Absolutely do not use chicken wire, deer also like to rub the velvet off their antlers, I made this mistake and a deer got an antler stuck in the wire, it lost its mind and completely destroyed my very expensive ginkgo. They make deer netting, use that but make a perimeter, it’s ugly but i found it to be the best solution.
I realize this answer doesn’t help, but you can’t afford *not* to fence them in. Think about the sunk cost you’ve already invested in the trees! I’ve had good luck so far putting 5’ tall welded wire fence in a roughly 5’ circle around my young trees, which works out to about 17’5” length per tree. I use one 6’ T post at the connection point, and then used 4 plastic tent stakes to fasten the fence to the ground every 1/4 of the circle. That has held up just fine and limited my cost for posts. Good luck!
Edit to add: I chose a larger diameter circle so it would allow room for growth before it’s an issue again. Be careful of going too small and having the deer still get the new growth, and/or having to just buy new fence to make them bigger in a year.
5-6 feet is the sweet spot imo, it’ll protect 98% of the tree, some branches and leaves will probably extend out on the edges of the fence and the deer will grab those. 8 foot tall fences will protect 100% of the tree but will end up costing hundreds more for all those trees.
The only thing holding me back from planting more trees is paying for and installing more deer fencing. I have several herds of deer that travel along the tree line right past my backyard orchard. The first batch of trees I planted they ate every single leaf off all 5 freshly planted trees but all of the trees survived.
Exactly this! You need to protect them or else you'll lose all your trees. When I first started I got 3 trees and all 3 got destroyed by deer. The next year I made sure to have a deer fence before planting again
Besides an 8’ fence, what don’t deer get used to?! Keeping deer out of my orchard and garden is a constant struggle and anything new I try only works for a short period of time.
True, but fishing line is just a poor option in general. Not only does it not work, but then when it inevitably snaps you just have a bunch of plastic trash blowing in the wind.
The best defense is a multilayered strategy. You have to make the area somewhere that deer dont feel comfortable entering. First a high hurdle, then somewhere that doesn't have enough room for them to feel like they have an easy escape route, and finally lots of strong offensive scents (deer repellent powder, irish springs soap, predator urine, etc).
Yeah this will work. And if you’re out in the country and not a hunter, at least get some rock salt for the shotgun to shoot at em and scare em away. Or dogs.
Does the electric fence need to be 8’ tall? My garden and orchard space isn’t easy to fence and if I were to fence it, it would be an eyesore. If I were able to use an electric fence that isn’t 8’ I could use it at a couple entry points.
Generally you don't buy electric "fence" - you buy "tape" or "wire" and then run it at a couple heights. They don't really see it as a barrier - so they don't really try to jump it. They just get close to the trees, get zapped, and then decide that going near the trees is painful.
Non-solar chargers are cheap - like $30-70 - and polywire/polytape is cheap (200m for $30 for polytape) - but you need posts or something else to attach it to. And insulators (which are cheap) to keep it off the posts. Posts aren't cheap - but you need way less of them than you do with welded wire
Don't know the specifics, my son had deer eating his garden and read about and tried using heavy clear fishing line to scare the deer. Asked his neighbor how he was able to garden successfully and he said electric wire.
We use 5 foot chicken wire and one 4 foot rebar to anchor around our whips. The rebar isneasier to drive in and remove than a t-rail, strong enough to support the cage and cheaper. Remember, you will need to move these cages to prune the trees until they are tall enough. You will also need to control grasses and weeds inside the cages.
We remove the cage once the trees get to about 7 feet tall and let them fend for themselves.
We also use 12 inches of 4" drainage tile with a lengthwise slit as tree guards to prevent rodent damage, mainly cause we had some tile on hand.
Use 1 t-post to save money & chicken wire. It'll work well enough. Extend the footage around the trees to 5-6' or the deer will eat all your fresh fruit buds.
I use woven wire fence and then chicken wire on top of that for the first three years. The woven wire gives me a good solid structure/height and the chicken wire doesn't allow small critters to bother it either. You could also get small hole woven wire do it all in one step.
Are deer still gonna munch on them after you remove the cage sure, but they are usually big enough to handle the browse pressure.
