Protecting Young Trees From Rabbits |

[@mamakim512]

I was so excited to see you on the KZbin Farm At Home commercial!! I hope it ends up bringing you more subs! You two are a great wealth of information!!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Mama Kim! Ok, so we weren't sure when that was going to drop, but it sounds like it did. Thanks for the encouragement!

[@desertdanblacksmith1394]

So thats where my tin snips went.....you have em! I been looking all over the place! Dang ground squirrels dug holes outside of fence and went horizontally into the fresh roots....last year! Apply more voltage I guess?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Dan. Oh boy, time for a supercharger! Only good squirrel...

[@desertdanblacksmith1394]

@tsimahei haha...love dachshunds! My best friend is a manager of a Weinerschitzel ....they have weiner dog races! :)

[@julientobyfullmer7230]

We have ground squirrels I think on our property. What do I need to do to protect my new plantings?

[@desertdanblacksmith1394]

@@julientobyfullmer7230 1 inch chicken wire around or hardware cloth around

[@julientobyfullmer7230]

@@desertdanblacksmith1394 thanks

[@azgardener79]

I really like how you built those burms around the bubblers. As the tree grows, you can keep adjusting the radius. Very smart.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey AZgardener. So far it seems to be working really well. Already seeing good root growth on these smaller trees pushing into the rings, so it won't be long before they will need to move further out.

[@azgardener79]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Sweet. I've never seen that setup before but it makes alot of sense.

[@SolidGoldShows]

I have the same issues here in the California desert. Thanks for the information

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Yeah, they're a real menace. Hopefully this will do the trick for you!

[@SolidGoldShows]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm It does. The rabbits was munching on my fig trees. It helps a lot

[@rolotomassi8536]

Good idea. Makes perfect sense. Thank you.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

These work great as long as you don't have any jack rabbit pressure. We ended up going to 3' wide hardware cloth once we found out we had to deal with those!

[@rolotomassi8536]

We have no problem with the malus during the summer But during the winter, their bark get eaten, I suspect rabbits. So yeah, I was going to go for the 3' wide (high) anyway because of the snow.@@EdgeofNowhereFarm

[@DeniseVioletta]

Great video! We just got a few fruit trees and planted them up here in the Verde Valley, and before we went to bed, I forgot to spray the liquid fence around them. Two of them were dug up a little at the roots by some animal. Do you know if that fence put a little further out around the mulch and cedar chips will prevent that from happening?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Denise. We have changed how we protect our new trees since posting this video due to our jackrabbit pressure here on this farm. I'll link to a planting video we did earlier this year and you can see us installing the cage we use. Essentially it's 3' wide hardware cloth cut into 6' length and formed into a circle. That does the job, even with jack rabbits. kzbin.info/www/bejne/b36cYWttaa5-fbc

[@DeniseVioletta]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm thank you!!

[@danielfisch655]

Great info, thanks for sharing. We've had some issues with javelinas in the past but this would probably work with them too.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Daniel. They can root pretty good, so it may take some extra effort to keep the cage in place.

[@danielfisch655]

Edge of Nowhere Farm thank God I have some 4 foot pieces of rebar that I can stake around the cages.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@danielfisch655 now that should do the trick!

[@danielfisch655]

Edge of Nowhere Farm hopefully, I’ll find more after Election Day because they get discarded all over the place.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@@danielfisch655 very true. We should hunt those down also as they can be used all over the place!

[@YourAverageWitch]

We do have a rabbit population here but I don't know how much longer that'll last. I'm worried about that virus moving into the area and wiping them out. The people who lived here before us used regular welded wire field fence and it seemed to keep our walnut trees alive. We're using 1/2" hardware cloth for our cages though because the packrats, pocket mice, and who knows what else (haven't caught them in the act yet) are ravaging everything we plant. UGH Jerks. Thought of you today though as I enlarged the ring the previous owners had made around our trees, and gave them composted mulch! Ours still aren't as pretty as yours but I think they'll grow more this year than last since they're being cared for.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Rodents are just a pain. Planning the garden beds out and trying to figure out the easiest way to get the hardware cloth down to keep the ground squirrels out, the fencing for the rabbits, and the netting for the birds!!! Definitely a good idea on those wider rings. We're going to do a video on it, but we just fertilized last weekend and our new tree starts had already started pushing feeder roots into the rings we have around them!

