Here are a few photos of Deer damage on the fruit trees. They like the fresh new growth.
I don’t mind so much on the trained and Columnar fruit trees as I will soon be pruning the damage out and they favour longer new shoots.
If the Deer had antlers the damage would be far worse as they like to rub them on the tree bark.
However, on the standard trees its a bit of a pain. I have been pruning to encourage more shoots to grow at the bottom half of the tree which is working well…and then along comes Bambi who seems to think all the hard work is for him! If he could just take off a few inches, make it a cleaner cut and think about bud placement that would be wonderful but selfishly he doesn’t.
On the farm we had lots of deer but they didn’t do any major damage, the Muntjac though was a very different story!
We do have deer fencing but I will walk the perimeter soon and figure out where its getting in. We will then sort it before spring. I’ll be honest though, I love seeing him, they’re stunning creatures.
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