Protecting Young Trees from Deer

This is certainly not my idea, but works well: a circle of welded wire fencing, with one to three t-posts, will keep deer away from young trees.  As noted in my other post on deer, most protective measures have strengths and weaknesses, except for failures, which only have weaknesses.  The balance on this one is pretty decent: it helps.

The first time I saw this in action was at the Shiloh battlefield.  One of the sites there is the Peach Orchard, where Confederates attacked a Union line, finally breaking through.  At the time I was there, the field had just been planted with new peach trees.  Apparently there are deer at Shiloh.

I decided to try this myself, because I had planted a couple of things the deer had ravaged when young.  It was pretty depressing when I thought about the expense and hassle involved in planting new trees using this as a barrier.  I didn't protect the two peaches and apricot when I first planted them; for a couple of years the deer pressure was pretty light. Ditto the blueberry bushes--the deer very seldom bother them, even when they have a ripe crop.  With trees, however, all that I have planted in the last few years have gone into a circle of welded wire (or, in a few cases, some chicken wire).  Usually I use five-foot welded wire, but I have also used five-foot chicken wire and four-foot welded wire (this latter seems too short, except for very young trees).  I originally used three t-posts but now use two.  Some have suggested one would work, but the extra post seems to improve the stability and rigidity of the system.

Here's a picture of the first trees I used this tactic with, shortly after I planted them (two apples).  Those original posts were short u-posts; I've since standardized to t-posts since they're more versatile.  Nothing inside the wire has been bitten, but as the plants grow and stick branches through the wire, they tend to get nipped off.

That's the greatest problem with this approach: The trees eventually outgrow their enclosure.  At some point they have to be able to stand on their own without protection; in the background you can see the two peach trees and the apricot--all completely open to deer (who eat the ends of branches and help themselves to peaches in season, as well).  But for relatively young trees that are increasing in size, it's nice to keep the protection around them awhile longer.  So you have to either get more wire, moving the circle out, or do something else.

Another drawback:  it's hard to do things inside the circles.  I have adapted an approach of hooking the circle shut at the top and bottom, which is secure enough against the deer but which still allows relatively easy access, but it's still a hassle.  This is one of the disadvantages identified by Lee Reich, who mentions this approach as a deer defense in one of his books.

This can also be done without too much trouble for temporary protection.  I have a lilac bush that blooms faithfully every year (it's a traditional lilac, Syringa vulgaris, not a Miss Kim, or S. patula, which is more commonly recommended for the South [though I have a couple of those, too].  One year some miscreant deer browsed through the yard just as the purple buds on my lilac were set to open, and snipped off all of them in one night.  This was when the bush was relatively small, so there were only a few, but once was enough.  In subsequent years, I've thrown a quick five-foot-high chickenwire barrier around it just before the buds are visible, and take it down after bloom (in this case, I still use three posts because the chicken wire is relatively flexible and the bush is getting fairly large).  This is in my side yard and visible from the street, so it's not necessarily the most attractive for the neighbors, but it does protect the plant.  As you can see, the grass grows up inside the circle, but this one is temporary, so not a big deal.  I just cut it back once I pull the fencing.  It's only up for a month or less.  I pull out and re-drive the t-posts every year.  I have been doing this for three or four years at this point.

So that's one thing to do to defeat deer.  My welded wire doesn't do such a good job against rabbits--I have seen them sitting inside the fence rings on rare occasion--but they haven't caused much or any damage.  You can use hunks of septic tank drain piping to protect the trunks, and I have a few trees that I have done that with.  But this approach will work for white tails.

Update:  If you have deer pressure and decide you need to do this, do it.  Don't forget that deer damage trees in other ways, too. Even trees that may not be first choice for browsing can be taken out in one night (at least in the fall when bucks are rubbing the velvet off their antlers).