[@YourAverageWitch]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm Juuuust yesterday I posted a rant on facebook about how I'm gonna do raised beds from now on because I'm mad about my radish tops being eaten off, haha. That's awesome about the roots! I hope ours go fast too. And you said those everbearing mulberries will grow 3x the height they are now? I love those things!

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

@tsimahei very true!

[@jsc1222]

Thanks ! Great idea 💡

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

These do work good for cottontails or small rabbits. If you have Jacks then you'll need to space these out a bit further from the tree.

[@judithstorck5195]

After a season then you can wrap the trunks with TULLE. We found that works great. Judi

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

We had another viewer suggest the same thing. We're hoping we can go to that soon, because most of the trees are trying to bust out of the cages!

[@TheFatTheist]

So, I was reading a book called "Extreme Gardening" by Dave Owens and he has a section on companion planting. In that section he also includes information on pests that are repelled by plants. One plant that he says repels rabbits is santolina. I was thinking that maybe on the most sensitive trees you could plant santolina around the base in the wood chips. Have you ever heard this before or do you know if this is truly a rabbit repellant? If they actually do well they might be useful for other aspects too. Like drawing bees and ground cover. Also, the stems seem to root very easily so once you have a few plants you should be able to propagate them as needed with very little money. Maybe you could mix in some lavender as well. Just wondering about your thoughts on this idea.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Alan! I haven't heard of that plant before, but I'll have to see if it's a viable option. We're still hesitant putting anything into the tree rings with the newly establishing trees, but long term that could be a solution for us. We could definitely use more green vs these cages!

[@Betterfoodforbettermood]

Good way of protection . I was also tought the planning oleander near new established trees will keep rodents away due to their special sticky gummy scent but it will attract cockroaches and insects. great video guys.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

I suppose that may work. I would just be concerned with the leaves and livestock trying to consume them.

[@yolandabrinson4151]

I find that going that wide around the tree as you did , here in desert we must have really desperate rabbits because they tunnel up under and eat the young tree trunk anyway,, best way here is to put the guard very close actually right on the bark then the tree may survive.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Yolanda. We changed this up a bit after this video for our younger trees and now use 3' hardware cloth partially buried under the woodchips. That has worked well for us, but what you're describing works well even for larger trees as long as they're large enough to have the smaller branching up above those little devils.

[@fCLEF007]

I do basically that, except a bigger version, because my rabbits are Irish setters lol! :D

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Ha! 2 legged varmints are always a challenge! :)

[@lisaalexander824]

What do you do for squirrels and pack rats? This is my first attempt with fruit trees in the desert! We just planted them. Some had fruit, now it's gone! I did tie flash tape already.

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Hey Lisa. That's a tough question as we don't have issues with either taking fruit from our trees. Birds are our main issue out here. I've had viewers suggest using some type of metal flashing placed around (not on) the bottom of the trunk to prevent them from getting up into the tree. I would imagine it would need to be a couple of feet tall to deter them as both of those are very adept at jumping/climbing. What trees do you have that had this issue and how long have they been in the ground? Generally trees that are very young have a very difficult time holding and ripening fruit, so we remove the first year's fruit set to allow the trees to establish their roots. Also, were these fruit almost ripe? Rats and squirrels will be interested in near ripe fruit, but I haven't seen them go after unripe fruit.

[@riobabic8960]

Bloody rabbits ate above my 2 foot plastic tree rap for winter ! They eat the bark off the young fruit trees when the ground is covered with snow and ice too long ! I think my apricot will survive because the bottom 2 feet of the trunk is fine !

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Ugh, that is upsetting! We know just how you feel having lost trees to rabbits before. We've found our best option is actually 3' hardware cloth cut into a larger diameter ring. The holes are small enough that they can't get their little heads through the material and get to the trunk. This even keeps out the larger jack rabbits very effectively. Little demons!

[@samuraioodon]

how about rats?

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Rats would still get up into the trees with this setup. With those you would need to enclose these fully.

[@gardenofthegeeks8277]

Only cure For evil bunnies is the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.. Just Ask King Arthur

[@EdgeofNowhereFarm]

Ha, LOL! Now to look up the Hold Hand Grenade of Antioch! :)

[@TheFatTheist]

Garden of The Geeks does the Holy Hand Grenade work against gophers?

[@gardenofthegeeks8277]

@@EdgeofNowhereFarm kzbin.info/www/bejne/ip-ylXSKa61satU&bpctr=1588539987