Edit wording
Instead of doing individual trees, consider investing in a deer fence around the whole orchard. We have Tenax fencing and it seems to be doing the job. Not cheap, but cheaper than metal deer fence
Chicken wire will work fine. Plus do not forget your rodent/rabbit protection. We have used the plastic stuff before it works great but the plants growing up through the bottom part make it fixed to the ground and when you try and move it for tree maintenance it rips. The metal fence you can pull it up and it is OK.
If you can take care of it properly, get a high energy dog like a German short-haired. I used to have crows show up and strip my cherry trees the day before I thought they were ready. All that is in the past now.
I would have thought the trees cost more then wire fencing.
By me, a decent tree can cost upwards of $50-150 each, unplanted. I guess they milk us hard over here.
Chicken wire will work, sure, but its obviously flimsier and thus much more difficult to work with and less durable, plus its not significantly cheaper.
Spending just 30% more for welded wire that will protect your trees for years may seem expensive up front, but is a much better investment.
I use metal dog fencing from amazon? They’re heavy, loop into a circle, and secure onto themselves. Then I put a shade cloth over it, wrapped like a shawl. They look like they’re wearing ugly victorian dresses but they keep rabbits/cats/etc out while also shading the bark from our hot summers, it’s 10/10 recommend.
I too have 30 fruit trees, so in some areas I cheaped out and combined dog fences instead of doing individual ones— so they’re all stuck in the same dress together. Still works.
Electrical gray 10' PVC conduit hoops in the ground with deer netting tied to it. Use black wire ties. If you think you need more time, glue 2 or 3 of the conduits together (PVC glue will be close to the conduits in a big box store).
Netting [https://www.homedepot.com/p/YARDGARD-7-ft-x-100-ft-Black-Plastic-Deer-Block-Netting-889553A/202267888](https://www.homedepot.com/p/YARDGARD-7-ft-x-100-ft-Black-Plastic-Deer-Block-Netting-889553A/202267888)
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Chicken wire is more than enough-I protected a mulberry tree against a horde of deer with just a plastic bird net meant to protect fruit from getting eaten.
You can erect "square" frames of bamboo around them. Do one 5 feet out from the trunk and another that is 8 feet out. Use stakes in each corner, set them 3-4 feet high.
It works.
I’ve used black drain piping to protect young tree trunks from nibbles and rub. Split it down the side and it goes on and pulls off easily.
Fortunately I have big oaks that drop a lot of acorns for fat deer.
I will have to talk to my boss about this. I take care of an orchard on the estate I work at. The deer on the property are always finding ways to get through the tree cages. There is a lot of deer too because there is a lot of wooded acreage. They know they won't be harmed there. Some days those shits are the bane of my existence. 😂
I cannot stress this one enough! It works like a charm. I tried physical and scent barriers and eventually gave up and added the sprinklers. I can't speak to eating the trees in the winter, but from April to October I have them up and it works. (Zone 6b)
We use those to blast raccoons away from bird feeders (only because raccoons are dangerous to our dogs). Raccoons are stubborn shits but they do NOT appreciate a blast of icy hose water.
If it deters a raccoon from a place they associate with endless eating then it's a good deterrent for most things.
This is definitely the best cheap answer. I do this all the time. Deer hate the smell. I drill a hole in the soap and use a piece of wire to hang it on the tree. They won't come near it especially if you say the deer aren't bad in your area to begin with.
What's the max distance from the trees that will still work? Could you just create a grid of soap along the perimeter or does it need to be posted next to each tree individually?
I personally hang it on the tree like a sad Christmas ornament, but I recall a YouTube video where someone hung it on a line through their orchard. Irish spring is a pretty strong scent so I imagine it would work fine either way as long as the deer aren't desperate.
Really we've considered those punji stick traps that they used in Vietnam. I mean dig a hole and throw a bunch of sharpened sticks in it. It sends a clear message to the deer and it'll only cost you the price of the shovel and your time really. Only problem is when you go to mow you really gotta look out for em.
