To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] Grow fruit higher than deer can reach?
Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2003 13:19:20 -0500
Suppose I conceded that in a particular orchard deer would occasionally
get in and browse my proposed planting of apple and pear trees.
You may have seen pictures of trees grown on the African savanna, where
the tree is leafless up to about eight feet high, then the foliage
grows with the bottom branches looking like they are growing flat on a
tabletop, because the foraging animals below have gnawed everything
they could reach up to. So the first 8 feet of the growing tree has
been conceded to the wild animals in Africa.
I'm asking for opinions about the practicality of growing apples and
pears on standard seedling rootstocks, and trimming so the first
branches occur several feet off the ground - not easy, I know, for
pruning and harvesting - but as a proposed way of avoiding the
necessity of repelling deer.
So, what's your opinion? Possible? Practical or impractical?