Do not under any circumstances plant a Sycamore anywhere near anything you want to not be destroyed by roots. Plumbing, sewer lines, concrete slabs, retaining walls...all will be destroyed by the roots of the Sycamore costing you immense amounts of damage. Then there is the leaf drop which after a fall windstorm can produce drifts of leaves many feet high, all of which are a fire hazard. Then there is the high allergen factor of Sycamore Pollen. Then the tree is also prone to rot on the inside, so that the tree falls on your house when you least expect it. What's worse is the tree is hard to kill even after you've cut it down, ground the stump, burned it, dumped round up on it, it'll still grow back. The only thing a Sycamore tree is good for is firewood and maybe woodworking. We recently bought a property with 7 Sycamores on it and so far they've cost us about $50,000 in damages. I've cut down half of them, the others will be gone by the end of the year.

Scott: You have a wonderfully clear understanding of the deer overpopulation issue. Thank you for adding some extra clarity. I also like your idea of the use of salt licks for "birth control." That way no one has to shoot "Bambi." Pam: The cages are quite easy to make, except for one or two points. First, the rolls are terribly heavy. At Southern States here in Winchester, they load them in my Suburban with a forklift, but a very strong young man can lift one. I jockey them back and forth to roll them out and am careful to get out of the way when I get them to tumble out. I never buy more than two rolls at a time to leave room for this maneuvering. I brace them in the Suburban with bricks. After that it is pretty simple. Find a place with some room to piece-by-piece unroll them for cutting. I use some small bolt cutters to cut the wire, securing the free end with weights to keep it from rolling up on me. The next step might be difficult for you, depending on the strength in your hands/fingers. That is twisting the cut ends--just 3/4 of a turn, really--to secure them. I do this at only three points--more is not necessary. I do the top in one direction, the middle in the other, and then the bottom back again, to add a bit of stability. And each side at each level I twist in the opposite direction. Wearing heavy gloves makes this easier. I am 70 with some arthritis in my fingers, so I am not that strong either. My guess is you could make the same number I do, but it takes just a bit of practice. Of course you could use some kind of soft tie wire to secure them--that would not take any extra time. The way I do it adds some stiffness and makes the rolls keep their round shape better. But using the tie wire with a one section overlap should be just as good. That would just require about 5% more wire per cage. I cut each cage at the 19 section point--that makes cages about 3 1/2 feet across at the top (although I am not completely sure the sections are exactly the same with all brands of this wire), which is wide enough to give protection. A very few times I have had deer put their head/tongue through and nibble anyway. In a few cases I have put extra wire--chicken wire around the upper part to prevent this. I also put the larger openings at the bottom--to accomodate the anchoring rocks and to make the openings higher up harder for the deer to poke their heads through. Finally, you really need the taller wire--anything less than the 46 inches will not be enough. Yes, I put these around the trees and just leave them there until they are not needed. Keeping in place them until the trees are 6" caliper is perhaps overdoing it a little. The risk is less after they are 4", but I have had some scraped minimally up to 6". If the bark gets thick, that affords some protection a bit earlier. Black Walnuts at about 4 inches are fairly safe. Tough lower branches at the "rubbing level" can add extra protection with hardwoods. With pines the deer will simply strip all the lower branches off to get to the trunk. --Spruce

Try this for an easy solution.... Air-layer the top portion of the tree. Encourage lower buds to sprout new branches. Remove air-layered top portion and grow it...train newly sprouted lower branches into a bush form. When you remove the top portion of the original tree, dormant lower buds will sprout from near the base of the stem. This may even happen when you are in the process of rooting the top portion. You can kill two birds with one stone, and then you will have two, "Corky's Honey Delight" trees! That's a good thing. Start air-layers while tree is in full leaf and actively growing. Frank

Our mulbrrry trees have been on our property since we moved in so I’ve been using their cuttings. Kentucky Univeracity gives out free pawpaw seeds if you contact the KSU pawpaw facebook page and everything Else I owe to this site!