I'm just sick!

[Dan Wombles]

last time I was at my farm, I forgot to close the gates on my nursery after watering my 150 grafted apples. The deer entered the nursery and stripped the leaves off of every tree. Only time will tell if they survive, but they sure won't grow anymore this summer.

 

[chickenlittle]

Dan, Sorry to hear that. Hopefully all survive.

I had some seedlings I was growing out get chewed down to the snow line, 2-3" tall, last December by rabbits. I think all but one survived but they are just getting back to about where they were last year.

 

[greyphase]

Wow, that is a heartbreaker, but if they were growing good and have a good rootsystem developed I'd think that they will bounce back next spring. You'll just be a year behind in their growth but when you start to get to our age every year counts.

 

[j-bird]

Sounds like you need to find those that are guilty and shoot them!

Hopefully they recover for you and all is not lost.....good luck.

 

[TreeDaddy]

been there

losing baby trees makes me wanna puke

bill

 

[35-acre]

Maybe a spring on the gate to close it automatically. I have one on my garden to keep them pesky wabbits out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

 

[Corey Peterson]

That does suck! I hope they bounce back.

 

[CrazyEd]

Sorry to hear that Dan. I can understand your pain. I had some new soil mixture brought into part of my nursery this spring, it was too hot and i lost most of my grafts this spring as well.
I do hope your trees can pull through.

 

[Jhoss]

Feeling the pain here too. Had two nice grafts going - had about 2 feet of growth off B118 rootstock from Fedco. These are now about an inch long above my graft...waskally wabbits. I have thumped two since and now got hardware cloth on them. My chainlink nursery is no match for the rabbit, deer yes, rabbit no. - I havent had rabbit problems in a long time...they must be on the upswing in their population swings/cycle.

The two that got eaten are still pumping growth out of the freshly nipped growth so I have hope they will survive. As far as rabbits go...."choot 'em"!......and protect your new grafts!

 

[buckvelvet]

OH, DUDE!

Lets hope they bounce back @Dan Wombles !

Seriously @CrazyEd that stinks too!!!!

 

[cavey]

I have a fenced in area for my young trees too, forgot to shut the entrance one night after weeding and had a deer get in. Its a pretty tight area and only one way in and out yet the deer was brave enough to march in and start munching. It topped and stripped a bunch of my 4 foot trees. Maybe 25 or so. I don't know how tall your trees are but mine came back and actually did well. They all survived (there were some lower leaves on a few that didn't get eaten which helped). I now top (head back) my trees at about the same height so in the end the deer did me a favor and taught me a lesson about getting apple trees to produce side limbs. I hope they come back for you with the same vigor mine did - pretty heart breaking to walk up and see the open gate and the destruction that results from one mistake

 

[Bowsnbucks]

Dan - Sorry to hear about your trees. I'll bet they come back next spring, though. Hang in there.