silentlou...i'll get out there today and take some pics for you, and post them tonight. The trees on the east side are farther away (maybe 20 feet), but the trees on my south side are probaly 12 feet from where my plantings of all kinds start.I have deer and bear, coons,possums, skunk, fox...you name it, i've got them running through my orchard..it's a freeway! I get the majority of my damage from moles, though..haven't seen too much damage from other animals. I know what you mean about the hickory nuts dropping...mowing in the fall sounds like ping pong balls under your deck! My ground is littered with little holes where the squirrels bury them... My hickories didn't give me anything to speak of this year..they have one huge bearing year,(last year for me), then they rest for a year or two..so this was going to be light year for them anyway, then along came the hail storms and knocked a ton of them down early. I love my woodpeckers..I have the smaller (6" or so) kind in my hickories, and I have a big (14") woodpecker that comes to a dead tree I have on another fenceline..he's been going to that tree for 2 years, so I leave it there for him..it drives my neighbor nuts, he wants the tree for firewood, but I won't give it to him!! Are you Upstate N.Y.? I am between Albany and Syracuse. One other question..how old are your Hickories? I was told by an old timer that years ago, the government(don't know if fed. or state) had a program either during the depression or just after to give people fruit and timber trees if they would plant them, to help people have a future source of food and/or timber. Most of my neighbors have huge stands of pine trees..I guess the people that lives here wanted nuts! Donna

I have a number of thriving crabapples (one a profusion) and apple trees on my property. Apples love it here in Vermont so they usually do very well. However one tree that I purchased, I think it was an American spirit, developed apple scab. I suspect it had been ill treated before I purchased it, and the stress of transplanting was a final blow. I purchased a fungicide, captan, from this place: http://www.treehelp.com/captan-fungicide-8oz/ I mixed it per the package directions and either sprayed it on the leaves or dabbed it on, can't remember. Fortunately the tree was small so I was able to apply it to nearly every leaf. It worked like a miracle. About a year later we had a new waterline installed, and I had to dig up the tree and move it to a different location to prevent the roots from growing into the line. I feared that a second transplanting would be the final nail in the coffin, but my crabapple had recovered to a point where it survived the transplanting without a single wilted leaf. It has tripled in size in the intervening years and is very healthy. This seems remarkable to me considering that during the final transplant I had to slice through a number of roots and even the lower section of the taproot. I guess my whole point is that captan works wonders on apple scab and I would give it a try sooner rather than later. Also, my experience is that you cannot overwater an apple tree. Many of mine thrive in extremely wet areas. They also grow in drier spots, but I wouldn't worry about excess moisture. I had planted a lilac in one wet spot, and it was gradually dying. I moved it to a drier area and planted an apple tree in its place. Both are happy with the arrangement. The lilac came back from the brink of death and the apple is thriving in the "lilac death spot." My profusion tree is the one in the center, and the tree on the right is the former apple scab invalid. Photo is from a few years ago.

Help! My apple tree is having problems. Recently I posted about a problem with little black winged creatures on my apple tree. They were identified on this forum as aphids. I have been spraying my tree with soapy water to get rid of the aphids, however they seem to have gotten worse. Although the ants are no longer climbing on my tree to eat them. But now the leaves on the tree are browning. Help. My tree is starting to look quite unhealthy. What do I do?

Right^-no connection. BTW, gal has provided you with links to apple scab control, and in truth, bear in mind almost nobody ever does these things with ornamental trees. If you look, you will see it's quite a spray regimen. Not what most homeowners signed up for! Nowadays, the overwhelming trend is to seek out disease-resistant varieties, although even this can be somewhat of a moving target, as the pathogens themselves mutate and evolve. Finally, sometimes these older crab varieties, despite their susceptibility to scab, can nevertheless put on an impressive flower show in spring. Think carefully before pulling the starter rope on you saw. One of my son's has this very situation; When they bought the house with the huge yard, etc. there were some decidedly cruddy--looking old crabs. We had planned to put them out of their misery, but then spring came and they bloomed beautifully. For now, they're keepers.