Free pruning

[Peeps]

I got a text from my wife tonight saying that she was watching a doe trying to eat one of the crab apple trees I planted last year. She said she could see her tugging on the tree making it move. I have the tree staked and caged with concrete mesh so the doe must have grabbed something sticking out of the cage to chew on. I look at this as cheap pruning. :)

 

[Bowsnbucks]

We get some " free pruning " outside the concrete mesh cages at camp too. It hasn't hurt the trees at all.

 

[j-bird]

Yep - Anything that sticks out side the cage doesn't last long! I have even stuck pruned branches into the cage to see if the deer would eat them and they did. I make my cages about 5 feet tall and a smaller diameter that way this "pruning" takes place and promotes the tree to grow sky ward and not outward. Once I get enough tree above the 5 foot level that is where I make my bottom scaffold so to speak. I then reduce the cage size to essentially keep bucks from rubbing the trunk and allow any fruit to fall outside the cage. I have even seen the cage pushed in when I used lighter weight cage material from the deer pushing on it to get a few more leaves.