blackberry patch before I do the planting of the b.b. plants ?
>
>I was hoping to postpone fencing in the blackberry plot until fall,
>2007;
>if at all possible.  But, if deer do like to eat thornless blackberry
>plants, then I will have to do the fencing before I set the bare-root
>plants
>out.
>
>Also; do I have to worry about field mice  girdling the b.b. plants 
>lower
>stems ???  Should I put plastic, or duct tape, around the lower stems
>to
>protect them from being girdled by the field mice ??
>                    thanks for any help,
>                                        dan in WVa, usda zone 6.
>
>
>
> 
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