15 feet or 15 inches???? can a deer rub a 15 incher? i am sooo confused .... lol ...

i would wait to see how they recover this spring.. and perhaps in fall .. remove duplicate leaders ....

or ... it may take a year or two to develop more...

good luck

ken

Yes, they are about 15 inches tall, not 15 feet.

Over the last couple of years quite a few of our small spruces have been rubbed by deer. All have survived so far, but many of them are missing branches or leaders. The bars of soap have not kept the deer away.

So far the bent or broken leaders are still green, but I'm guessing once spring arrives they will turn brown.

Thanks

MA

at this size ... its hard to do much more than wait...

on a bigger plant.. you could pull up the longest branch in the prior whorl.. and tie it to the broken leader, so as to quicken the re-establishment of a new leader ... but yours are so small i dont know if it could be tied ....

i find it hard to believe that deer have 'rubbed' a plant that small .... maybe stepped on it??? maybe chewed on it... but rubbed it????

once established.. your spruce will take off and with a little training/pruning.. they will be fine..

ken

I had deer destroy, and I mean "destroy," a number of my little conifers--white pine and Norway spruce. This may not be buck rubbing as such, but they thrashed these things with their antlers, in several cases, right to the ground--there was only a half inch stub left.

You need to fence these--don't fool around with any soap or anything.

I see no advantage to doing anything with these trees. It is my opinion that trying to tie up any side branch is a waste of time. The trees will do what they want, and that will be best. Either they will sprout a new leader from a bud or tiny twig near the center of the tree and it will grow into a new leader, or the tree, all on its own, will decide that it wants a side branch to take over. If that is what the tree wants, it will move that side branch into an erect position all by itself and in the end it will be as straight as if it were tied up. Just leave these trees alone, except for protecting them, and after two or three years, cut off any duplicate leaders.

--Spruce

Thanks Ken and spruceman for your responses. Much appreciated!

I'm neither a deer or conifer expert but I think it's got to be deer rubbing, or at least some kind of antler work. Many of the "rubbed" branches are still attached, just broken from the main stem, while others are detached and laying on the ground. The damage usually seems confined to a single side of the small trees. One side is full and bushy and the other side is damaged. I checked this morning and one of the worst damaged white spruces seems to be turning mostly yellow or brown. The damage doesn't appear to be fresh, so it may have happened in very late fall or early winter.

I will look into wire cages, but there are about 40 or so small spruces on the property as windbreaks, so it may not be practical to place wire around all of them.

Thanks for the insight and the feedback. =)

MA

if sharply cut and laying there.. consider bunnies ... ken