From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
To: NAFEX List <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] Rabbit Damage
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 07:20:47 -0500
The rabbits really chewed up my little Pink Lady apple tree over the
winter. We got a LOT more snow than usual, and my protections weren't
sufficient this year.
I'd wrapped the trunk, so that's OK. But it's a small tree, with
branches close to the ground, and they completely stripped the bark from
most of them. Luckily, there are some branches near the top of the tree
that haven't been touched.
There are also two branches, just below that area, which have the bark
stripped everywhere but for a very thin line on the top of the branch.
Note that the bark is stripped for a good foot or two near the trunk, so
it's not just a small area. But there appears to be a thin line - a very
thin line - along the upper side of the branch that's untouched.
Should I prune off these branches anyway? Are they too badly damaged to
survive? Or is that thin connection with the trunk enough that they
could recover from this?
Note that this tree had a couple of small spots of fireblight last year,
which I had to remove. I don't know if all this bark damage would be
susceptible to fireblight or not, but I thought I'd better mention it.