3 Most OVERRATED Trees for Whitetail Deer

[THE LLC]

Agree again. Kieffer pears are the go-to for me but I have had some get the fire blight. Bad. Run of the mill, church yard Chinese chestnuts planted in the 50’s to replace the dying Americans are a slam dunk. And, of course, the common persimmon. Hard to go wrong with them.

 

[lakngolf]

Had the opportunity to tour LLC's property. When it comes to trees...Well let's just say he and Native H would get along just fine. LLC got one heck of a green thumb on crabs, apples, pear, sawtooth and chestnuts. Showed me how to graft apples. Tried it on my own and not a durn one of em took. Blaming it on the rootstock.

Native and LLC have that magic touch on grafting. I'm gonna re-study their methods and try Pears again real soon.
I thoroughly enjoy the knowledge so many on the forum are willing to share. It is good to have a go to source to counter the "experts". Thanks much

 

[Long Cut]

Thanks for reminding me to purchase Gobbler Sawtooth's to plant this Spring. Debating on how many Pears & Persimmon I want to add. Time isn’t in my favor this year..

 

[j-bird]

Anybody else see his top 3....#1 - persimmons, #2 - pear, #3 - Chinese chestnut.

I find this sort of interesting. First of all...chestnut, is pretty much chestnut as far as I am concerned. Yes if it will be more like the native chestnuts then I would prefer that, but as far as feeding deer go I doubt it matters. I am not sure how one variety can be SO over-rated while the other is a top favorite. I also find it interesting that he bashed apples, but promotes pears. To my knowledge most pears have already dropped most of their fruit before many gun seasons even open across the country (my firearms season doesn't start until mid November). I have heard that pears are easier to grow, but again it seems like giving a lot of value on marginal differences. As far as persimmons go.... On my property I'll take my sawtooth oaks over my persimmons. Yes I have both, but the non target species seem to get to the persimmons well before they drop from what I have seen. Don has seen a lot more than I so...take my opinion for what little it's worth. I just thought he put a lot of weight on pretty minor details. I can think of a whole lot worse things to plant for deer than sawtooth, apples and dunstan chestnuts! I think somebody tried to pick the fly $hit from the pepper a little too much.

 

[THE LLC]

Lot depends too on if you are wanting to feed your deer or “bait” them. I like some food sources that won’t be good during actual hunting time but will feed in late summer when growth has hardened off, or early spring before stuff greens up. I’d think a lot different if all I wanted was something to shoot a deer over.

 

[Chainsaw]

Lot depends too on if you are wanting to feed your deer or “bait” them. I like some food sources that won’t be good during actual hunting time but will feed in late summer when growth has hardened off, or early spring before stuff greens up. I’d think a lot different if all I wanted was something to shoot a deer over.

Good point LLC. And it demonstrates one of the regional differences. Here there is no late summer low point in food; apple and crops fill that void. And in winter apple trees reign either with late holding apples or low hanging browse to help feed deer thru January and February. Now if there is a persimmons that can take minus 35 degree temps every once in a while, I'd jump on it. The more kinds of food we can have for the deer during all periods of the year, the better. There is a lull around March in food and dropping poplars and having rye grain planted on south slopes helps the deer here a lot.

And I am not deaf to pears, I am planting lots of them based on what all of you guys in a different region than us are telling us.

 

[weekender21]

Anybody else see his top 3....#1 - persimmons, #2 - pear, #3 - Chinese chestnut.

I find this sort of interesting. First of all...chestnut, is pretty much chestnut as far as I am concerned. Yes if it will be more like the native chestnuts then I would prefer that, but as far as feeding deer go I doubt it matters. I am not sure how one variety can be SO over-rated while the other is a top favorite. I also find it interesting that he bashed apples, but promotes pears. To my knowledge most pears have already dropped most of their fruit before many gun seasons even open across the country (my firearms season doesn't start until mid November). I have heard that pears are easier to grow, but again it seems like giving a lot of value on marginal differences. As far as persimmons go.... On my property I'll take my sawtooth oaks over my persimmons. Yes I have both, but the non target species seem to get to the persimmons well before they drop from what I have seen. Don has seen a lot more than I so...take my opinion for what little it's worth. I just thought he put a lot of weight on pretty minor details. I can think of a whole lot worse things to plant for deer than sawtooth, apples and dunstan chestnuts! I think somebody tried to pick the fly $hit from the pepper a little too much.

The wildlife group sells several pear species that allegedly (mine are too young) drop November-December.

I agree, no significant difference between his overrated and favorite. Just click bait to attract more viewers to the channel. I don’t think any of his info was horribly inaccurate but nothing you couldn’t have easily found on this forum, and a few others.


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[Long Cut]

I’m bored at work and the calls haven’t been rolling in yet, so I’ll over-explain my opinion here.

Chinese Chestnuts, Persimmons & Pears are pretty durable trees that just about any idiot with a shovel and a dream can plant.

Being a Horticulture/Fire/EMS background, I understand the physical and mental barriers many of us face. Some folks have green thumbs, others black. Don chose a safer path to recommend to both grow and draw deer in. So he looks good making this recommendation.

Now..
What are your goals for planting said trees? To hunt over, fill a nutritional void, add more diversity? What are your physical & financial capabilities here? Equipment, soil type, adjacent properties habitat types...
So many variables here go into properly choosing a species, cultivar/variety, drop times etc.

Personally, a mid/late October drop time and late November/Early December droptimes are what I need to get the mature bucks on my side. The rich neighbors grow the deer, I just draw the mature ones in and shoot them.

 

[weekender21]

“Any idiot with a shovel and a dream”, Love it.

I’m still not sure if I’ll be able to compete with my neighbors corn piles (without my own corn) but I’m planting diverse fruit/nut varieties in hopes to do just that.


