Impressive. For a tree that does not grow tall these sure grow fast.

Did you seed directly in the ground, or is that a pot?

we often recommend planting smaller trees .. and here is proof why ....

ken

I got 2 little bare-root redbuds from PA state forestry. One never sprouted, but the other thrived & looks like yours. They are tough little trees.

I planted some bareroot redbuds the size of yours this spring but haven't protected them from deer. i chose them because deer didn't like them! Anyone in this area have experience in this regard??

Deer definitely munch young ones during winter or early spring.

i would call that protection from rabbits ...

i dont get what is all around it??? .... is that exposed soil ... of saw dust.. or what .????

ken

I would call that protection from mice only.

If you want to protect from rabbits, you need a tube at least twice as tall, even taller if you get deep snow. I had a 3ft. red maple get snipped off on fall. I had a plastic around it 11" tall and the rabbit just stood on his hind legs and chewed it off.

We've had rabbits completely girdle a neighbors Pine tree, twice, during summer months. And chew branches off on one of my Spruce, over the last couple of years.

To me that's so weird, I never used to worry about pines or spruce getting rabbit damage in all my years, at least not in the warm months. So I don't take chances anymore. Everything that's small in my yard gets at least some 2 ft. chicken wire staked around it, all year long, until it is large enough.

If I think it's a mouse/vole favorite, it gets even more protection during winter months.

Well I did have a 2ft chicken wire around it but it's started putting on branches that were getting all cramped in the wire. Maybe I should not worry about that and put the wire back around it. I've already had some surprise chews on one of my persimmons too. So strange I would have thought that this time of the year the critters could find something leafy to munch on.

As far the stuff around the bottom of the tree. It's mulched with shavings from a planer. It's inferior to normal wood chuck mulch but it keeps the soil moist and helps to control the weeds & grass.

I've already had some surprise chews on one of my persimmons too. So strange I would have thought that this time of the year the critters could find something leafy to munch on.

I've had the same problem. One of my 1" dia. Red Oaks had a couple of bites taken out of the lower trunk last July and one of my Acers had several bites taken back in April, after the snow was gone and the grass was green already.

The rabbit population is very high right now, (in my area) and I have been told that there is a disease called Tularemia that spreads as the rabbit population gets very high. This disease can make rabbits do odd things not normal to their natural behavior. So maybe that explains a lot of what's going on. It also can kill the infected rabbits and over the period of a couple of years, causes a significant decline in the rabbit population. This is why the rabbit population has high and low cycles every 5 to 7 years. For a couple of years, you won't hardly see a wild rabbit and have hardly any rabbit damage during that time, then as the population increases and the disease increases because of over population, rabbit damage also increases.

Chicken wire is cheap insurance. A 6 ft. long piece will give you around a 2 ft. diameter cage. Two of those 3 ft. $1 plastic garden stakes and you're good to go.

I made this 1 ft. dia. one for a maple and have larger ones for shrubs with branches and smaller trees. Easy to install and easy to remove and reusable. Just thread the posts in & out through the loops in the wire. Sturdy and strong.

Here’s mine. Also from seed I collected from local wild trees.

Two seasons old. Trying to determine best way to prune.

I prefer single-trunked specimens.