Fruit Tree He11 Has Started

[SwampCat]

Fruit he11 season has started. I have one peachtree in my yard - the squirrels were getting about ten peaches a day. They eat about a 1/4 of the peach, drop it, and get another one. They finally got ripe enough for us to pick the survivors - about 50.


I have about fifty fruit trees in an orchard about 400 yards from the house. the picture below are quarter size nectarines - way early. The squirrels are now eating them. In seven years, I have never picked a nectarine. Two more peachtrees nearby, same age - never picked a ripe peach from them.

four crab apple trees - never picked a ripe crab apple. Two 15 year old apple trees - also never picked an apple off either. Granny smith apple tree so heavy with fruit - limb broke in the last wind

coons will be disappointed - and yes - I have trapped lots of coons and possums, and shot lots of squirrels

out of about 15 producing fruit trees in this orchard - I have picked nine ripe apples

Idiocy - doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

 

[g squared 23]

Any dead standing trees around? I have girdled several around my orchard and they make great raptor perches which keep the squirrels honest. The coons are a different matter


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bowsnbucks]

They sell bulk .22 cartridges fairly cheap.

 

[SwampCat]

Any dead standing trees around? I have girdled several around my orchard and they make great raptor perches which keep the squirrels honest. The coons are a different matter


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No

They sell bulk .22 cartridges fairly cheap.

as I said above - I have killed a lot of coons, possums, and squirrels - but I cant live down there. I live on my land - so I do spend more time than most would - but no - you cant shoot them out - believe me, I have tried.

 

[TreeDaddy]

SwampCat

I apologize, but I have to smile

55% of my place is heavy clay bottomlands that is frequently flooded like yours and we share similar challenges

I feel like the bill Murray character on caddyshack fighting raccoons,squirrels,etc

bill

 

[Native Hunter]

The only thing you need now is for me to come prune your trees for you.

 

[SwampCat]

Couldnt be any worse

 

[SwampCat]

SwampCat

I apologize, but I have to smile

55% of my place is heavy clay bottomlands that is frequently flooded like yours and we share similar challenges

I feel like the bill Murray character on caddyshack fighting raccoons,squirrels,etc

bill

Have you had any luck?

I read all the time that the north has lots of predators and lots of turkeys so it cant be predators that is causing the decline. I dont agree with that - we dont have to put screen around fruit tree trunks because we dont have hardly any rats, mice, voles, or rabbits - why? Because we have so many predators - they kill them all. In six or seven years I have got nine apples off a dozen or fifteen fruit trees. I trap, I use metal stove pipe, I use electrified fence, I thermal hunt - pretty much year round - I live on my place - and I come nowhere near controlling coons and possums - let alone squirrels. Lots of people on this forum seem to grow a few apples - what do they do that is so effective at controlling coons, possums, and squirrels. Thank goodness we dont have many besrs. My fruit is usually gone midway to maturity. My AR Black and granny smith get ripe late Oct - they get eaten late july. I hunt with a tree dog, we trap year round - and thermal hunt to - I sit in a chair many nights waiting in the orchard - still no fruit. Other than guys with bears - I dont read of anyone else who can not grow a single fruit to maturity

 

[bigboreblr]

The metal chimney pipe round the trunk probably works for squirrels too. As long as the trees have enough space they cant jump from one to another.

Make your own perch with a 4x4, or cut a piece of a tree, remove the bark, oil the part in the ground.

I used to get paid by a local apple orchard to shoot squirrels. Over a few years they paid me enough to pretty much buy a new ATV. A few times got around 80 squirrels in a day

 

[Kdog]

I have never gotten an apple or pear off any of my trees and never will no matter what I do. I do get a few blueberries if I time it just right.

 

[Catscratch]

I've got nothing for you Swamcat. Figure if a guy could protect fruit you'd be one to figure it out.

 

[PatinPA]

Fruit he11 season has started. I have one peachtree in my yard - the squirrels were getting about ten peaches a day. They eat about a 1/4 of the peach, drop it, and get another one. They finally got ripe enough for us to pick the survivors - about 50.


