Recovering from bear damage

[Lot2Learn]

I'm looking for some help/ideas on how to recovery from some bear damage that occurred this summer.

Background:

• A bear or multiple bears damaged 20 of my 50 fruit trees this past summer
• I'm working on getting and electric fence put around each of the orchards to stop/limit future damage
• The pictures below of an Enterprise planted in 2014 are typical of the damage...tree is bent over and snapped just above the first scaffold branches

What would you do?

Ideas include:

• Start over with a new tree (argh)
• Clean up the break point and let the scaffold branches grow upward
• Try to graft at the break point to create a new central leader (can you point me to some video or discussion of the grafting technique required for this?)
• Saw off the tree just above the 'sucker' (where the 'sucker' is above the graft union)

Thanks in advance, Lot2Learn

 

[Diesel5610]

I hate bears. I have a couple trees that look almost identical to what you have there, also an enterprise and a couple dolgo. I was going to start an identical thread. I am interested to hear opinions from some of the gurus here. I was sick with just a couple damaged trees, they would be talking me off a ledge if I lost 20!

 

[greyphase]

I prune off the damage as best I can and let the tree heal. I have several trees without a central leader, but they are still producing apples. Apple trees are resilient. they can bounce back from some pretty severe wounds and keep growing. This tree lost it's central leader years ago and lost another limb this summer but it just keep "chugging along" producing fruit.

 

[chickenlittle]

I would skip most of those options as you lose too much of what you already have for no benefit. Apples are tough and can be pruned severely and bounce back. I would remove whatever is busted and hanging. Prune the rest lighter than normal but still prune it. Then see what new growth pushes next year and decide if some of that growth makes a new central leader.

 

[Turkey Creek]

I certainly wouldnt yank those trees. Prune out the ragged stuff, give the tree a year to push some new growth, and then go from there. You could always graft a new leader onto the top of the trunk if the tree doesnt give you any potential new leaders.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

I hate bears as well. The damage they do to trees never ends, no matter how old the tree. They can destroy young trees as in the OP's pics. Once trees are big enough that bears can climb them they still do a number. They break climbs and gouge the bark and just really mess them up. Worse case scenario is when a mature bear climbs a tree and topples it from its weight. I've had that happen to many of my mature wild apples. I've given up on apples. Too many bears around here and I just have no interest in spending the time and money fencing in my trees in perpetuity.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We've also had bears damage some of our older, established apples and crabs. Like the guys above said - we just prune off the broken limbs and the trees push new growth. They may not be as "pretty", but they keep growing. That's the reason we went with rootstocks that will grow bigger trees with more wood. If a bear does climb or try to climb them, they stand a much better chance of surviving the damage.

I've been pruning off the lower limbs as the trees get 4 or 5 years being planted to keep the lowest scaffolds at 6 or 7 ft. off the ground. It may not be a complete answer, but it gives younger bears less invitation to " reach up and grab " just for the hell of doing it. Older bears don't seem interested in climbing & pulling down branches like the younger ones do. Older ones seem content to make the rounds and pick up drops ( when the trees get to producing ). So far, 5 ft. tall concrete mesh cages have kept the bears much less likely to do damage, but as more of our trees start producing, we'll adapt as needed.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I had one tree with damage this year.


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[Lot2Learn]

Thanks for your thoughts, gentlemen.

Where possible I'll just straighten the tree, clean up the break point, and then further assess after I see what happens.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I have tons of bears and bear damage on my land in NW Wisconsin. I've given up trying to prevent it, but I'm trying to overwhelm them by planting more trees than they can destroy. I also have learned that I need to leave the 5 or 6 foot tall cages up around the trees forever (or at least for much longer than 9 years, which is how old my oldest trees are). I tried taking some cages down last year, but the bears would pull down the newly exposed branches for no apparent reason. I also don't prune trees there very much since the bears will come through and tear things up and when they do it is nice to have some extra branches left on the tree. The trees might look goofy, but they still produce fruit. I just try to cut the damaged branches flush and let the tree do the rest. There are some big ancient apple trees by old homesteads up there that have somehow survived bear damage, so I know it is possible to win.