deepsleep
5 year old buck +
First off, the Centennial Crab has, for the most part, been a great apple for me. Disease resistant, precocious, good to eat, heavy-bearing, and known to be a good pollinator. I may, however, be getting rid of most of them (I have 5 in my yard). The reason is, every year about this time, the deer and raccoons absolutely destroy the trees. They are 5th leaf on M7, and for the last 2 or three years, they get abused by the critters. I have no other varieties that get beat up like this. Last year, I thought it was mainly coons, but Dad snapped this pic from my house a few days ago.
The cage has been downsized, which doesn't help, but that deer is over 6 feet into the tree! Below is damage to a couple others. The second is a tree they haven't hit yet this summer, but you can see an empty section of leader where the branches got torn off last year. I am wondering if I should try to grow this variety on Standard rootstock. Might they hold up better? I have 3 Chestnut crabs next to these trees, and although the coons/deer get a lot of the fruit, the branches don't get ripped off. I will probably top-work these trees over, but wondering if anyone else had a similar experience.
The cage has been downsized, which doesn't help, but that deer is over 6 feet into the tree! Below is damage to a couple others. The second is a tree they haven't hit yet this summer, but you can see an empty section of leader where the branches got torn off last year. I am wondering if I should try to grow this variety on Standard rootstock. Might they hold up better? I have 3 Chestnut crabs next to these trees, and although the coons/deer get a lot of the fruit, the branches don't get ripped off. I will probably top-work these trees over, but wondering if anyone else had a similar experience.