North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>]

47F5B94F.30802@aol.com" type="cite">

Jason MacArthur wrote:
  

Well, the snow is finally melting away from the bases of my apple  
trees enough that I can see just how terrible the mice were this  
winter.  Some trees are goners without a doubt, but some are 70-90%  
girdled, and I am wondering if these will have what they need to pull  
through and grow or should I graft them completely over?
All trees are on Dwarf Rootstock (M9, G16, B9) and are going into 4th  
or 5th leaf.
Any helpful experience to be shared?

Jason MacArthur
Marlboro, Vt
  
    

Steve wrote:

47F5B94F.30802@aol.com" type="cite">

That scares me a bit. It will be a couple of weeks, at least, until I 
can see the base of some of my apples. One might be visible now but some 
are still under more than 2 feet of snow. To make matters worse, this is 
the first time in about 10 years that I didn't enclose the base of my 
trees with hardware cloth. Winter came so suddenly this year that I 
didn't get it done. I hope I don't have to bridge graft any of them this 
year.

So far, so good. As of today both pear trees and 2 of the 4 apples trees have their lower trunks exposed. No damage noted so far. I think I can give most of the credit to our 3 year old six toed cat who is just coming into his prime mouse catching years. The other 2 apple trees still have about 2 feet of snow. One is the one I had to bridge graft before.

Steve