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Did I do this wrong? Rabbit and vole protection

Bill

Administrator
What I’m doing is already wrong. Couldn’t get to the farm to plant apples and pears in April when they shipped.
Had a friend put them in the ground to keep them alive. He put them in one hole:emoji_scream: so I’m moving them now. At least their not dead in the box at the back door.

anyway no metal screen to be had locally so I used 1/4 welded wire and used a ground staple to hold them Down.

when I finished I thought what’s going to keep a mouse or vole from climbing up it?

am I over thinking it or do I need find some screen?

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I worry about it your tree rubbing the welded wire. It’s always so dang windy in N Mo. I used a thicker plastic screen in the past with good results. May be another option. Hell maybe what you have there is fine. Let’s see what the Apple God fathers have to say!
 
I worry about it your tree rubbing the welded wire. It’s always so dang windy in N Mo. I used a thicker plastic screen in the past with good results. May be another option. Hell maybe what you have there is fine. Let’s see what the Apple God fathers have to say!

never thought about that. Self girdling trees...now I got something else to worry about. :)
 
I agree and in fact tied some of my trees with arbor lock today to straighten and keep from hitting wire
 
Bill ... from my view, you have no stone surrounding the mesh. Varmits can crawl under the weed mat at immediatley get to your tress.

In my experince, while you want a depression around the tree for water to collect, if your weed mat is not tight to the soil, and your mesh/screen is not tight to the soil and weed mat, and no stone ... varmts have perfect path to chew & girdle and create a little home under the mat.

I put the mat to the soil first, then mesh/screen, and they stone packind it down.
 
Thanks spud. Stone is on the list of to do’s. I’ve got a pile, just going to let the fields dry out so I can scoop it with the FEL.
I don’t like a shovel if I can help it...
 
I use four, six inch staples to hold the ground cloth down around the tree. Have not done it before. Did use hardware cloth/wire mesh around twenty-five years ago. It worked fine with zero problems but not sure that we do or do not have voles. At the top we had just squeezed it in and slightly folded it “shut”. Not a mouse nor any scraping damage and it is known to be windy here as well.
 
Same as Spud - weed-mat / landscaping cloth down first, then aluminum window screen (easier to work with than hardware cloth) which is flared out at the bottom a bit, then landscape staples to hold the flared screen down to the ground, then I pile 3" to 4" of crushed limestone on top of the cloth / weed mat so ALL of it is covered. My landscape cloth pieces are 3' X 3' square.

The aluminum window screen idea of Appleman's is the ticket. You just wrap the screen around the tree trunk ONCE - and ONLY so both ends just touch - so you have a "tear-drop" shape when viewed from above. (I cut my screens to 16" long and so they will be 24" tall for snow depth. When the ends are touching, the "tear-drop" is about 8" wide from the wide side to the touching edges.) Then staple down the vertical touching edges from top to bottom. The screen should be loose and floppy on the trunk at this point, with the trunk in the widest part of the "tear-drop." Now staple the screen across the top from the outside edge toward the trunk until you can just slip your finger between the trunk and the closest staple. That will leave enough room for growth for that year and maybe another year. Pin the bottom flared base of the screen down tight with landscape staples so no mouse or vole can enter. Each year as the trunk expands, the tree will most likely rip the "next" staple loose at the top of the screen - or you can remove it to help the tree.

With hardware cloth, you must keep changing the size of the "wrap" because the hardware cloth won't "give" & flex like the aluminum screen will. No rubbing to "girdle" the trees. But hardware cloth will keep rabbits from chewing your trees. Mice & voles might still be able to get under the base of hardware cloth, unless you dig it into the soil about 2" or 3".

Once you pile stone on top of the weed mat / landscape cloth, the critters won't like to tunnel under there. Crushed limestone chips are jagged and sharp, so digging and attempts at tunneling are painful and uncomfortable for the mice and voles. Using this system, in 7 years we haven't had any mice or voles chewing on the tree bark.

The method I've been using I learned from Appleman and his pictures and posts on another thread - which I can't remember the name of. Some local orchardists near my camp use that same method on newly planted trees as well. It works. I learned from THEM !!
 
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I’ll switch to aluminum screen by fall. Crushing the metal mesh helped and there are two ground staples in each one.

