Earlier this year I planted two young apple trees (McIntosh and Honeycrisp), and living in deer country I took a few precautions to deter them from eating the green shoots and damaging or destroying my efforts.
By the way, planting fruit bearing trees is an excellent proactive action for preparedness sake…
Here’s what I did, and lets hear your own recommendations too:
1. Assemble a fence around the young apple tree as a deer deterrent perimeter.
2. Hang a deer deterrent scent around the fence.
So far it has worked…
Apple Tree Deer Fence
The fence is an ordinary welded-wire fence (Home Depot) which is supported by two T-posts. The fence measures about 15 feet in length, and the circumference provides several feet of clearance around the apple tree. The diameter of the fence circle is just about 5 feet. The welded wire fence itself is 5 feet tall.
Deer Deterrent Scent
Apparently, deer do not like the scent of Irish Spring soap! So I cut up several bars into pieces which I slipped into several pairs of women’s ‘knee socks’ (I had Mrs.J purchase those 😉 ). I then hung the Irish Spring soap laden socks around the fence. Actually I only dropped 3 or 4 chunks (slices) of soap into each sock.
Irish Spring Deodorant Soap Original Scent – 4 Ounce/20 ct
(good for your general purpose preps too)
(my ‘Irish Spring’ work station)
What about you? Any deer deterrent tips for apple trees or other such similar situation?
The forestry uses white paper folded in half and stapled around the tips of the top branches of their seedling trees so deer stay away. It works.
Ask your barber for hair clippings. Stuff in old nylon stockings and hang from the tree branches. This works well. Also scatter dried blood at the base of the trees also around the border of your garden. This will keep deer and rabbits away. Dried blood is sold in most garden centers. Another item you need to consider is a special tape also sold at garden centers to place around the base of the young trees. This prevents mice from chewing the young bark and girdling the trees. I have lost trees because of this.
I’m having trouble with hogs grubbing around the roots of my fruit trees. Avocado trees too. They are damaging the roots. One side of my best tangerine tree is dying. They are rubbing off the bark at the bases. They keep breaching my fences. Other than shooting them every chance I get any suggestions on something I could put on the ground to deter them from rooting?
Those damn Hogs are everywhere now.
Until another solution is found (the State Wildlife people are working(?) on it, the only present solution is GUNFIRE!
hogs? Hogs?? Guess that squirrels and moles aren’t so bad after all. At least my dog can hunt those. : /
Remove about 4 in. soil for 3 ft. around base of tree. Buy roll of barbed wire, place wire flat to the ground, making a spiral of concentric circles with wire about 4-6 inches apart, staking it down with whatever you have (I use cheap tent stakes). Replace the soil.
Hogs are highly intelligent creatures. After one encounter with a cut up snout, they will not return to that tree.
Ken, I don’t know about the laws in your location, but where I live if deer are damaging your crops you can kill them without regard to season or licensing. Apples are nice but venison is too. Check with your state game and fish commission. Then decide if you want to plant some unprotected trees.
Overnight, a raccoon or something equally heavy climbed over my 6′ privacy fence and dropped down into my corn (which had been doing nicely.) Now about ten stalks are bent over flat. I tried to put them back up and support them, but I think they are ruined. It doesn’t look like they (it) bothered anything else.
Up to now, I had been having good luck with garlic cloves and garlic peelings against insects and squirrels. I guess next year I will have to put my corn inside my other fence that is inside my privacy fence, but that means the stalks will shade my tomatoes and peppers which I don’t want to do.
I see that Modern Survival Blog is finally up to #17 as a Top Prepper Site. Only a little way to go to surpass The Organic Prepper. I still think you can vote every day. I do it and when I do it for the first time every day, Modern Survival Blog appears as a Site of the Moment. But if I do it a second time during the day, something else is the Site of the Moment.
Ok, here I go again with the Urinal Cakes (huge mothballs) again. You won’t need the Fencing just tie one or two in the tree with the same method Ken uses. Works on any animal that comes around, even Bear. At $8-$9 a dozen, they are well worth the cost. Also the rain will not “melt” them, so they will/can last an entire season.
NRP
PS; the also work good in a Garden.
Hey bud, I got my spice order today and will be trying out your turmeric recipe. I wonder how cooking affects the efficacy?
Want to start making rubs and stir fries with it.
@ Kaluafarmer
My understanding is cooking the Turmeric make the spice more absorbable for the body, so Yeah, it should work well.
NRP
We have tried, Irish Spring, Hair, moth balls, fences, nothing has worked. What the deer and elk didn’t get the pocket gophers munched. We finally planted 15 fruit trees in lick tubs ( large plastic tubs for cows to eat molasses), put them in a 20×20 totally enclosed by chicken wire walls with a polyvinyl roof.
