If your entire property was like walking on marbles in the Fall, would you cut down some oak trees to make room for fruit trees alongside a food plot?
Or would you make your food plot smaller and put the fruit trees right on the edge of the plot?
Depends on acreage open .
But I’m in the process of planting fruit trees to offer a variety . I know deer walk past acorns to eat chestnuts
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To create a new orchard I have these fields available to start from scratch. At the moment they are fallow hay fields.
Our driveway has wild Apple trees along it with minimal spacing. Planted in between and under is clover and chicory. Five to twenty deer per day are seen along the driveway from when the snow melts until it returns. Moisture is not a problem in 28 Years out of 30 and sun is not a problem either. Oak trees would Likely be a different matter. Killing producing oak trees though if we had them would not be an option.
To the OP: Personally? Neither.
Sounds good! Keep in mind that of the 12,000 or whatever Apple tree varieties grown in the US, only a handful will do well on your property with minimum maintenance. Many of the rest of the varieties would likely be a Huge disappointment. Posting your planned purchase in the fruit tree section may generate some excellent feedback on which trees might perform best in your area. And keep in mind that ordering trees is best done the year before as early as the nurseries start taking orders. Otherwise the handful that will work best in your area will be sold out for the next year and historically way before Thanksgiving even. Some are sold out already but maybe not all.
What would you do?
Cutting mature mast producing oaks seems like a crime. But there are three factors that would make me at least consider it in your instance; #1,You have plenty of other oaks. #2, Oaks produce 1/6 the amount of deer food as a food plot or early successional growth in the same acreage. #3, Oaks are the worst tree to draw moisture away from a food plot. Anywhere there's an oak tree growing at the edge of a field there's bound to be an area of bare dirt jutting out into the field.