ALMOST BEEKEEPING - RELATED TOPICS > FARMING & COUNTRY LIFE

Disappointment in the orchard

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jalentour:
We were cleaning up the orchard last weekend, pruning, weeding, and general cleanup and discovered that mice had burrowed under the mulch and girdled about 1/3 of the apple trees.  Some of the roots had been so badly chewed that you could pull the tree out of the ground with one hand.  The root looked like a carrot. 
We could see the tunnels the mice had used to get to the trees, otherwise they looked perfectly healthy.  Beautiful buds swelling up and getting ready to pop open any time.  The damage was mostly to trees we planted 3 years ago.  All of the trees had a 6' anti-deer fence circling it and a 12" plastic barrier to prevent rabbits from chewing the bark. 
So we will replant and propagate some of the plants and see what happens. 
Such a disappointment.

bwallace23350:
That sucks. You don't think with heavy watering that the trees could make it?

Acebird:
That bites ... Sounds like you could use some feral cats.

minz:
Don?t write them off! Get out there and bridge the bark of the tree, they only need a little bit to get the moisture up to the top.
Google Bridge grafting. 
I was just checking my grafts yesterday so you may be about 2 weeks late but see if you can find a tree in the shade of another tree or the north side of the hill and get out there and save those. All you have to lose is an hour of reading (or now U-tube), and half hour of grafting. 

Rurification:
Ouch!    We deal with deer, rabbits and cats scratching the trees to bits.  Would never have occurred to me that mice could be a problem.   

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