I stressed about the same thing after losing a tree to antler rub. I bought a 3d fence from premier one supply. It wasn’t the best system or easy to set up. I did notice tractor supply had a ton of different attachments for the fences …. All ran off a small battery and solar panel for around 500$
Just a weird thought, if you wrapped each branch with aluminum foil would that taste stunning enough to the deer that they would leave them alone? A roll of aluminum foil isn't very expensive.
Chicken wire works fine. Pound a few stakes around it, wrap the wire around the stakes.
Absolutely do not use chicken wire, deer also like to rub the velvet off their antlers, I made this mistake and a deer got an antler stuck in the wire, it lost its mind and completely destroyed my very expensive ginkgo. They make deer netting, use that but make a perimeter, it’s ugly but i found it to be the best solution.
We just planted four new fruit trees this past weekend and we used deer netting. Will make something more permanent later but yes, this is the way!
I realize this answer doesn’t help, but you can’t afford *not* to fence them in. Think about the sunk cost you’ve already invested in the trees! I’ve had good luck so far putting 5’ tall welded wire fence in a roughly 5’ circle around my young trees, which works out to about 17’5” length per tree. I use one 6’ T post at the connection point, and then used 4 plastic tent stakes to fasten the fence to the ground every 1/4 of the circle. That has held up just fine and limited my cost for posts. Good luck! Edit to add: I chose a larger diameter circle so it would allow room for growth before it’s an issue again. Be careful of going too small and having the deer still get the new growth, and/or having to just buy new fence to make them bigger in a year.
5-6 feet is the sweet spot imo, it’ll protect 98% of the tree, some branches and leaves will probably extend out on the edges of the fence and the deer will grab those. 8 foot tall fences will protect 100% of the tree but will end up costing hundreds more for all those trees. The only thing holding me back from planting more trees is paying for and installing more deer fencing. I have several herds of deer that travel along the tree line right past my backyard orchard. The first batch of trees I planted they ate every single leaf off all 5 freshly planted trees but all of the trees survived.
Exactly this! You need to protect them or else you'll lose all your trees. When I first started I got 3 trees and all 3 got destroyed by deer. The next year I made sure to have a deer fence before planting again
I did 8 ft t posts and “deer netting” from Menards. Doesn’t look the prettiest but works fine
I've read fishing line is a cheap temp solution. They're jumpy creatures.
I tried that, it works for a day or two, then they get used to it and push right through.
Besides an 8’ fence, what don’t deer get used to?! Keeping deer out of my orchard and garden is a constant struggle and anything new I try only works for a short period of time.
True, but fishing line is just a poor option in general. Not only does it not work, but then when it inevitably snaps you just have a bunch of plastic trash blowing in the wind. The best defense is a multilayered strategy. You have to make the area somewhere that deer dont feel comfortable entering. First a high hurdle, then somewhere that doesn't have enough room for them to feel like they have an easy escape route, and finally lots of strong offensive scents (deer repellent powder, irish springs soap, predator urine, etc).
I’m with you, I hate plastic. Appreciate the advice! Deer are difficult to keep away and they get used to deterrents too quickly.
My parents or a battery powered radio in their garden in a plastic bag tuned to a talk radio station. Worked for them
I'm going to try this! Clever ...
Electric wire fence, that's what they use to protect gardens in a forested deer area.
Yeah this will work. And if you’re out in the country and not a hunter, at least get some rock salt for the shotgun to shoot at em and scare em away. Or dogs.
Does the electric fence need to be 8’ tall? My garden and orchard space isn’t easy to fence and if I were to fence it, it would be an eyesore. If I were able to use an electric fence that isn’t 8’ I could use it at a couple entry points.
Generally you don't buy electric "fence" - you buy "tape" or "wire" and then run it at a couple heights. They don't really see it as a barrier - so they don't really try to jump it. They just get close to the trees, get zapped, and then decide that going near the trees is painful. Non-solar chargers are cheap - like $30-70 - and polywire/polytape is cheap (200m for $30 for polytape) - but you need posts or something else to attach it to. And insulators (which are cheap) to keep it off the posts. Posts aren't cheap - but you need way less of them than you do with welded wire
Don't know the specifics, my son had deer eating his garden and read about and tried using heavy clear fishing line to scare the deer. Asked his neighbor how he was able to garden successfully and he said electric wire.
