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Tuesday, June 11, 2019

DEER VS FRUIT TREES

Well, this wasn't unexpected...we only had a few pieces of fruit on the trees.  Since we're still letting them develop strong root systems, we plucked most of the buds earlier in the Spring.

But one weekend they were there and this weekend they were gone.  Of course this could have been birds, though there were no half eaten pieces on the ground.  They were just gone.  Completely missing from the trees and the yard.


The plum tree (one of them) had about 8 or 9 plums on it a few weekends ago...


...now it has zero.


This is the mystery peach tree (possibly nectarine).  It had four pieces of fruit on it...


...and now zero on it.  However, we did manage to snag one to try out last week, thank goodness.  More on that in an upcoming post.


Now the citrus doesn't seem to be bothered at all.  Not sure if deer like it or what.  This is the orange tree and both the lemon and lime have small fruits on them as well.


Gotta figure out a good solution before next Spring.  Thinking of some tall posts at each corner of each bed and then just putting deer netting around it with zip-ties.  With tall posts, we could toss bird netting over the tops if we needed too.  

Thoughts?

9 comments:

  1. set up your yard cameras and you just may catch the culprit that is eating your fruit. I would bet that it is deer that are bothering your fruit trees.
    Check with local nursery to see what they have and might suggest for deer repellant stuff.

    https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/pests/deer/deer-eating-fruit-trees.htm

    or build simple fencing around the trees; https://www.hobbyfarms.com/simple-fence-protect-fruit-trees-deer/

    put up deer netting; https://oldworldgardenfarms.com/2013/09/10/protecting-your-garden-trees-and-landscape-from-deer/

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  2. Cameras. It could even be children or coyotes..or cows. Knowing the cause should let you deal with the specific problem

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  3. i've been feeding the animals all of my berries for years. i gave up long ago and just let them eat them.

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  4. Probably deer, but be thankful they didn't eat the trees too! :-)

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  5. with a small number of fruits, and small trees I'd definitely bag them. Just go on YouTube and search for "bagging fruit". I bag my few dozen apples with sandwich bags. Deer won't pick a bagged fruit, and even if they did knock it down it wouldn't be edible and they would give up after a few tries.

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  6. yep ..deer.they eat the sweeter citrus in my yard(Alabama). I have a friend who gives calamondin to his horses for treats.

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  7. Deer, oh deer.....the damage they have done in our yard. We'd plant and they'd come eat. Our pear trees were a favorite. Don't bother w/fencing unless you plan on going 7 or 8 feet high. I watched them stand on their hind legs to reach up over our fencing. We've tried a spray deer repellent at our new house, we do it each night, not harmful to animals or plants & it seems to be working. We've also been collecting cans to put our more permanent plan into effect. Strung together loosely with fishing line, over a metal can & hooked onto each corner of the garden. The deer come in, move the fishing line, knock the cans loose which crash onto the metal can & the deer take off. Yesterday we had 7 deer heading for the garden, my bag of cans was sitting on the table & I picked it up and gave it a shake - all I saw was white tails running in the opposite direction. Yay!!!!

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  8. Oh no :( ! Sooo disappointing to have your fruits robbed by some creatures. When I lived in the country, I had so many coyotes that I never had a deer problem. So I guess they were good for something. But I had to have a 6 foot fence to protect my dogs.

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  9. If you have squirrels, they will eat the fruit before ripening. As others have stated, deer will eat all of it. I have two pear trees I am trying to espalier and they ate a lot of leaves before I could hang a net curtain in front of them. Good luck. I like the camera idea to see what you are dealing with.

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