I put 6 in the freezer last year and there are plenty left. My wife won't let me take the one she named that comes and eats apples next to our house...
Go to the dollar store and get the cheapest powdered Cayenne pepper. Shake it all over the shrub, preferably while the morning dew is still on, so it sticks. They'll learn quick, the shrub is no good to eat.
For my fruit trees I just made round hoops out of woven wire and set them around them, I also raised mine up so that I can mow under and around the plant, and a little piece of drain tile around the base to keep the rabbits from chewing on them. Ill see if I can find a picture.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
I have game cam pics of the deer standing on their hind legs to eat the tops off of trees in 5' tree tubes. I also have pics of them knocking down the tubes.
I have also set little barbed wire fence enclosures around my trees. It works well, but it utilizes a lot of materials AND it is a pain to climb through to weed or prune the trees.
I finally tried the patented GEHAJAKE Elevated Hoops System (as shown on some of the trees in his pic).
It works very well for the tree-deer situation on my farm. I give it two thumbs up!
(I have a $35 t-post puller from Tractor Supply that works superbly. When the trees finally grow out above the deer browsing height, it will be quite easy to remove the hoops and posts, and then re-use them on any new plantings.)
We got one of those t-post pullers. When attached to a front end loader by a chain, it pulls t-posts almost as quickly as the FEL and chain do without it.
"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever." -S. M. Stirling
I don't know if it's because of the ribbons but this morning there was plenty of Deer trail and they didn't touch the Serviceberry (Saskatoon berries).
There are solar powered electric fence chargers out there. That's what I would use. Set up an electric fence around the orchard.
We have a big solar fence charger on half of our property. It easily contains cattle and keeps the weeds burnt off a half-mile (times three hot wires) of fence.
It does, however, have limited effectiveness in the Winter here, with short days and cloudy skies.
"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever." -S. M. Stirling
All the places where I put these white ribbons, especially where there are apple trees have not been touched, https://ibb.co/WDd1mcL A+
Thanks, I am going to try that. I built a very large garden that I really don't want to fence in. The deer have been walking through it but nothing that has popped out of the ground is very big for them to eat just yet. White ribbon sounds cheap and easy which is my kind of thing. (Don't tell my wife I said that. She'll think I'm talking about her.)
since this thread started I planted a patch of blueberry plants and put an electric wire around them powered by solar, and it barely deterred them at all, they chewed em down a good bit, they still alive tho, since the weather has warmed up, longer days and more sunshine it seems to be working a lot better, I also heard of a style of electric fence that is supposed to work great for deer, you put a three wire fence up, I gotta google the dimensions again but seems like on wire about 24" off the ground and another at about 3' then a third wire about 24" to the inside or outside of the other two staggered in elevation from the first two, something about making it a wider fence to jump over and a little harder to slide under. I was going to figure out how to make a standoff to attach to a fence post to hold the other wire out like that, may be able to mow up under the wire and a little easier to put up,,, but alas, I got busy and havent got to it yet.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.
gehajake, My in-laws had a terrible problem with deer eating their landscaping until an old farmer told them to put a single strand of electric fence about 6 inches off the ground. I doubted that would work myself but 4 years later and they no longer have any problems with deer. It sounds crazy I know but you learn something new everyday. For fruit trees at the cabin I cut 10 foot sections of 2x4 fencing wire, drove 2 T post on opposite sides of each tree and formed a circle around each tied to the T posts about 10 inches off the ground to bush hog. I’ve had no problems with deer since I put them up last summer. The T post idea came from someone on here but I can’t remember who did it, maybe RAH?
Turn the power to the electric fence off. Put a piece of tin foil on it, and smear some Peanut Butter on the tinfoil. Turn the fence back on. The deer will lick the tinfoil and won't like it a bit.....
The key to fence away deer is to place 2 rows of fence about 24" apart. If you want to try a low wire perimeter, you should have better success with 2 rows of wire.
"Live your life so that when you sing your death song, you will die like a hero who is going home with no shame to meet the Creator and your family." - Tecumseh; April 9, 1809
gehajake, My in-laws had a terrible problem with deer eating their landscaping until an old farmer told them to put a single strand of electric fence about 6 inches off the ground. I doubted that would work myself but 4 years later and they no longer have any problems with deer. It sounds crazy I know but you learn something new everyday. For fruit trees at the cabin I cut 10 foot sections of 2x4 fencing wire, drove 2 T post on opposite sides of each tree and formed a circle around each tied to the T posts about 10 inches off the ground to bush hog. I’ve had no problems with deer since I put them up last summer. The T post idea came from someone on here but I can’t remember who did it, maybe RAH?
It may have been me that talked about a fence off the ground for mowing purposes, I did that for my fruit trees several yrs ago and love it. As for the wire 6 inches above the ground, that may work great, Ive been doing that at home around my garden for yrs to keep coons and possums out of my tomatoes, a hot wire about 4 inches off the ground then a grounded wire about 4" above that with another hot wire about 4" above it, the whole thing is only about a ft tall but I haven't had a varmint or a deer in my garden since, I just figured I got lucky on the deer part, didnt realize that low wire may have been keeping them out.
All the really good ideas I've ever had came to me while I was milking a cow.