North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Dan Nave <nave1@comcast.net>]

If you use fencing with 2" X 4" openings consider putting some chicken wire or something with smaller openings around the bottom portion, at least.  Baby rabbits and young rabbits are very "narrow" and can easily squeeze through a 2x4 opening, and can completely ruin a young tree.

Dan

On 1/25/2011 7:18 PM, Matt Demmon wrote:

Spring for the hardware cloth, or other fencing sized to keep out what
you need. We put up 6' fencing with 2x4 inch openings around all our
fruit trees to keep out deer and rabbits, dont' have a severe vole
problem though. With about 4 feet of fencing per tree plus one stake
it came out to about $4-5 per tree for protection, well worth it for
the $20 or so each tree costs.

Of course we only had about 25 trees. If the electric fence keeps out
the deer, you could use much smaller fencing and stakes to keep out
rabbits and voles. Just don't forget about snow. We plan on about a
foot of snow here, and add that to the fence height for rabbits on
some of our smaller shrubs. Don't know how much snow you get there.

Good luck!

-matt
z5 SE MI

On Tue, Jan 25, 2011 at 7:41 PM, Evan <kodama@riseup.net> wrote:

Hello all,

I am a complete newcomer to fruit growing, and am going to put in a few trees and bushes in the spring. I am very much looking forward to this, but as the day approaches when I will receive the bare-root stock, I continue to contemplate all the various things that could possibly go wrong, particularly the animals that might eat or damage the trees. Deer, rabbits, voles all come to mind. Maybe this is just because I'm new and antsy, but I am curious as to the various plant protection strategies folks use with good success. In my area, we have a healthy herd of deer, and by healthy there is daily activity on various parts of the 19 acres that I live on, some of this is in the area where I am going to plant these trees and shrubs.

So far, my strategy involves putting up a baited, three-wire, 3-dimensional style electric fence around the garden and orchard to deter the deer. Though I hear that some folks have success with mere fishing line? I wonder if this is in areas where deer pressure is low? I would love it if fishing line alone would work, as I don't really want to add another electrical device to my life, and it would be quite a good bit cheaper. I will probably even throw up a fishing line fence in the next week (weather permitting) just to test this idea. I know I've seen some folks around here using fishing line around their gardens, so it must have some effect, but I haven't talked to anyone who does this to find out if it completely repels the deer or only marginally works.

Inside the electric fence I have considered putting small mesh guards or possibly 3' tree-shelters on the plantings to protect from browse by smaller animals like rabbits and voles. This is the part I'm a bit more stuck on, as I would prefer to do things inexpensively when possible, and buying a roll of hardware cloth or a bundle of treeshelters would not come cheap. In the long run, I'm willing to spend an extra couple bucks per tree to increase its odds of thriving, but if there's another way to do it that costs less, well, that I'm interested in. I've heard of using 24" aiuminum flashing to make guards as well?

Also I wonder about odor-deterrents like Liquid Fence, which offers both a rabbit and vole deterrent spray. This would be another economical way for me to get by, but I would even consider trying something I could mix at home. I've heard of Sepp Holzer making a rather odd bonejuice that he swears by.

Basically, I'm looking to hear what strategies folks are using to protect young trees and shrubs from herbivores, especially anything Home-made and DIY-style. I hope I'm not bringing up a topic that's already been beaten to death.

cheers,
Evan
Southern Appalachia
Zone 6b
57" annual rainfall
just short of 3000'

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