Keeping apples in the tree

[asylum575]

Ok, so for the last month I've watched the squirrels and deers feast on the small apples on my trees. My son has got a kick out of watching the squirrels, but now there are no apples left on the trees.
Now for NEXT year, what do you guys recommend to spray or do to keep the apples on the trees to maturity. I drove by an orchard this morning and noticed their trees are loaded with apples. I live in NYS, lower Hudson valley.

[schmism]

give the son a pellet gun and tell him to have fun with the long tail limb rats.

[dmccarty]

Are they full size apple trees are dwarfs?

My neighbor has quite a few peach trees. The deer and the tree rats eat well.

I have a 6 foot tall fence around the garden to keep the deer out. I would like to plant some apple trees one day and it occured to me that I could expand the fence, run HT wire across the top of the garden and then put down mesh fencing on the "roof" of the garden. The mesh fence is a black plastic fence I have seen in a farm supply magazine. It would keep out the birds and tree rats.

If we ever clear trees to expand the garden as well as growing fruit trees we will have to do what I described or something similar or the tree rats will get the fruit.

If you have full size trees this maynot work as well.

Later,
Dan

[sunspot]

A number of years ago, my wife and I bought a home on one acre in SC. It had 5 mature peach trees and a large apple tree. Spring came and went with a fair number of blossoms on the tree. At mid to late summer came, the squirrels completely cleared all the trees. I think we had like 3 puny peaches that we ate.
The next year I brought in a bee hive and bought a Ruger 10-22. As soon as the blooms fell from the trees, I went into pest control mode. Fast forward 25-30 squirrels and the trees were so heavy with fruit, we had to thin the crop so the branches would not break.

I'm not a hunter and enjoy watching the antics of wildlife but the squirrels became over populated and a pest.

Now in AL, we have some pear trees that the squirrels don't bother and the deer eat the ones that fall to the ground. We get enough for the home so wildlife can have the surplus.

[Tdog]

All this sounds so very familiar. We planted peach trees about 3 years ago & this year we HAD about 24 peaches that looked like they would make it - - till they disappeared overnight - - no seeds or residue of any sort on the ground. Same thing happed to a plum tree, and for the 1st time, they got all our pears too - - overnight, again. Last year we had a gazillion pears & were looking forward to freezing a few more, but nada this year. Gotta be the tree rats.

On another front, birds have discovered my tomatoes. Till now, this year has been my best ever for leaving tomatoes on the vine to ripen - - no bugs or other varmit damage to speak of. Till Saturday - - now anything that approaches red has been pecked at. Birds have not bothered my tomatoes for the last few years - - till now. One of the culprits is a red headed woodpecker, a bird we really enjoy watching. I'm a little less enamored with him right now.

Jack

[Champy]

We had a similar problem with two pear trees in our front yard.......missing fruit every time they were even close to getting ripe. We finally found the culprit - it was our neighbors mowing crew that showed up every week.

The workers were coming across the street and picking our trees clean! My wife talked to them (nicely) - and warned them that we spray the trees with pesticides and that pears eaten directly off the tree would render young males impotent.........no more missing pears!