I've got a problem... some of my land is so rocky that I can't hammer in Tposts or even rebar to wire my cages to. Don't even ask how I got the trees planted. Was wondering if any of y'all have had this problem & if so, how'd you remedy it? Only thing I can think of is to wire cinder blocks to the bottom or bend the bottom of the wire cages out & put 3-4 basketball size rocks on them to keep the deer from ruining my trees. Obviously I've got plenty of rocks up here in the mountains to do this with.
Caging trees
- Thread starter coolbrze0
- Start date
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Wow, I still have to ask, how'd you plant the trees? I know your pain as my bedrock is 1-2 feet. Takes 6 holes to plant 3 trees if I'm lucky. But I can get t post in the ground. Maybe you could use tent stakes with the hook on them to hold your fencing and get them in far enough to deter the deer enough.
And send bad words to Native and his 34 ft of soils on his land. Just not fair not to share.
And send bad words to Native and his 34 ft of soils on his land. Just not fair not to share.
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
Get some hardwood branches or rebar and lay through the cage so it just presses the bottom wire to the ground, and throw a big rock on each side of the cage to hold that down, like a guy trying to bench press too much and the bar pins him down.
deer patch
Well-Known Member
You could always use cement blocks to hold your wire in place. Would work for deer but not bear.
catscratch
Well-Known Member
If you make your cages big enough around they stay down on their own (mostly).
I've been known to run my stakes diagonally through the hole the tree is planted in (they come out almost horizontal to the ground and poke through the cage enough to hold it down). They stick out crooked but at least they are stuck.
You can also make vertical cuts at the bottom of your cage and fold out a section or two so that it sits flat on the ground, then pile some of the rocks that you dug out of the hole on the "flanges".
I've been known to run my stakes diagonally through the hole the tree is planted in (they come out almost horizontal to the ground and poke through the cage enough to hold it down). They stick out crooked but at least they are stuck.
You can also make vertical cuts at the bottom of your cage and fold out a section or two so that it sits flat on the ground, then pile some of the rocks that you dug out of the hole on the "flanges".
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
I'm not sure what type of rock you are referring to, but a method that works very well in certain types of rock is to take a hammer drill with a half inch X 18 inch bit and drill a hole, then hammer a #4 rebar shaped like a candy cane into the hole with the hook over your wire. This might be even more permanent than you want it to be.
Well thankfully those ones were bare root but lets just say it was a boatload of work w/ the digging bar non-stop hammering away at rocks & moving them out of the way in order to hammer away at more rocks... Most were softball to football sized ugghhh! Not a chance of getting tposts or even rebar in the ground but I like the idea of using 2 pieces of rebar laid horizontally through the bottom of the cages w/ lg. rocks on top of them.
Yep not what I would have chosen but it's one of the few places on the property that gets enough sunlight
catscratch
Well-Known Member
I weedeat with gly... I do know someone who elevates cages for the sake of making them taller at the top to alleviate deer reaching over.
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If you use 2x4 welded wire cage and a couple of rebar posts and weave the rebar posts in and out of the wire, you would be able to pull the cage up as high as you want to weedeat under and put it back down. That’s how I do it, and don’t use any additional ties to secure the cage to the rebar. It’s plenty stiff and doesn’t move. And to Catscratch’s point, I leave some pulled up 12 inches to give me additional cage protection.
Edit: To clarify, the rebar posts are driven into the ground in my example, so after reading your previous posts, may not help you in your situation.
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Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
I weedeat with Gramoxone, which kills everything that it comes in contact with, but not the roots. If you spray glyphosate in an orchard you are liable to lose a few trees, if any of the grafted tree roots have root suckers they will draw the glyphosate into the tree roots. And a tree can have suckers at ground level, away from the tree that you can't even see if there's some grass and weed cover there. The difficult part for most hobby orchards is that you need a herbicide license to buy Gramoxone.
Cap'n
Active Member
Reward ( Diquat) is a burn down herbicide similar to gramoxone. It isn't restricted. Several generic versions of it are out there. we sometimes use it with gly to speed up the results in cold temps. But I use gly with prodiamine around all my trees in spring and summer, it keeps the ground clean around them for 2-3 months. this spring I used 0-0-7 granular prodiamine around them. In the fall i use gly and simazine. all of mine are tubed so no problem with drift or overspray hitting anything desirable. I'd have zero time to do what needs to be done if I had to weedeat around every tree.
