[hollow_hunter]

I will be getting a lot of white pine to plant this spring. I am wondering what you guys do to prevent the deer from eating them the following winter.

Is there a stink spray that lasts a long time?

 

[CROW MASTER]

I buy white spruce.

The first year I did tree's I planted white pine, I have 2 left out of 200.

 

[pahoytman]

I am almost convinced that if I want to grow white pine I will need to put up a fence. I've planted approx. 400 during the last five years and have yet to get a good stand going. Last two years they pretty much left them alone had some approaching the 2 foot range but then the deer came around during Jan./Feb. 2010 and nibble nearly all of them back to bare sticks,even nibbled a lot of my white and norway spruce too.

Hope you have better success with them then what I have.

 

[Guest]

If you want to plant trees, unfenced, you need to provide a LOT of lead poisoning to the local deer herd.

A few years ago, I went back to a place I hunted back in the 70's. It was full of deer then and you could see forver in those woods. The ridge top was white pines with some ehmlocks on the edge of the ridge and down over the north side. Not a seedling survived, ever.

Went back after the first HR of the 80's and 90's, might have been 2000 or 2001, and there were white pines and hemlocks maybe 3-4 ft tall on that ridge top!

Just took some lead poisoning to allow those seedlings to take off.

 

[Featherduster]

All you guys are right. I have 2 blocks of 25 white pines in each that are 10 yrs old. Snow drifted up on the 5' exclusion fence and they got in and ate all the lower branches. Darn things are liontailed from 5 feet on down. Another excluson area drifted up but it is filled with spruce and white pine. Spruce was untouched. Deer density in this particular area is way too high and should have a liberal application of lead to relieve the problem. My advice is skip the white pine. Forget the stink sprays. They don't work that well anyway. Besides did you read what is in one of those stink sprays?

 

[hollow_hunter]

Maybe I should focus planting the white pine in dead tree tops and brush. I was going to clear the multiflora rose and plant the white pine, but maybe I should spray the multiflora then plant the white pine in the thick of the brush.

 

[westonhunter]

I have seen a higher percentage of my trees making it since HR.With that said, I have also read about stapling a piece of paper to the leader of a youg sapling during winter months when they are most likely to be browsed.You fold paper around the leader and staple into the opposite side of the paper and not into the leader of the tree.You need to staple it tight enough so the wind will not blow it off.I think I would also use something that might weather better than just paper Like cardboard or plastic.

 

[Thumper1]

Like he said-but use wax paper. Cover leader tip and staple both sides. Generally doing just the top/leasd tip is effective. they need to be reomoved in mid-late April. Don't get anxious on nice days in March and remove-deer will still hit them in that time frame.

 

[hollow_hunter]

I never heard of of using wax paper before. Even though it will require more work for the first couple of years, I think it's worth a try. I'm sure Thumper1 would like to see his hard work turn into something other than deer appetizers!

 

[CROW MASTER]

plant the spruce, the deer dont touch them, white spruce (small cone) harder to bite. I am in a heavily populated area & they only rub a few, plus you get a christmas tree every year.