My pet bunnies complete chew the bark around several apple trees. If I make cuttings now and stick them in the ground, is there much chance they'll root? They just started leafing. Would I be much better off just buying dwarf varieties at the nursery?
Probably. If you take cuttings, you'll be taking them from above the graft, which means they won't be on a dwarfing rootstock.
Can you protect the trees with some chicken wire etc, to protect the bark, or is it all gone?
Steve
I would get new trees, plant them inside at least 3 ft high weld wire fence with no more than 2 inches of space between the openings. Then I would cut it into 3 to 5 ft long pieces and circle them into cages and set them out around your new trees.
I would plan on leaving them here for 3 or more years. I didnt know at what age they are no longer fair game for rabbits, but I've heard that deer also love to munch on them.
Good luck. Dwayne
There is a special grafting technique called something like a 'bridge graft' which you can try. You cut a strip of bark from a non-critical place of the tree which includes the cambium layer. You then do a graft attachment to points above and below the
place the tree was girdled (this term describes the damage done). You can probably google for more details on this technique. I have seen examples where this has worked, but you may need some help from an accomplished grafter.
If your original tree was on standard rootstock, all you have lost is a few years until these cuttings develop into comparable size trees to your current damaged ones. I personally prefer dwarf trees for maintenance, quickness to bear fruit, etc. You could also buy some dwarfing rootstock and take a piece of scion (outer branch of new growth) from your existing tree and graft it onto this rootstock.
If grafting is not an option and you have the money to buy new trees or want quicker results in fruit bearing years, I would go with buying dwarf versions of whatever you have lost.
I lost a young tree in similar circumstances one year. Protect yourself by putting fine wire encircling meshes around the trunks of your trees. Make them high enough so that the critters can't climb up a snow drift to get over them. You can also buy something called tree guards, which are coiled plastic tubing that can be wrapped around the trunks. Those however, should be removed after the winter since they
make nice homes for insects. These guards also keep the harsh winter sun from burning the trunks of your trees.
Also, if the rabbits did not chew past the outer bark and into the cambium layer, you may be able to just wrap the area and hope the remaining cambium layer will continue to pass nutrients to the tree, and also the bark may grow back, depending on how badly it was chewed.
Sherw> My pet bunnies complete chew the bark around several apple trees. If
You could post it to alt.binaries.pictures.gardens and put a link here?
Or send it to me and I will post it for you. snipped-for-privacy@geocities.com
If you do send it to me, put a subject with the word 'worm' in it, and let me know here so I will check my email. I don't check my email often, and have thousands of unread spams.
stonerfish
Jellybean,
Sticking these branches of apple wood will not in start a new tree. If it would, you would not get a dwarf tree anymore. The only choice is to hope the tree stays alive long enough to get some dormant (no leaves opening yet) branches and graft them onto a dwarfing rootstock. If grafting is not an option, then you will have to buy new trees. For goodness sakes, put some wire mesh aroung the trunks of all your fruit trees to prevent this occuring in the future.
Sherwin D.
I'm sorry. My response was supposed to be to the guy about his worm pictures. I don't know what happened. I think I will blame in on the software.
stonerfish
Please don't leave us. I picked some little carrots the other day. There were two or three sets of twins that grew spiraled around one another. It was very trippy. But not near as trippy as your videos....womp womp
sf
ok my software is bugged. My responses are going to the wrong posts. Bye, I am off to alt test...
sf
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