I have about fifty fruit trees in an orchard about 400 yards from the house. the picture below are quarter size nectarines - way early. The squirrels are now eating them. In seven years, I have never picked a nectarine. Two more peachtrees nearby, same age - never picked a ripe peach from them.

four crab apple trees - never picked a ripe crab apple. Two 15 year old apple trees - also never picked an apple off either. Granny smith apple tree so heavy with fruit - limb broke in the last wind

coons will be disappointed - and yes - I have trapped lots of coons and possums, and shot lots of squirrels

out of about 15 producing fruit trees in this orchard - I have picked nine ripe apples

Idiocy - doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results

I have 4 plum trees that have been producing pretty well for the last 4 years. I've eaten one nonripe plum in 4 years. Every year I say next week they'll be ripe and the next week they're all gone. Going to have to start picking them before they're ripe.

 

[KY wild]

Have you had any luck?

I read all the time that the north has lots of predators and lots of turkeys so it cant be predators that is causing the decline. I dont agree with that - we dont have to put screen around fruit tree trunks because we dont have hardly any rats, mice, voles, or rabbits - why? Because we have so many predators - they kill them all. In six or seven years I have got nine apples off a dozen or fifteen fruit trees. I trap, I use metal stove pipe, I use electrified fence, I thermal hunt - pretty much year round - I live on my place - and I come nowhere near controlling coons and possums - let alone squirrels. Lots of people on this forum seem to grow a few apples - what do they do that is so effective at controlling coons, possums, and squirrels. Thank goodness we dont have many besrs. My fruit is usually gone midway to maturity. My AR Black and granny smith get ripe late Oct - they get eaten late july. I hunt with a tree dog, we trap year round - and thermal hunt to - I sit in a chair many nights waiting in the orchard - still no fruit. Other than guys with bears - I dont read of anyone else who can not grow a single fruit to maturity

I don't have any help Swampcat but maybe a little input. I use to work with a lady who lived in the city and she fought squirrels for years in her tomato garden. She tried everything planting 50 plants, chicken wire around them, electricity but the tree rats would pick her clean every year when the tomatoes were barely pink. She simply could not over come the squirrels to get fresh tomatoes on her table. On the other hand I live 25 minutes away in the country and I see squirrels everywhere next to my garden, my garden is only 20 yards from a 100 acre hardwood forest. Unlike her I don't think squirrels ever bother my tomatoes and if they do it is not noticeable. I see them in trees hanging over my garden and even running through my garden and run right past my red ripe tomatoes. So why?...... I don't have a clue, is her tree rats missing something in their diet that they desperately need they get from those tomatoes, maybe but I doubt it. I simply think over time they have made tomatoes a huge part of their diet and they have taught each other this behavior, it has almost become part of their culture.

 

[SwampCat]

I don't have any help Swampcat but maybe a little input. I use to work with a lady who lived in the city and she fought squirrels for years in her tomato garden. She tried everything planting 50 plants, chicken wire around them, electricity but the tree rats would pick her clean every year when the tomatoes were barely pink. She simply could not over come the squirrels to get fresh tomatoes on her table. On the other hand I live 25 minutes away in the country and I see squirrels everywhere next to my garden, my garden is only 20 yards from a 100 acre hardwood forest. Unlike her I don't think squirrels ever bother my tomatoes and if they do it is not noticeable. I see them in trees hanging over my garden and even running through my garden and run right past my red ripe tomatoes. So why?...... I don't have a clue, is her tree rats missing something in their diet that they desperately need they get from those tomatoes, maybe but I doubt it. I simply think over time they have made tomatoes a huge part of their diet and they have taught each other this behavior, it has almost become part of their culture.

I think that has something to do with it - abundance of food. Tall timbers plantation proved by increasing the density of cotton rats decreases the predation on quail because a lot of predators find cotton rats an easier meal.

I do believe that possibly this time of year is not a bountiful time for squirrels here. No acorns, no tree buds, no wild fruit - and an orchard with fresh fruit in the middle of the woods. Like deer will often leave corn when the acorns fall - but hit corn heavily in the absence of other readily available food source. A lot of the squirrels I see now are on the ground. I believe that means their favored foods is scarce in the trees where they are safer.

We have basically no small ground dwelling prey species - very few rats, mice, voles, rabbits, quail, snakes, salamanders, frogs, etc. That may well be a reason why our turkey population is more depressed than most states - our coons, possums, and skunks do not have a readily available natural food supply and must forage longer and further and more likely to stumble on turkey nests.

Of course, that is my own hypothesis. But commonly reading about cental and northern fruit growers going to the trouble of protecting the trunks on their fruit trees made me think. I have never even considered putting some type of scree protector on a fruit tree. I have never seen the first fruit tree with any type of rodent damage - other than fruit and squirrels