North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

You've got  deer that are inexperienced with what you are growing (hence the slightly nipped tomatoes).  They're trying things to see what they like, and obviously the plum took their fancy.  Daylilies have  a  slightly pungent odor that probably put them off.  Also, in a situation where they are being highly alert, they don't like to bend down to feed as they can't look around as easily.   Yours may start feeding more on  lower growing things as they hang around more.  At this stage a repellant such as egg spray should encourage them to move on more readily.
Spray = 4-6 eggs thoroughly liquified in water with a high speed blender.  Pour into 3 gallon sprayer and fill with water.  Spray on any area they reach. Repeat after individual shoots grow six inches, OR two heavy rains, or two to three overhead waterings, whichever comes first.
-Lon Rombough
NEW grape pruning video: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/dvd.html View a short, low resolution clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q58zFY0B1M
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003. 
A video about The Grape Grower : http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2008/04/18/the-grape-grower/
On Jul 19, 2009, at 9:53 AM, Steve wrote:


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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