The tree should survive if you protect it from further grazing by building a fence around it. All my young trees short enough to be eaten are protected with fence wire high enough to protect them from any deer without their own ladder. Al

:)

A deer tromping around the orchard with a ladder tucked beneath its armpit ... the image made me laugh out loud!

Well that's a relief. Ironically enough, only two night's ago, hubby and i went around with soap and a vegetable peeler, shaving curls of supposed deterrent all around the orchard. I guess that's one "technique" i've proven doesn't work - at least for the deer in my woods.

Thanks for the reply. It gives me hope for this lovely tree (it's a favorite, and was doing so very well).

PS: I've been using Deer Out with success (for the most part), but i think they must have gotten used to it.

:)

A deer tromping around the orchard with a ladder tucked beneath its armpit ... the image made me laugh out loud!

Well that's a relief. Ironically enough, only two night's ago, hubby and i went around with soap and a vegetable peeler, shaving curls of supposed deterrent all around the orchard. I guess that's one "technique" i've proven doesn't work - at least for the deer in my woods.

Thanks for the reply. It gives me hope for this lovely tree (it's a favorite, and was doing so very well).

PS: I've been using Deer Out with success (for the most part), but i think they must have gotten used to it.

My apologies for the duplicate post. I got an error of some kind rather than a post confirmation, so i thought the first one didn't go through.

I've had this kind of damage plus having the bark gouged so badly by a deer scratching velvet off his antlers that the tree was practically girdled. But fences are the only thing that does it for me. And deer are always pushing limits, they finally got into a fenced area that had worked for a couple of years and stripped all the leaves off a pear that they could reach, a pear that has been around for 7+ years and this is the first year it had any fruit. I am constantly beefing up or adding fences.:-( My yard looks like a war zone. I have no fondness at all for bambi.

Your first fruiting pear! Oh no. That's a heartbreak and a half, isn't it?

Have you lost any trees entirely, or just suffered setbacks?

I'm trying to gage what to expect, since there are many many deer around me here ...

Meanwhile, i decided to hold off on the pruning just now, though i'll clean up the torn branches with a neat cut. I'm figuring the tree is probably in shock, and likely needs what little foliage remains on the tree to recover.

Is that the right approach, do you think? Should i also snip off the three or so remaining apples?

For now I would just trim the eaten edges up. They say the saliva of the deer is toxic so I like to clean it up. It seems to help the regrowth. Al

Fences are the way to go in the long term. You can fence individual trees or the whole area. We have our whole yard (2.5 acres) fenced 8 feet high and so far it is working, although they can jump over it when they have enough motivation. 6 feet is probably high enough for individual trees.

A temporary measure that works a lot better than soap but that you don't want to put on a tree with fruit on it is eggs mixed in water. 6 eggs blenderized with two cups of water with a little dish detergent. Then strained, then add enough water in your sprayer to make 1 gallon or so. If you put it on when it is dry it dries on the leaves and lasts a week or two and the deer won't eat it.

I know it works because last year I sprayed strawberries and raspberries, but not the ones with fruit, and they ate the ones I didn't spray and left the ones right next to them that I did spray.

estreya,

as calistoga suggests go easy on your cleanup pruning , keep it at a minimum.

i used havaheart deer repellent in conjunction with my inadequate fencing and it kept the rascals at bay until i improved fences. expensive but effective as a temporary solution.

i'm speaking from hard experience last year as between the animal damage and my following inept/inexperienced pruning i surely set some trees back. the worst experience was cutting the browsed central leaders back and watching them die back 1-6 inches and then repeating the act after another browsing. my cleanup pruning was better rcvd by the trees after dormancy.

if i can get some habeneros to mature before the snow in this years extremely short growing season , i also will try to make some homemade repellent. lf it comes together i will report it on gw.

good luck with the hoofed stinkpots !

wildlifeman

Thanks so much for your words of wisdom everyone. I've taken every word to heart.

To be honest, i haven't touched the tree yet. I feel sort of paralyzed by it for some reason. But today, i'll snip off the rough tips and reshape it come winter.

Meanwhile, i've scrambled eggs with water and hot pepper and spread all that around. I snipped a little of my hair and sprinkled that near it. And i had hubby do his in the company of that tree. I'm hoping for a "cacophony of smells" effect. :) We'll see ...

Thanks everyone.

I took photographs today of the ravaged Whitney crab. Front and back.

Is it as horrible as i described? Am i correct to wait on the reshaping, or is it too dire to allow it to remain as is?
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I completely understand your frustrations. I have been battling deer for 20 years. I have lost many trees that that way. I have tried the soap, eggs, and all the other stuff with poor results. If the deer want to eat the tree they surely will. I fence each tree the first 5 years after planting with a 5 foot fence. My dog is by far the best deterrent. My most effective control? My winchester. They are good in the freezer. Good luck. It is a never ending battle.

Seeing the pictures, I think your tree will be just fine. Just keep the deer away from it.

I had a newly planted apple last year which was stripped to look like the lower branches at least 3 times over the summer. I really didn't think it would put out new leaves each time it got pruned, but it did. Was very pleasantly surprised when it survived the winter and is doing well this year. It is also inside a fence now.

I've been using a rink of snow fence a couple feet in diameter laced over a couple steel fence posts. Not big enough inside for the deer to get in, high enough they don't seem that eager to reach over. When the trees get a little bigger, I may have to resort to something else, though.

Half my trees look like that or worse. I'm investing in a fence.

Thanks for your thoughts and shared commiserations everyone. If i had a "before" picture, you could see that entire branches are gone. Just gone! I didn't think they did that, favoring instead the tender new shoots over tough old wood.

Ah well. Although this tree had flawless form before, with gorgeous, evenly spaces branches, come winter, i'll try to recover some semblance of balance to it. I still love it so.

Thanks again everyone.

PS: Wouldn't it be great if we all had unlimited budgets and we could get the "fence of our dreams" installed? Mine would be black iron, i think, with an antique gate and wonderful potted somethings all around.

Estraya,

Get yourself to a farm store and purchase a 100 foot or 50 foot roll of 2 x 4 welded wire in the 5 foot tall size. It is rigid. You can cut off 13 feet, form into a ring around your tree. Fasten to a metal fence post (or two), and the deer will move on. That apple will never be bothered again. You can remove it when you think the tree is large enough to withstand some deer browsing the lower stuff. Also, in rutting season, this cage around your tree will prevent them from killing it with their antlers, probably another treat you have not been through yet!

I really like the welded wire. Also, it is galvanized.

Otherwise you have to do all your planting of susceptible kinds of plants (they love rose family plants including apple trees) inside a smaller fenced area or two - and give up on spreading them out over all or most of the property. The fence needs to be tall enough to keep them from jumping over. And strong enough to keep them from wriggling under. Small ones may also wriggle through holes in coarse mesh when motivated, as did one trying to get away from me.