Howdy, I'm in western NJ (Hunterdon County) and have a small, not quite sure
what type Maple tree that has at times, (last fall most recent,) fallen prey
to male deers, (rubbed.)

I've posted some pics he http://www.pbase.com/hiker/tree

Is this something I need to treat? If so how/what to do?

Thanks, I appreciate any feedback.

In article et, "BE"
wrote:

Howdy, I'm in western NJ (Hunterdon County) and have a small, not quite sure
what type Maple tree that has at times, (last fall most recent,) fallen prey
to male deers, (rubbed.)

I've posted some pics he http://www.pbase.com/hiker/tree

Is this something I need to treat? If so how/what to do?

Thanks, I appreciate any feedback.

I've been having this same problem. One birch had been visited at least
two years in a row in the antler-shedding seasons & the bark is rubbed off
two-thirds of the way around. Those bucks seem to remember where they did
it before & return to rub the same tree -- & that means your maple could
be at risk of a return rub so that a wound it might heal will not be
permitted to do so, but will be made larger.

In the past couple of weeks, an apple tree &amp another birch had major
limbs broken off by the elk. For one tree, it looked like an elk had to
stand on its hind feet to break off the limb about eight feet up,
apparently so as to bring down & eat fresh young leaves that had just
emerged at the top of the limb only.

Our general attitude at SinLur Gardens has been to tolerate the elk bands
& plant in such a manner as to not be feeding them on purpose. Apart from
breaking or rubbing trees the only plants they've eaten to the point of
destruction are the roses, which aren't my favorite things anyway. A large
area of muscaris they also ate off all the flowers & some of the muscari
grass, so an area with lots of blue flowers one morning suddenly had not
even one blue flower. Annoying, but not the end of the world.

They haven't ruined much that was done in permanently, but I sort of feel
like I'm waiting for them to destroy something really wonderful, THEN
it'll be interesting to see how tolerant I & the owners of SinLur feel. So
I felt the need to ask around the county among some grower friends, plus
do some on-line investigating, to see if any product, amidst many that are
complete hokum, is notably effective at repelling deer & elk.

There are many local growers whose extensive fields of ornamental stocks
are at considerable risk from elk & deer here in Kitsap County. I've
talked to three growers who swear by a product called Plantskydd (these
growers are not vendors so they have no invested reason to tell me the
stuff works). Three satisfied users does not a field study make, but it
got me interested in checking out the product.

A study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research in 1999,
& a forestry industry study in Canada in 1994, showed the product to be an
effective deer, moose, elk & rabbit repellant for up to six months between
applications. The Plantskkydd website reproduces the complete texts of
some of the studies so that it's possible to judge whether their own
paraphrases of the "proofs" are fudged; that was good information, though
the numerous gardener "testimonials" are meaningless; if personal
testimonials meant anything real, then sasquatches are certainly real. But
independent field studies provide valuable info.

Numerous studies have shown that bloodmeal is a genuinely effective
repellant, but nasty-tasting stuff like garlic & pepper sauce & all sorts
of similar recipes are next to worthless. Bloodmeal is available cheaply
apart from a product like Plantskydd, which uses bloodmeal as its active
ingredient, but isn't cheap. The local growers however claim the
Plantskydd honestly doesn't need application very often, while the
manufacturer claims that as a foliar spray it functions as fertilizer, so
from the plants' point of view it's just a nice organic component of a
healthful environment.

-paghat the ratgirl
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
people maintaining a free civil government." -Thomas Jefferson

"BE" wrote in
nk.net:

Howdy, I'm in western NJ (Hunterdon County) and have a small, not
quite sure what type Maple tree that has at times, (last fall most
recent,) fallen prey to male deers, (rubbed.)

I've posted some pics he http://www.pbase.com/hiker/tree

Is this something I need to treat? If so how/what to do?

Thanks, I appreciate any feedback.



Ouchie. Not a whole lot you can do, really. It's best to just leave it be
and hope it will callous over in time. If deer are still browsing in your
area you can wrap the lower trunk in 'hardware cloth' or chickenwire,
leaving some room of course between the barrier and the trunk. Most garden
centers/Bloated Orange Retail Groupings have 'deer barrier' which is a
plastic shielding with which you wrap the lower trunk.

--
David J. Bockman, Fairfax, VA (USDA Hardiness Zone 7)
email:
http://beyondgardening.com/Albums

plant a whole bunch of large ferns around the base of the trees....ALL your
trees, if you can. whilst deer will eat hostas, they HATE ferns and the
ferns' roots will not disturb the tree's roots. you can try it on one tree
and see how it fares, and then work on the others.
by large ferns, i'm not talking about fiddlehead ferns....more like the
maiden-ferns.

good luck.

From: "BE"
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 22:01:31 GMT
Subject: Tree help?

Howdy, I'm in western NJ (Hunterdon County) and have a small, not quite sure
what type Maple tree that has at times, (last fall most recent,) fallen prey
to male deers, (rubbed.)

I've posted some pics he http://www.pbase.com/hiker/tree

Is this something I need to treat? If so how/what to do?

Thanks, I appreciate any feedback.

In article , RAINDEAR
wrote:

plant a whole bunch of large ferns around the base of the trees....ALL your
trees, if you can. whilst deer will eat hostas, they HATE ferns and the
ferns' roots will not disturb the tree's roots. you can try it on one tree
and see how it fares, and then work on the others.
by large ferns, i'm not talking about fiddlehead ferns....more like the
maiden-ferns.

Round here the elk LOVE the native deerferns, so-called because of what
eats them. The elk go through an extensive area of wild huckleberries
surrounding SinLur Gardens, & though to my astonishment they eating none
of the berried bushes, they completely do away with the swordfearns &
deerferns. But comparing notes with others I'm fast coming to conclusion
that different "families" of these animals have completely different
favorites place to place. At SinLur the elk don't eat the rhododendrons;
but others have told me they have to net the rhodies in winter or they'll
be eaten to nubs.

-paghat the ratgirl


From: "BE"
Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Date: Fri, 29 Apr 2005 22:01:31 GMT
Subject: Tree help?

Howdy, I'm in western NJ (Hunterdon County) and have a small, not quite sure
what type Maple tree that has at times, (last fall most recent,) fallen prey
to male deers, (rubbed.)

I've posted some pics he http://www.pbase.com/hiker/tree

Is this something I need to treat? If so how/what to do?

Thanks, I appreciate any feedback.


--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
people maintaining a free civil government." -Thomas Jefferson

I agree that you should just let the tree repair itself. You can help it out by removing more grass under the tree and making your circle of mulch larger. That way the tree won't have to compete with the grass for moisture. Take a look here.
http://www.mortonarb.org/research/treeroots.html
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/WO017
http://www.treesaregood.com/treecare/mulching.asp
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG089

You might be able to id the type of maple you have from here.
http://woodyplants.nres.uiuc.edu/plant/?g=Acer

Newt

"BE" wrote in message
nk.net...

Thanks all for the replies.