Removing cages on Apple trees? And lack of production?

[Barndog56]

Apple Junkie - I've had deer stick their head through and nip off branch tips. It doesn't bother me though as those low branches will be pruned off over winter anyway.

Lots of varieties of apples didn't produce in Wisconsin this year due to our spring weather. We had that early warmup, and then last frost right at our average date. Lots of trees bloomed early and paid the price.

 

[trampledbyturtles]

I tried remesh for the first time this year. It seemed as though the lower branches of my young trees were browsed off by deer sticking their heads right through the larger openings. Does anyone else have this problem? Also, does anyone see rabbits squeezing through in the winter? I do put screen on the trunk to protect from mice, but only 12” to 18” up and deep snows can reduce that height quite a bit, exposing the trunk to rabbit appetites.

It's why I no longer use remesh.

When u get 3 foot plus drifts it dosnt matter how tall your aluminum screen is.
Apple trees turn into cottontail candy in late winter, turned alot of mine into toothpicks over the first couple years.

 

[Catscratch]

It's why I no longer use remesh.

When u get 3 foot plus drifts it dosnt matter how tall your aluminum screen is.
Apple trees turn into cottontail candy in late winter, turned alot of mine into toothpicks over the first couple years.

Same. Does and fawns will push through to get to the tree. It's been hard on some of the smaller stuff I've planted.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I tried remesh for the first time this year. It seemed as though the lower branches of my young trees were browsed off by deer sticking their heads right through the larger openings. Does anyone else have this problem? Also, does anyone see rabbits squeezing through in the winter? I do put screen on the trunk to protect from mice, but only 12” to 18” up and deep snows can reduce that height quite a bit, exposing the trunk to rabbit appetites.

Deer do nip the ends of branches with re-mesh cages at our place - but it doesn't hurt the trees. Usually anything that sticks out of the cages gets trimmed by them. I do the aluminum window screen on the trunks to a height of 24" to 30" for snow depth. We don't really have a rabbit problem at camp - more big woods than rabbit country. Any visiting rabbits most likely get hammered by foxes, coyotes, hawks, or bobcats.

Concrete re-mesh cages are pretty good deer protection for us. Haven't lost a tree to deer. Bears ........... lost a couple.

 

[Native Hunter]

The same thing happens to an apple tree that is not protected, and it doesn't matter how big it gets.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

In my area rabbits are non existent. Just to many predators. I cant even remember the last time I have seen a rabbit. I see plenty of squirrels. no rabbits.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

The same thing happens to an apple tree that is not protected, and it doesn't matter how big it gets.

I feel bad about your tree damage, Native .................. but I'm envious too, looking at the size of the rub. Bittersweet sign in your "jungle."

 

[Hoytvectrix]

Are you talking a full sized cage or something that wraps the trunk? The nice thing about remesh is you can make cages with only one t post if you want, with multiple t post you can hold the remesh off the ground a foot or so and predators can get in tighter to the trunk area control mice and you can have better mechanical weed control by also holding it off the ground.

You could do the same with chicken wire it would just take 3-4 t posts. So no reason chicken wire wouldnt work but I think it will be the same price ish per foot well the old prices of remesh anyways now that could be a cheaper option.

If you are talking about a tight diameter cage to protect the trunk from rubbing that would work for rabbits and bucks but, if its on the ground you will get weeds back there and more importantly/disaster wise you will make a safe haven for mice nest behind the chicken wire ( I learned that the hard way).

I was mostly referring to around the trunk after the remesh cages are removed.

I've also been toying with the idea of adding the chicken wire to the base of the remesh cages. It seems like a cheaper solution to help provide some rodent protection, and at the very least protection from bucks.

 

[cavey]

I was mostly referring to around the trunk after the remesh cages are removed.

I've also been toying with the idea of adding the chicken wire to the base of the remesh cages. It seems like a cheaper solution to help provide some rodent protection, and at the very least protection from bucks.

Some have wrapped chicken wire around the remesh to prevent deer from browsing in between the squares mid height up, i know that has been posted before. Just be careful that you dont create a pocket between the wire and trunk for mice to hang out in. I had them make nests and had all winter to camp out in that protected area and munch on the trunks.

 

[b116757]

I’m curious on your tree verities and spacing of the trees. I don’t doubt you have lack of sun problem but I wonder if your even getting proper pollination.

 

[cavey]

I believe he is north of me, this season was one of the worst ever for apples around here.... the vast majority of my trees never set fruit this year we... had a number of and an extended period of freeze thaw freeze thaw repeat kill the blossoms cycles this spring that destroyed the WI apple crops state wide. It happens and we will have to deal with it as we keep having warmer earlier springs with cold cycles. Early bud break and blossoming with those cold snaps in between ='s bad news. Plant more with differing blossom times is all I can recommend for this issue especially us northern guys. I think he might have some lake effect up there for temp stabilization but, Im 100% sure on the frost issues this year. Everyone got hit.

 

[Thetrooper]

I have a 26 tree block of apple/pear that are 10 years in the ground but were bought as 5-6ft trees in 3 gallon pots so their real age is probably 12-14 I would guess. The cages came off of them 2 years ago havent had any problems with rubbing and we have very high deer density.
Most of the trees are standard or semi dwarf trees so they're all pretty big. Once the bark gets really gnarly and thick/wrinkled they seem to lose some appeal to the bucks. Definitely taking a risk with it but most these trees are thicker than your thigh. I took off any edible sized branches below the 5ft mark before uncaging so the deer didnt do it for me.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I’m curious on your tree verities and spacing of the trees. I don’t doubt you have lack of sun problem but I wonder if your even getting proper pollination.

