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Saving apple trees (lemmy.ml)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/homestead

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Hello, i'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but i'm going to anyway.

I have two apple trees from which rabbits ate the bark off from almost all the way around during winter / start of spring. The ground is frosen right now and animals can't get food easily.

The trees are now protected with metal mesh to hopefully save them from further damage, which admittedly should have been done sooner.

There are still small slivers of bark left on both of them, so we haven't lost all hope on them.

My question is, what steps can be taken (if any) to save them? There is still couple of weeks left of sub zero temperatures so i'm thinking we have to move fast with this, before spring officially starts.

Thank you for any advice.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I'm not sure what the right thing to do is but I wish you luck! Maybe an arborist if you can swing it. I got a delivery date for my first two apple trees this morning and at the very least you've provided me with a cautionary tale about wrapping them when they get here.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

For sure, they are so easy to protect, definetly worth it. These were 13 year old trees and were producing a nice amount of apples. I'm really hoping they make it!