On 3/17/2014 12:59 PM, dpb wrote:
On 3/17/2014 7:25 AM, micky wrote:
...
...

... [deer] eating
the bark on the tree, about 1/4 o the circumference. Is that
enough to kill the tree?? or to kill branches that start on the same
side that the bark is gone from????

No, but it'll severely hamper its health and future growth.

...

There was no trunk knawing during the summer or fall. Is the recent
bark eating because the snow covered other food and it was looking for
something new and easy to eat that was above the snow?????

"New and easy" doesn't have anything to do with it -- unavailability of
other source owing to snow otoh is almost everything. They do what they
have to do...

Would that imply that I'm relatively safe as long as there is no snow on
the ground??

Not necessarily, though, once they've found a new source altho I don't
believe cherry are high on the list of favorite bark they may well come
back for the blooms and fruit later on.

The tree came with a coil of white plastic around the trunk, that
covered about 12 inches of trunk. I left it on and the dear ate from
the part above the plastic. I have another coil from another tree
that died, so I put that on now, covering 2 feet of trunk, all of the
trunk below the first limb,

Do you think that is enough to stop the deer, or will it push the
plastic aside, or eat from trunk above the limb (which might be harder
to get at.) ?????

Unless it's pretty easy to get loose, as you observed they'll go
elsewhere. How aggressive is wholly dependent on just how hungry
they're getting...

OTOH, God didn't make trees with plastic covers. Will the tree be
missing out on something if I leave that cover on for years to come?????

No, as long as it isn't tight.

Is it possible the bark will grow back??

_VERY_ slowly it'll heal over the wound if it doesn't get diseased or
suffer other damage. But, depending on the actual size (I gather it's
still pretty small) it could take many years.

--

I had planted an almond that rabbits girdled. Thought it was dead but a
branch grew out of the base and all I got were some crumby peaches as
apparently it had been grafted onto peach stock.