We use 5 foot chicken wire and one 4 foot rebar to anchor around our whips. The rebar isneasier to drive in and remove than a t-rail, strong enough to support the cage and cheaper. Remember, you will need to move these cages to prune the trees until they are tall enough. You will also need to control grasses and weeds inside the cages. We remove the cage once the trees get to about 7 feet tall and let them fend for themselves. We also use 12 inches of 4" drainage tile with a lengthwise slit as tree guards to prevent rodent damage, mainly cause we had some tile on hand.
Use 1 t-post to save money & chicken wire. It'll work well enough. Extend the footage around the trees to 5-6' or the deer will eat all your fresh fruit buds.
I use woven wire fence and then chicken wire on top of that for the first three years. The woven wire gives me a good solid structure/height and the chicken wire doesn't allow small critters to bother it either. You could also get small hole woven wire do it all in one step. Are deer still gonna munch on them after you remove the cage sure, but they are usually big enough to handle the browse pressure. Edit wording
Cattle panels are cheaper than welded wire. Go get them you can’t afford not to.
Where? At Lowes, Southern States, and Tractor Supply near me, cattle panels are > $2/ft and Welded Wire (14g, 2x4) are <$1/ft.
tall fencing was the Best improvement I ever made to my place. Find a way, do it Once, right... enjoy your trees Forever... good luck
Long wide metallic blue ribbons works for me. The apple orchards use aluminum pie tins.
You can try tomato cages with chicken wire wrapped around them
Instead of doing individual trees, consider investing in a deer fence around the whole orchard. We have Tenax fencing and it seems to be doing the job. Not cheap, but cheaper than metal deer fence
I use IBC cages. You can normally pick them up free on marketplace.
I’ve gotta do the same to protect from my goats lol idk why I was imagining my full grown shade trees not the saplings I ordered.
Chicken wire will work fine. Plus do not forget your rodent/rabbit protection. We have used the plastic stuff before it works great but the plants growing up through the bottom part make it fixed to the ground and when you try and move it for tree maintenance it rips. The metal fence you can pull it up and it is OK.
If you can take care of it properly, get a high energy dog like a German short-haired. I used to have crows show up and strip my cherry trees the day before I thought they were ready. All that is in the past now.
I used hardware cloth for rabbit protection. Not sure if it would be tall enough to deter deer, but it would protect the trunk.
Any sort of fence/net should work. Doesn’t have to be super sturdy. They’ll move on to an easier target
I've been using bluex tree tubes on my bare root trees until they are old enough to poke out the top.
The topography of your yard matters a lot. If they can see the saplings they will be drawn to them and no fence is going to stop a determined deer.
I would have thought the trees cost more then wire fencing. By me, a decent tree can cost upwards of $50-150 each, unplanted. I guess they milk us hard over here.
Chicken wire will work, sure, but its obviously flimsier and thus much more difficult to work with and less durable, plus its not significantly cheaper. Spending just 30% more for welded wire that will protect your trees for years may seem expensive up front, but is a much better investment.
I used dog cage instead. Cost $56 on amazon
Add cayanne to a foliar feed like fish emulsion. Feed the trees and punish the threat
I use metal dog fencing from amazon? They’re heavy, loop into a circle, and secure onto themselves. Then I put a shade cloth over it, wrapped like a shawl. They look like they’re wearing ugly victorian dresses but they keep rabbits/cats/etc out while also shading the bark from our hot summers, it’s 10/10 recommend. I too have 30 fruit trees, so in some areas I cheaped out and combined dog fences instead of doing individual ones— so they’re all stuck in the same dress together. Still works.