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[Hoosierhunting]

A little off topic but I’ve noticed that Mulberries never get any love in the habitat world. Unless, you’re parking nearby they’re a great tree that supports a ton of wildlife and in my area are in the top 5% of preferred browse for deer.


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[willy]

A little off topic but I’ve noticed that Mulberries never get any love in the habitat world. Unless, you’re parking nearby they’re a great tree that supports a ton of wildlife and in my area are in the top 5% of preferred browse

The deer keep my black/red mulberry trees as bushes but the white mulberry don't seem to be touched by them.

 

[catscratch]

A little off topic but I’ve noticed that Mulberries never get any love in the habitat world. Unless, you’re parking nearby they’re a great tree that supports a ton of wildlife and in my area are in the top 5% of preferred browse for deer.


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I like mulberry a lot as well as osage orange (hedge). They are related and great browse. Deer also eat the leafs after falling from the tree in the fall. I keep several stump cut to provide deer height browse. I'm growing Che too. It's Chinese mulberry grafted to osage orange rootstock. I've had to reinforce my Che cages because the deer will push them over to get to them. They don't do that to my other trees.

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[Hoosierhunting]

I only have the native Reds around me, no experience with the whites. Interesting that deer don’t touch the whites though.


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[Hoosierhunting]

I like mulberry a lot as well as osage orange (hedge). They are related and great browse. Deer also eat the leafs after falling from the tree in the fall. I keep several stump cut to provide deer height browse. I'm growing Che too. It's Chinese mulberry grafted to osage orange rootstock. I've had to reinforce my Che cages because the deer will push them over to get to them. They don't do that to my other trees.

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Interesting, I’d never heard of the Che tree. Found a place online selling them but sounds like it won’t fruit up here. I did notice they said deer resistance was poor!


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[KSQ2]

This is my take on the three trees he mentioned:

Sawtooth Oaks:

• I have a strain that drops into early November.
• Deer are crazy about the acorns.
• My trees started bearing in about 6 years and were strong bearing by year 9.
• We had a historic late freeze last spring that killed all fruit and toasted leaves on all trees at my farm. Yet, the sawtooths were able to rebound and make acorns when everything else failed.
• I've never had one to die. We experienced a -28 degree winter a few years ago.
• No other oak that I've seen is as reliable. A friend of mine says it best: "It's not because the acorns are any better, it's because they are always there."
• I'm adding more this spring,

Dunstan Chestnuts:

• I don't like them as well as Chinese.
• Mine have been slower to put on growth and slower to bear than Chinese.
• The Chinese are much heavier producers of chestnuts for me.
• The drop times on the ones I have are about the same.
• I like having a few Dunstans, but I prefer Chinese.

Apples:

• Unless you plant the right apples you are better off not planting any apples in my area. However, if you get the right ones, they are a great whitetail tree and worth all of the effort. In fact, they are no harder to take care of than any other tree. The reason most people fail with apples is because they try to grow hippie apples.
• When choosing varieties, make sure you stay with ones that have a high resistance to all of the diseases in your area. For me, that is fireblight, juniper rusts (including CAR), scab and powdery mildew. For instance, if you are in an area with no CAR (or very light CAR), Goldrush is considered a very DR apple and easy to grow. However, in my area it is a total disaster without spraying.
• Look at the apples in some of my threads. None of these have been sprayed or had any special treatment. All of the major diseases are strong in the area where I live, and you will only be successful here without spraying if you choose the right cultivars.
• You must cage them to protect from rubbing/browsing, and I highly recommend screen wire to protect from rodents - but that is true of most any good tree that you invest in.
• It is a pain for a beginner to try and figure out all of the variables when planting apples. I started a thread or two in the fruit tree section of this forum to try and help people, because of the things I had to learn the hard way. Drop times vary from location to location, and there is some bad information and recommendations out there that can cause problems down the road. For instance, I planted a few B118 rootstock apples and now many of them are starting to lean badly. However, all of the ones I planted on MM111 have done outstanding, and I wouldn't take anything for those trees.
• Think of choosing apples like you were choosing players on your football team. You would want Tom Brady but you wouldn't want Pee-wee Herman........

Native, would you be willing to let go of a few of those late bearing sawtooth acorns??? Please??? Pretty please?? With sugar on top???
Catscratch is trying to get me hooked on acorn planting and gave me a bunch to get started. I sure would like to add some of those late bearers to the tree menu though in the future!

 

[j-bird]

If you want a mulberry.....you want a red. Whites are mostly a weed! Great for birds once they start fruiting in the summer time, but not worth much else. I see a white mulberry as an honorable mention when we talk about nasty invasive like jap bush honeysuckle, autumn olive and callery pear....

 

[Native Hunter]

Native, would you be willing to let go of a few of those late bearing sawtooth acorns??? Please??? Pretty please?? With sugar on top???
Catscratch is trying to get me hooked on acorn planting and gave me a bunch to get started. I sure would like to add some of those late bearers to the tree menu though in the future!

I will send you a PM.

 

[Kennychestnut]

Here In Missouri I harvest Chestnuts off an orchard that has a little over 100 trees . In older gentleman planted these about thirty years ago .
The first trees start dropping around first week in oct . The last to drop early November to second week nov .
When these trees start opening it looks like a heard of hogs came through. Usually a couple scrapes open up also . Incredible food source for deer . I harvest the nuts to sell and grow more trees . I never go out in the morning because the deer are in the orchard all night .
I’ve got about 200 seedlings planted on my place . About 70 are grafted Chinese cultivars. I’m experiencing late graft failure on these . But they do produce nuts sooner .

I’m going to start top grafting on my seedling trees as they grow . If the graft fails I won’t loose the whole tree .
Chestnuts are definitely a awesome food source for bow hunting .


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