Because we have nice weather in Feb or April and frosts in May after the trees bloom, there are removable panels covered with Solex insulation and there is a propane heater inside. We have had cherries, blueberries, raspberries, and peaches so far. We are waiting for the pears, apples and rest of the peaches to ripen. My husband was going to have an orchard! You should see the garden. I have pictures if anyone wants to see.
125 lb Rottweiler and nothing comes around. I am surrounded by woods and have a pond and creek on my property. Have seen one squirrel and one opossum since getting the dog 6 years ago. The coyote come near the property at night when dog is inside, but I’ve never even seen them on the property.
Squirrels, every one I see in the bird feeder gets the airgun.
Raccoons, they get the same treatment only the airgun is more powerful. The fast ones I can’t shoot are taken out with traps.(Traps never sleep!)
Hogs…….well, we don’t have them here…….yet!
BI
Great camera shot of the deer!!
I use a combination of urinal cakes and soap chunks year round to keep deer on 350 acres of hardwood timber. Along with corn feeders and mineral blocks. The surrounding land is planted in soybeans of cotton. Having strips of back strap, shrimp, wrapped with a slice of bacon for the 4th.
I use a series of cameras to keep the poachers out while I’m not there.
Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend.
Funny how history works! On this holiday we celebrate our Independence from England and Now England is celebrating their independence from the EURO Zone!! For many of the same reasons!!!
Re: the UK independence, we’re not there yet, all hells breaking out here in the UK. As for Beastie’s eating crops I’m lucky I just have rabbits to keep out.
Yes, just as it was in 1776, just declaring independence is the first step. Men gave their lives for this great country after July 4th, 1776, and based on the way things are looking, I have no doubt that in order for us to keep our Constitutional Freedoms we will again have to fight on this soil!!
LOCK and LOAD!! I’m ready send terrorist and foreign troops to meet their maker!!! This is MY homeland not Alla’s, not the UN’s.
I will try the urinal cakes. Neighbor down the road is making a slurry out of his dog waste. Pours it down his fence line especially where their trails are. Says he is having pretty good luck with it. Might try that too…
Two really Big dogs who take it personally when something or someone they don’t recognize comes into their domain. Late last summer they took down a good size doe as she was preparing to jump a fence. Broke her neck. Freezer food.
About these Urinal Cakes. I just have to comment. We have a huge lovely garden in northern Minnesota that is continually plagued by deer. We’ve tried everything to discourage them, but to no avail. Until I read about Urinal Cakes. I ordered a dozen on Amazon about $12/ doz. and placed them at the four corners of our smaller garden and around the fruit trees. That evening we were in our garage, and we saw a big deer walk straight up to one of the Cakes, stomp around it, charge at it, back up stomp around some more. Then with the flick of his nose, flip it in the air about 20 feet away, then march off into the woods. It works, people! Thanks NRP
Motion activated sprinklers work great. They are battery operated and of coarse need water so might not be ideal for SHTF, but until then it’ll keep every critter out of your garden. Just remember to shut it off before you go in or it’ll get you too.
Good photo of the deer.
Is that an apple she is munching on?
California Agricultural extension used to spray an emulsion of eggs on the tips of branches to young seedlings to prevent deer from nibbling the branch tips.
I was never in a place where I had hogs rooting on my property. I like hogs! they taste better than deer and if they are less than 200 lbs, the meat is tender and usable in most pork recipes. In California I used to go after them about 1x/ year for the meat and fun. Meat goes bad quickly so skin out your meat and put it on ice soon as possible after you shoot it. Typical hog hunting truck was an open bed vehicle with a marine-sized Ice chest in the bag full of frozen water bottles (gallon sized).
Hog hunting is about the only thing I miss about California. Some parts of the state are just lousy with them.
I had a mule deer problem (in Wyoming) attacking my fruit trees. I put t-posts around my mini orchard and then strung clear 30lb test fishing line around the orchard (4 levels). The deer can’t see the line (especially at night). Result…deer walk into it and freak out because it is basically invisible to them. They take off like a bat out of hell. I have not had one deer issue since. Pretty inexpensive and no smelly stuff hanging around the property.
…now that is an interesting solution to the problem!
@ UnderwaterComms
I agree with Ken (and that don’t happen to often, LOL) that might be worth giving it a try….
Thanks for the idea
NRP
I had trouble last year when I planted my trees. I put an old radio in a garbage can on its side on an all night talk radio station. This is the second year and so far it works.