A Nolan’s cheddar mouse might get under here but a regular one won’t.

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It wouldn’t hurt to spray around them mats to kill the grasses and weeds. I always spray a few times a year just outside my cages with Gly, obviously being very careful.
 
It wouldn’t hurt to spray around them mats to kill the grasses and weeds. I always spray a few times a year just outside my cages with Gly, obviously being very careful.

That's what I also do. The varmits do not find it nearly as inviting to get around the apple trees to start with.
 
After a lot of great suggestions, and an effort well made, it doesn't look like any critter will bother that tree. Until the tree develops a sturdy 3-4" caliper, if you want to ensure there is little or no "girdilling" at the top of your hardware cloth, use a piece (3-5") of rubber-coated copper electrical wire. Wrap it around the tree (loosely for tree growth - 1/4 in gap - and, you must adjust it over time with tree growth), give it a twist to close the loop and then extend one end of the wire to each side; stick the wire end through one square at the top of the piece of hardware cloth and bend it down. do the same to the other end of the wire and you have a tree/wire collar that will bend together in the wind with little or no rubbing. Pipe cleaners are also a replacement for rubber coated wire.
 
Oakseeds: do you have a pic to illustrate ? I’m more of a visual learner. I’ll be putting in 25 more trees next year so it never hurts to learn.
 
I do what you have done and have not had any issues.....Biggest issue I have had is when you get a water sprout that tries to grow thru it and I don't catch it in time. If you bend/roll the top edge out away from the tree it will help resist any damage as well. OR - take piece of small ID hose and slit it and zip tie it to the top edge or the wire.
 
I’ll switch to aluminum screen by fall. Crushing the metal mesh helped and there are two ground staples in each one.

A Nolan’s cheddar mouse might get under here but a regular one won’t.

View attachment 29800View attachment 29801

Bill .. a suggestion. You would be fine with only 25% of the stone you used as long as you have 5'-6" of stone around the mesh/screen.

A lot of the black mat should be exposed as it sees sun during the day and heats up, as night falls and things cool it creates condensation below the mat which helps the apple tree. This helps during dry periods.
 
BobinCt .... here is the best I could do with the materials on hand at home. You can also use it as a closure for the top of the piece of hardware cloth; just make sure one end of the white wire goes through both ends of the cloth. Hope it helps
hardware cloth tie in.jpg
 
Good idea for the hardware cloth. It can't rub the tree then.

Bill - I think you'll be fine with the set-up you have in post #9 pics for this year. Mice / voles shouldn't get under all that mat & stone. When you get time you can switch over to aluminum window screen for more years of growth without having to change hardware cloth. The screen is very easy to work with and it only requires regular office staples to close.

I also cover our weed mats entirely with stone chips just because we have so much constant breeze at camp (mountain top location), that the landscape cloth blows itself to tatters if I don't. YMMV.
 
Good idea for the hardware cloth. It can't rub the tree then.

Bill - I think you'll be fine with the set-up you have in post #9 pics for this year. Mice / voles shouldn't get under all that mat & stone. When you get time you can switch over to aluminum window screen for more years of growth without having to change hardware cloth. The screen is very easy to work with and it only requires regular office staples to close.

I also cover our weed mats entirely with stone chips just because we have so much constant breeze at camp (mountain top location), that the landscape cloth blows itself to tatters if I don't. YMMV.

Use these to hold down the corners ... moisture retainage is more important ... with rocks covering the whole mat, dirt & organic matter builds up and collects weed & grass seeds. Pretty soon the mat becomes ineffective.

Landscape fabric staples
 
Use these to hold down the corners ... moisture retainage is more important ... with rocks covering the whole mat, dirt & organic matter builds up and collects weed & grass seeds. Pretty soon the mat becomes ineffective.

Landscape fabric staples

that’s what I use on all kinds of stuff. I get mine from Ben Meadows. Price looks very close. It’s hard to believe I just finished my second box of 1000.
 
that’s what I use on all kinds of stuff. I get mine from Ben Meadows. Price looks very close. It’s hard to believe I just finished my second box of 1000.

I like the 6" vs the 4" as they in the ground better. I'm almost done with my second 1000 count box :emoji_grin:
 
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