Thanks for the update and the pictures! Itâs good to know that your trees healed well. I was curious how they did because Iâve got a ton of rabbit and vole damage to deal with. Iâve got about 200 apple and pear trees in a fenced-in 60â x 60â nursery. The trees are 1 to 4 years old, ranging in size from less than a foot to 7 feet tall, with each one wrapped with a 24â plastic vole guard. Even though the nursery is surrounded by an 8-foot polypropylene mesh deer fence fortified with a 28-inch welded wire rabbit fence, it was no match for the 2 to 5 feet of snow thatâs been on the ground for most of the winter. With the snow higher than the rabbit fence, they easily chewed through the polypropylene mesh, and, in a single night, nipped almost everything down to snow-level (about 30â). The bigger trees are missing big patches of bark, maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the way around the trunk. Oh - and under the snow, on the smaller trees, voles skeletonized everything above - and sticking out of - the plastic guards like piranhas. I saved what I could by wrapping what was still standing above the guards in aluminum foil, made some patches in the fence with poultry netting, and dug a trench in the snow all the way around the nursery. In the process of mending the fence (which took a few days), rabbits got in only once. They ignored all the aluminum-covered trees, and gnawed on raspberry canes instead. Once mended, the rabbits havenât got back in. As for the vole guards, they can only save the wood that theyâre guarding. I wonât know the full extent of the damage until the snow melts. It stands at a little under 2 feet deep right now. Itâs just devastating to see such damage. Heartbreak aside, my concerns/questions are: Will there be new growth (from the scion/variety Iâm trying to grow) if there are no visible buds? Is there anything I should do to keep disease (scab, canker, fireblight) from entering the wounds? Good luck!

The weather is about to return to something near normal. I didn't loose any branches on my citrus tree...just some leaves. The waxy dense leaves protect the wood pretty well. I would be very careful to prune ONLY dead wood, but you might want to consider giving it more time and trimming off the suckers to allow the branches more time to recover.The tree will often take the easy way out and sucker from the bottom. This can cause you to loose the upper branches that might normaly be saved. As for Oleanders....the only way I know of killing an Oleander is to spray it with an herbicide,then over water it to the point of creating a marsh in your yard, and THEN digging it out when the first two don't work. You can trim those to the ground and they will come back with a vengence.

I never used any rapping around the fig trees. I had them planted in pots with lots of drilled holes around. The pots then are planted in a raised bed in the garden. Every winter I used to dig the pots and take them in the garage. But my fig trees number grew from two to 10 and became a daunting task to I never used any rapping around the fig trees. I had them planted in pots with lots of drilled holes carry all these heavy pots to the garage. Last year I waited for the Xmas halalula to get over and the stores put Xmas lights on sale with almost 80% discount and bough a bunch. I hanged the lights on the trees and connected to electricity. (make sure the electric plug is outside plug to prevent fire and it has a circuit breaker) Every body loved the scene and the neighbors told me it looks beautiful. My trees survived the winter like champs but honestly I don't know why? Is it because the lights warmed them up? Is it because we had a very mild winter without severe cold spills? Is it because I am a genius, I doubt this one. Who knows. 0`

Well, much to my surprise, some of the grafts that I put on last year grew fruit spurs, and flowered this spring. Some others grew longer, with no spurs. Maybe those were what the buds were intended for all along, and they just now came out. Anyways, a few flowers on last year's grafts is interesting. This year's grafts have started to really take off. I think I did a much better job of it this year than last. I have a few more scions on the way, so I hope to get those on this weekend, and harvest a few apples in a few years. This winter, I'll try to bring this tree back down to size. BTW - it must've overproduced year before last, then been stunted last year. This year, it is totally covered in flowers. If those turn to apples, I'll have to do a lot of thinning. Fun stuff - thanks for the help everyone.