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nafex - [NAFEX] Deer and European Plums

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  • From: Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>
  • To: NAFEx <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] Deer and European Plums
  • Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 12:53:33 -0400


Do deer have a special fondness for European plums?

A few days ago I was in my yard and discovered some unauthorized pruning of a young plum tree. Mostly, just leaves were eaten off leaving stubs lining the little branches. Some of the soft tips of branches were chewed off too. Two of the branches with missing tips were a good 6 feet off the ground. A nearby American Hybrid plum had just a few missing leaves.
Yesterday, I discovered my other, even smaller, European plum now has some missing leaves and missing branch tips. So far, neither tree has lost even 10% of its leaves so it's not too serious yet. I live right in town where I didn't used to have to worry about deer. In recent years they started showing up in the fall. (I discovered they like fallen pears far more than apples.) Only rarely has there been evidence of a summer visit.
Here's the weird part. Directly below the eaten branches of that first tree, there is a clump of day lilies in full bud, just days from opening the first flowers. Not a bud had been touched. Also, the plum trees are not 20 feet from my vegetable garden. I found 2 tomato leaves with missing ends. These were at the far end of the garden away from the plum trees. Other than that possible deer damage, nothing has been touched.

Steve in the Adirondacks





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