Girdle protection
- Thread starter Yarg
- Start date
Prof.Kent
5 year old buck +
Hardware cloth (1/4" steel mesh) works great. Only downside is sometimes you have to remove it to cut off suckers. If not fastened well raccoons will pull it off.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I use this set up when growing seedlings or for grafts during the first year or so.
I can reach in and pull weeds or remove growth from the rootstock.
Most of my bench grafts are planted in their final location, rather than a nursery.
Every time you move them, you set them back.
I switch to window screen after a year or so.
I plant seeds in the garden and promptly cover them with these cages. There are transplanted about 18 months after the seeds are planted.
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cavey
5 year old buck +
The nicer thing about window screen is you can get it tight against the trunk of the tree and depending on how you put it around the trunk. It will allow for a few years worth of growth (while still protecting (snug) around the trunk) unlike hardware cloth. Mice can have a nice little protected home within the open area and have all year to snack on your tree without fear of being eaten themselves.
The mesh does work as mice, voles, & rabbits are not going to get through it but I have yet to have found a way to consistently keep it tight around the trunk. Eventually you will have a mouse set up a snack bar inside the enclosure if not a full blown nest. If you do use it just keep that in mind and do what you can to keep any near by vegetation cleared away to minimize rodents being near your trees. Personally, from my experience - i would stay way from it and stick with window screen as I have lost enough trees in every way conceivable. If my window screen wrap loosens up even a bit and there is any space for a mouse to slip up into it they will....
The mesh does work as mice, voles, & rabbits are not going to get through it but I have yet to have found a way to consistently keep it tight around the trunk. Eventually you will have a mouse set up a snack bar inside the enclosure if not a full blown nest. If you do use it just keep that in mind and do what you can to keep any near by vegetation cleared away to minimize rodents being near your trees. Personally, from my experience - i would stay way from it and stick with window screen as I have lost enough trees in every way conceivable. If my window screen wrap loosens up even a bit and there is any space for a mouse to slip up into it they will....
Appleman
5 year old buck +
This has been a topic that has been brought up many times in forums over the years and I believe the overwhelming outcome is that window screening is the best method for protecting Apple trees from vole, deer, bores, and sunscald when installed properly.
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Appleman - I've used your method for window screen since 2013 and no problems at all. No critters.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
I use this set up when growing seedlings or for grafts during the first year or so.
I can reach in and pull weeds or remove growth from the rootstock.
Most of my bench grafts are planted in their final location, rather than a nursery.
Every time you move them, you set them back.
I switch to window screen after a year or so.
I plant seeds in the garden and promptly cover them with these cages. There are transplanted about 18 months after the seeds are planted.
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These trees may be left in these devices for this next winter and then planted to final locations.
Some of my benchgrafts and other trees in these contraptions will soon be converted to window screen. I can reach in these to pull weeds and to pull growth off of the rootstock. About this time of year, weed growth and tree growth slows in our climate.
The seedlings above might?? Even be put in window screen for the winter.
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When installing window screen and you staple up the whole vertical length and the horizontal length to the trunk above and below you're essentially closing it in and the Staples pop allowing for growth I understand that but what about pruning suckers and lower branches inside, thanks
Take off the screens, remove the growth, put the screens back on before winter.
Bill
Administrator
Yep that right there is why I gave up!
Not completely, ordered some for spring and I’ll be protecting them!!!
silver_yummies
5 year old buck +
Oooofta! Get that window screen around them Day 1!
I am moving some from nursery this weekend, I’ve done it in the past around this time frame with no Ill effects
Bowsnbucks
5 year old buck +
Ouch! Put the window screen on them as soon as you plant them. Screen saves money, time, labor, frustration.
sandbur
5 year old buck +
A few years ago, a friend gave me a tree the rabbits had girdled. It had one bud above the graft Union. I cut it off , protected it, and the tree is doing well.
Tell your friend to protect them, and look for that bud above the graft in the spring.
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cavey
5 year old buck +
This last summer I had a bunny visit and jump up onto my potted out tree racks... Their over 16 inches tall ... I had a few pots sitting up on top of those racks growing out some grafted trees for a member here and they chewed them back much to my absolute horror. Never thought a rabbit would jump up and eat something 2 feet off the ground in a fenced area.
Last year in winter a deer jumped my nursery fence and went on a walk about/nibble adventure and got a bunch of the tops of my grafted trees, luckily I had fairly tall window screen on most of them which protected some buds above the graft. I had to go and open up the window screen and cut down to the highest surviving buds. In the end most were ok. Nothing more nerve racking then seeing tracks in the snow inside your fenced areas.
