Another fine reason to keep your apple trees fenced for as long as you can............ buck rubs

cavey

5 year old buck +
Another fine reason to keep your apple trees fenced for as long as you can............ buck rubs

I was out checking /planting some trees and looked over to see this nice bright patch on one of my nicer apple trees... I had figured with the lower branches and the t post by the tree and that it was a fairly large dia tree they would leave it alone, plus the screen wrap. I was wrong. Pulled my cage to early - wanted it for a new tree planting earlier this fall. The buck got half the trunk.
 

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Painful lesson. IMO you can never remove the cages unless you're prepared to lose a tree. With only half rubbed, that tree will likely survive. That is unless the buck comes back tonight and rubs the other half.
 
Had similar things happen to a couple young oaks. Thought leaving just the screen on was good enough. Was for a few years until...it wasn't. I've resigned myself to just buying new fence as more stuff gets planted. Lesson learned as lost 6to7 yrs growth in one week. They stump sprouted and those grow quick so not back to square one but still not easy to predict what that one deer may do as others leave stuff alone for years.
 
Sad part is I've learned the lesson before... You almost need permanent fencing and screening, I lost a 15 year old ish apple tree to mice one year - my screen wraps were getting so large to keep them wrapped that I thought at this point no need = girthed tree in the spring. I usually leave 1 t post up close to the tree and that seems to keep the bucks off of them but for some reason I moved this one back - maybe I pruned the tree or pulled the post so it didnt get into the roots but I have had really good luck with leaving a post. My cages have been large enough to allow for some lower branches - lower than you would normally want but that keeps the bucks off the trees. Now with more and more apple trees I cant afford the same size fenced areas I've done in the past and have been in a rush to pull cages or fences from established trees to move to new trees. I added some protection for the trunk with a small shrub cage and staked it as well as pulled the screen back up, the tree will more than likely survive but had I not caught it - the other side was open enough for a return visit. Just kind of sucks and figured my pain/loss might help someone...
 
Makes you sick for sure. Get a new cage on it, I have had one or two that took a similar beating and they healed up fine. Pretty good chance that will bounce back.
 
Ouch... It would be painful to loose such a nice big tree like that one! I'm glad ya discovered the damage in time to prevent a total loss. Lesson learned here, I'll bite the bullet and buy more fencing before exposing my best and biggest trees.
 
My house is out in the open, about 400 yards from any cover. Yet, I’ve had trees hit in my yard. All my trees are caged now regardless of where they are located.
 
Here’s a nice chestnut tree of mine that just got hit....the plastic netting has always been a deterrent for rubbing in the past...but not this time...lesson learned
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