r/BackyardOrchard • u/Designer_Belt5562 • 1d ago

First year with new plants

Gallery image

Gallery image

We plan on wrapping them but does anyone else have recommendations? The trees I believe are two we planted at the end of winter first couple weeks of spring.

4 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/beeskeepusalive 1d ago

I would definitely expand that cage circle out if you have deer around you. Deer LOVE to munch on leaves and buds.

1

u/Designer_Belt5562 1d ago

Thank you! The backyard itself is fenced in I mainly just did a smaller round pen for chipmunks squirrels. I could expand fencing though!

1

u/beeskeepusalive 1d ago

Ah, gotcha. Yeah from what I've encountered squirrels won't do much to the trees themselves...until there's fruit on them and then the battle will start. I've never noticed chipmunks do anything to my trees but then again I don't have a lot of those due to the numerous rat snakes around. If you have rabbits they love to munch on the bark of yound trees at the bottom. The screen you have up should definitely prevent that from happening though. Good luck!

2

u/Sp07va000 1d ago

Rabbits are my worst pest for fruit trees. I try to have the fencing come up 2.5 - 3 ft in case we get a lot of snow

1

u/Longjumping-Drop1650 1d ago

Wrap is fine. Otherwise during the winter I would suggest an 8-12” tree guard just as a little extra protection. Make sure to remove it during the growing season to avoid burr knots.