I saw an article on some DIY site about some stiff black plastic tubing or pipe to use as tree protection from deer. I can't find the site or anything like that online. I would like to get something sturdier than the spiral plastic that I have. Deer scraped the bark off of two apple trees for me last year, so I would like to save the ones that I planted this year. Anyone have any ideas on some kind of tubing or pipe?
Tree Protectors
The problem with more rigid protectors is getting them off as the trunk grows. Deer destroyed our apple trees with the flexible ones. Next time around I will split a more rigid plastic in half, drill holes near the edges of the splits, and hinge both splits with wire through the holes.
That was my thought too, but what kind of rigid plastic do you use? PVC pipe?
I haven't done it yet but maybe PVC. Corrugated septic pipe has seepage holes which would probably be better for the trees ventilation-wise. I'm not sure whether it would be rigid enough to split and hinge though. Either way, it's pretty hideous if your trees are part of the yard/garden landscape, like mine, because deer will scrape as high as they can reach.
Mine are pretty small yet, some 3 feet tall and some maybe 7-8 feet. I have a small orchard that I started a few years ago so nobody sees them, they are in an old cattle yard. I'm going to go to the hardware store today to see if they have anything else that can be used. I have heard that white plastic is better than black.
Well, it was too late for one of my Gala apple trees. Went to check raspberry bushes yesterday and our little buck 'friend' had scraped almost all the bark off one of my little Gala Apple trees. So frustrating. DH cut a PVC pipe to put around it, sort of too late, but he wanted to try to save it. We tied it up with a few zip ties. I had some shredded paper from work so I put that around all the other trees and draped some off the branches. It looked like the Spanish moss from down south, so I hope it at least keeps bucky away until we can get more PVC pipe this weekend. PPFFTT
We tried and failed at salvaging our trees. The damage to the top scion caused the trees to sprout below the graft. No desirable fruit would ever be produced.
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