I have many different variety’s of crab and regular apples. Whitney, Kerr, Chestnut, among other. I have State fair, FireSide, Liberty, Harlson, Woodard, Northern lights, Beason, Zeststar, and more.

If anything they are planted to close. 15-20 feet on average. I do have a couple separate clusters about 50-75 yards away.

Cavey, yes it was a messed up spring, and very dry summer. I hope I can improve things by opening it up to more sun.

I am in line between Hinkley MN, and Hayward Wi.

 

[wooduck]

I have many different variety’s of crab and regular apples. Whitney, Kerr, Chestnut, among other. I have State fair, FireSide, Liberty, Harlson, Woodard, Northern lights, Beason, Zeststar, and more.

If anything they are planted to close. 15-20 feet on average. I do have a couple separate clusters about 50-75 yards away.

Cavey, yes it was a messed up spring, and very dry summer. I hope I can improve things by opening it up to more sun.

I am in line between Hinkley MN, and Hayward Wi.

You are not that far northeast of me located just north of Cambridge ,, one thing that jumps out to me if there are no fruit buds that swell in spring , frost is not the problem you have to have a fruit bud in spring for frost to effect , pollination is not it if no fruit buds nothing to pollinate your problem has to be cultural in the proceeding season .. open up for more sun , do some winter pruning sometimes will stimulate more growth,,, are the majority of your branches straight up and down horizontal branches will have three times as many fruit buds , you may have to train some branches to be more horizontal and prune out the vertical ,, commercial orchards spend alot of time developing horizontal branches using limb spreaders and or weight to get the branch more horizontal

We have bee hives here at peak bloom maybe 20 per cent of (bees) in the trees are honey bees the rest are native pollinators if you have a diverse habitat which you have to there are enough wild bees to set a crop load .. you may be zone 3 look up your trees to see if hardy thru zone 3 , we are zone 4 and do have some off seasons

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I am in zone 3b, some of the trees were listed as zone 4, but most were zone 3. I usually trim the trees every other year, and I will trim dead branches, branches that grow inward, and branches growing vertical, other then the main leader. I never trained any of them, but that can be something else I can try to do this spring. Most of these trees are 15-20 feet tall, so I won’t be able to reach many of the branches.

I will admit I haven’t spent much time in the spring inspecting for flowers, but I am pretty sure the ones that didn’t have apples, didn’t have any flowers on them either. This will be my first spring living on the property, so I will be able to pay more attention to them, and have more time to work with them better.

 

[cavey]

I have over a 124 varieties on varying ages of trees many annual bearers in all stages of good and bad pruning, vast majority are in the open at 25-30 foot or more spacing, differing elevations and had 90% plus lack of fruit set this year. The radical spring freeze thaw cycles we saw with wide range of temps took out the fruit sets pre blossom and those that did blossom took the biggest hammering. I saw more end branch/tip damage too on the trees, pretty evident die back on some. I lost a large percentage of my field grafts too this spring. And I have bees. The annual fruit trees apart from those that blossom way late got hit the most it seemed.

The local commercial growers I have spoken to all say the same thing - horrible spring across the whole state.

I live in fear of those types of springs.... I have learned to just walk by the trees and hope they get through it to produce.

 

[Bowsnbucks]

I live in fear of those types of springs....

Agreed. And with the crazy temperature swings we've been having here, I wonder what the spring will bring. My neighbor was just out on his riding mower - grass still green and growing here - but slower than earlier fall. It's supposed to be up near 70 later this week. My wife's flowers are still blooming - 12 days before Christmas!!!!!! Never saw such a thing here.

My potted apple seedlings from Sandbur still have some leaves left on them too!!!

 

[Derek Reese 29]

Agreed. And with the crazy temperature swings we've been having here, I wonder what the spring will bring. My neighbor was just out on his riding mower - grass still green and growing here - but slower than earlier fall. It's supposed to be up near 70 later this week. My wife's flowers are still blooming - 12 days before Christmas!!!!!! Never saw such a thing here.

My potted apple seedlings from Sandbur still have some leaves left on them too!!!

the dormant trees I got from NWC in November still mostly have leaves...at least they have their colors changed anyway...

 

[4wanderingeyes]

We have snow on the ground, but we are suppose to get rain, tonight and tomorrow and 53 tomorrow.

I would rather have +53, then -53, which it hit a couple years ago.

I am in my 50’s, and I can remember many warm winters with hardly any snow, then a couple years later we get -30 below for 2 weeks in a row. Temperatures change, weather changes, and so does the climate. It has for thousands of years. I remember in the 70’s the hype was we were coming into a new ice age, and Canada and 1/3 of the central US would be covered with ice in the next couple decades.

I know I partied the 80’s away, but I don’t remember it happening.

If anything I think winter is coming later, and spring is coming later as well.

 

[sandbur]

We have snow on the ground, but we are suppose to get rain, tonight and tomorrow and 53 tomorrow.

I would rather have +53, then -53, which it hit a couple years ago.

I am in my 50’s, and I can remember many warm winters with hardly any snow, then a couple years later we get -30 below for 2 weeks in a row. Temperatures change, weather changes, and so does the climate. It has for thousands of years. I remember in the 70’s the hype was we were coming into a new ice age, and Canada and 1/3 of the central US would be covered with ice in the next couple decades.

I know I partied the 80’s away, but I don’t remember it happening.

If anything I think winter is coming later, and spring is coming later as well.

I know that safe ice for fishing is coming later. I am straight west of you and half way across the state.


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