North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Dr. Lucky Pittman" <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

Sarah, 
Our soils here are notably deficient in copper and selenium - as a
veterinary pathologist, I see - and verify - copper and selenium deficiency
in ruminant animals every day - so...I suspect that the deer are also
susceptible - though browsing may provide some mineral nutrition that's not
available to those domestic animals confined to pastures without significant
browse material.
But, since my aluminum can labels were attached with aluminum wire, Cu
deficiency would not be considered a factor in tag consumption.

Lucky Pittman
Hopkinsville, KY - where I heard the first eerie sound of the emerging
periodical cicada brood this morning.

-----Original Message-----
From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Sarah Kehler Ewing
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2011 8:12 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] the best of all garden labels

I don't know if they are the best, but I bought some Aluminum labels with
copper wires from Frensch's to permanently label my fruit trees.  I have 18"
tall hardware cloth cages protecting the bases of all my (surviving) trees
from mice so I just loop the wire/label around some squares in the hardware
cloth tube and hang the label down inside.  That way they don't grow into
the trees and if any deer happen to get past my Great Pyrenees, they still
can't eat them (who knew they wanted too??? Are they short on copper in your
area?).

Sarah 
zone 3
Edmonton, AB