Protecting a line of shrubs.

GoldenTriangleIL

5 year old buck +
I intend to plant a long row of shrubs (american plum, elderberry, roughleaf dogwood, and ninebark.) I have approximately 20 of each and want to create a wall of shrubbery to bisect a former cattle pasture. I am looking at the most efficient way to protect them from browse pressure. I was planning to use short tube for rodent and rabbit protection and fencing for a few years until they can survive browsing. Anyone ever use the "Tenax" fencing? I would prefer not to have to fence individual shrubs. Any insight/experience to protecting a long line of shrubs would be great appreciated.
 
I am in the process of creating a hedgerow/visual barrier to separate farm ground we lease to a farmer and ground where we plant plots. I have planted American Plum in this hedgerow. Browsing has not been a problem, but the bucks rub the hell out of them once they get any size. These have only been in the ground 3 years but the root system should be established so I am hoping they just grow back thicker. Interested in how you are thinking about protecting them and what others have to say about it.
 
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I planted shrubs ( Chickasaw plum, hazelnut, rough leaf dogwood, and hawthorn) along both sides of a CRP strip planted to trees. I did not provide any protection. The browsing was pretty severe on the hawthorn but all have managed to survive and grow. That was nine years ago and my
Deer density has increased. I would be reluctant to plant now without protection of some type. I have noticed over the years that my deer are attracted to any tree I plant. Curiosity I presume. Anything would be better than nothing.


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Protect or replace....is pretty much the rule I have to live by, after trying to cut corners in the past. And I have a low deer density. I tried to "hide" a shrub planting in some fox tail once....I need to go back and cage the survivors....
 
I did a big area, 3 acres and used galleried style electric fence. Which is basically two electric fences 3 foot apart.
I would bet for what your doing a three strand electric fence on a solar charger would work.
 
I'm going to try fencing a row of new shrubs with some plastic snow/safety fence. The fence is 100ft and the plan is to put it around the row about two feet apart and put a few zip ties to close it up at the top. Should keep the deer off them and the price was right. If it works I'll pull it off, roll it up and reuse the next year.
 
I've got a lot of mixed shrubs out in my strips, over 1K+.
Voles/mice seem to do the most damage by climbing and girdling in early winter. For me it wasn't practical to try and protect mine because of the sheer volume of what I have out. The browsing by deer and rodent girdling have set back and killed some but stuff finally is starting to look like something after four years of struggling along. Some shrubs can take the abuse way better than others, for me ROD/pinoak/hazelnut/cranberry are much hardier than elderberry/winterberry/plum/crabs/ninebark/chokecherry.
 
I planted some rows of plums. For protection from the deer I used a few rolls on concrete reinforcing mesh that I had. Made one long skinny enclosure maybe 12’ wide with the thinking that the multiple rows of fence would screw with their depth perception and they would avoid it. That was 4 years ago and I haven’t noticed any deer damage despite high deer densities. There are heavy deer trails around each end of it.
side note, the fence is getting recommissioned this coming spring for some rows of apple trees now that the plums are 6’-10’ tall.
 
We used this netting from home depot to protect an apple orchard: https://www.homedepot.com/p/allFENZ...Polypropylene-Deer-Fence-DF8410034B/301859957

There is no reason this couldn't be changed in shape to work a hedgerow. The T-posts are where most of your money will be. We did eventually take the fencing down because of our own laziness and not securing any broken zipties this spring and summer, and because we found the concrete remesh was more efficient for protecting 16 trees in an orchard. The fencing did do the job though of protecting the area.
 

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My american plums don't like soil that isn't really high quality for sure.I had planted some along a food plot but I think I will spade and move them.If 4-6 ft is enough I like chickisaw plums
 
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