Mice & Voles can quickly ‘girdle’ and kill young trees, munching their nutritious inner cambium bark in winter. Spring plantings don’t require mice protection but fall plantings do. We put mouse guards on each fall and then remove them in spring.
You’ll find the rodent guards we use in our Apple Abundance Kit as well as at our Garden Store in Spring!
We check for borers when we take our guards off in spring and then again when we put them back on in fall. We aim to leave the trunk open and visible during the growing season, allowing plenty of air flow and making borer patrol easy during the months it matters most.
If planting in fall, we recommend tucking your rodent guard on before spreading compost and mulch as just another layer reducing trunk exposure to excess moisture.
Fruition’s current online tree growing resources are focused on Apple Trees (and it is also true that Pears, Plums, Peaches, Apricots and Cherries require much the same site choice, planting, and basic care considerations!) On that note, we hope you'll enjoy Fruition's free full library of Growing Trees Resources. Also recommended are all books by the late Michael Phillips and the online resources at the New England Tree Fruit Management Guide. In the meantime, enjoy more Fruition tree growing resources:
Apple Tree Growing Guide
Fruit Q&Qs pre-recorded Webinar Library
and join us for future live Fruit Q&Q webinars here!
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Enjoy our free online Apples & Organic Orcharding course and Tree Webinar Q&Qs Library in the meantime & don't be shy!
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