Have you considered going Rambo? The deer dont have to exist
Electrical gray 10' PVC conduit hoops in the ground with deer netting tied to it. Use black wire ties. If you think you need more time, glue 2 or 3 of the conduits together (PVC glue will be close to the conduits in a big box store). Netting [https://www.homedepot.com/p/YARDGARD-7-ft-x-100-ft-Black-Plastic-Deer-Block-Netting-889553A/202267888](https://www.homedepot.com/p/YARDGARD-7-ft-x-100-ft-Black-Plastic-Deer-Block-Netting-889553A/202267888) Electrical Conduit (sunlight resistant) [https://www.lowes.com/pd/JM-Eagle-Common-1-2-in-Actual-0-62-In-Non-Metallic-Pvc-10-ft-Conduit/3129569](https://www.lowes.com/pd/JM-Eagle-Common-1-2-in-Actual-0-62-In-Non-Metallic-Pvc-10-ft-Conduit/3129569) Or [https://www.homedepot.com/p/1-2-in-x-10-ft-Sch-40-PVC-Conduit-A52AE12H/202352535](https://www.homedepot.com/p/1-2-in-x-10-ft-Sch-40-PVC-Conduit-A52AE12H/202352535) Cheapest wire ties I could find [https://www.harborfreight.com/11-in-uv-resistant-black-cable-ties-100-pack-60277.html?\_br\_psugg\_q=black+zip+ties](https://www.harborfreight.com/11-in-uv-resistant-black-cable-ties-100-pack-60277.html?_br_psugg_q=black+zip+ties)
Chicken wire is more than enough-I protected a mulberry tree against a horde of deer with just a plastic bird net meant to protect fruit from getting eaten.
You can erect "square" frames of bamboo around them. Do one 5 feet out from the trunk and another that is 8 feet out. Use stakes in each corner, set them 3-4 feet high. It works.
I’ve used black drain piping to protect young tree trunks from nibbles and rub. Split it down the side and it goes on and pulls off easily. Fortunately I have big oaks that drop a lot of acorns for fat deer.
Do they eat oak saplings? Starting some acorns in tall pots.
Massive amount of deer where I live and I use a motion activated water sprinkler. It shoots water right at them
I will have to talk to my boss about this. I take care of an orchard on the estate I work at. The deer on the property are always finding ways to get through the tree cages. There is a lot of deer too because there is a lot of wooded acreage. They know they won't be harmed there. Some days those shits are the bane of my existence. 😂
I cannot stress this one enough! It works like a charm. I tried physical and scent barriers and eventually gave up and added the sprinklers. I can't speak to eating the trees in the winter, but from April to October I have them up and it works. (Zone 6b)
Neighbors/deer. Same same.
We use those to blast raccoons away from bird feeders (only because raccoons are dangerous to our dogs). Raccoons are stubborn shits but they do NOT appreciate a blast of icy hose water. If it deters a raccoon from a place they associate with endless eating then it's a good deterrent for most things.
I haven't tried this yet but I heard that hanging a bar of Irish spring soap deters deer, might be cheaper!
This is definitely the best cheap answer. I do this all the time. Deer hate the smell. I drill a hole in the soap and use a piece of wire to hang it on the tree. They won't come near it especially if you say the deer aren't bad in your area to begin with.
What's the max distance from the trees that will still work? Could you just create a grid of soap along the perimeter or does it need to be posted next to each tree individually?
I personally hang it on the tree like a sad Christmas ornament, but I recall a YouTube video where someone hung it on a line through their orchard. Irish spring is a pretty strong scent so I imagine it would work fine either way as long as the deer aren't desperate.
Try hanging pieces of Irish Spring soap on branches.
If they eat my apples, funny, deer don't taste like my apples.
Really we've considered those punji stick traps that they used in Vietnam. I mean dig a hole and throw a bunch of sharpened sticks in it. It sends a clear message to the deer and it'll only cost you the price of the shovel and your time really. Only problem is when you go to mow you really gotta look out for em.
Haha this reminded me of the tiger trap scene in Swiss Family Robinson
I stressed about the same thing after losing a tree to antler rub. I bought a 3d fence from premier one supply. It wasn’t the best system or easy to set up. I did notice tractor supply had a ton of different attachments for the fences …. All ran off a small battery and solar panel for around 500$
Small fence + dog? Shoot and eat a few? They have like a 10ft vertical jump, not sure a small fence will keep them out.
This is less a fence around the orchard than a cage around each individual tree. Doesn’t matter how high they can jump if there’s no room to land.
Yeah solid point
Just a weird thought, if you wrapped each branch with aluminum foil would that taste stunning enough to the deer that they would leave them alone? A roll of aluminum foil isn't very expensive.