Fruit Trees For Wildlife....Another Food Source

[Wacenturion]

Since I have already outlined my initial food plot efforts in another thread, I thought I would share what I have done planting fruit tree on the property for additional food sources.

Purchased the property June 2015.  From what I saw there was only one fruit tree on the place, an old apple tree (1st picture).  Lots of native plum and other things though.    The first planting of 22 fruit trees took place early spring (March/April) of 2016.  I have a friend in the area that waters them once things warm up during the summer.  Everything went pretty well the first year, with a potential loss of only five trees.  One apple tree was pulled completely out of it's wire cage.  Thought it might have been a bear, but the cage was relatively undisturbed.  My guess a big animal like an elk was tall enough to reach over, uprooted it, and remove it from the cage itself.  Two small chestnut and potentially two of the three persimmions I planted were lost.  One of those persimmions was green under the skin near the top (pinch test) and one was green down near the graft.  The other appears dead as I could not find any green whatsoever.  Persimmions can fool you though because they bud and leaf much later than other trees, as they are extremely cold tolerant.  We'll see, verdict still out.

Did have a fire last summer that encroached slightly onto the property and it had an effect on a couple apple trees.  Didn't burn them per se, but heat was close enough to basically fry the leaves.  Watching those two closely.  (see picture of one below)

This spring an additional 14 more trees were planted.  They included 9 cherries (for me  ), 3 pears and 2 Italian Prunes.  Cages were installed as well.  So far a total of 36 trees, minus the 5 described above. 

Hopefully if the trees make it through two years they will be good to go without additional watering.  Probably good after one year, but not taking any chances.  More trees to go in next year as I'm only accessing the lower half of the proerty at the moment.  Going to be duplicating the lower atv trails up above as well to access that portion more easily.  It's steeper.

   

[Wacenturion]

This year I also decided to make it much easier to water the ones where there is a pretty good slope.  Walking down is easy, but returning uphill to the atv/utv trail can be tiring.  Designed a simple, time saving irrigation delivery system.  Really high tech.    Basically cut 5/8 hose to length, zip tied to wooden stake on trail edge and zip tied on tree cage at bottom.  Used a couple metal stakes along the hose to keep in place.  Will be super gluing funnels into hose to make it eay to pour and keep coyotes or whatever from pulling funnels out and running off with them. See in the photos below.

When you have that many trees to water, any thing that makes it easier is welcome.

[gaddy]

Looks good. My mom had apple trees on her property and always had deer and elk coming in during fruit season. Wouldn't let us hunt them though. We would have to watch them in the fields from the deck and hunt ells-ware  .

[bearpaw]

Wild game love fruit trees, it's a year around attraction. Very nice... 

How close are bear to your property? 

[JimmyHoffa]

pretty cool.  I've seen where guys make small swales to funnel more rain towards the individual trees.  Also, guys were soaking old logs in water and burying them around the roots of the trees being planted.

[DOUBLELUNG]

Apricots seem to naturalize very well without supplemental water, at least in canyon bottoms in the low elevation east Cascades. There is one I like to visit on the Colockum that produces incredibly sweet, flavorful cots.

[Special T]

Do you plan on retiring There? Cool projects.

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[Wacenturion]

Wild game love fruit trees, it's a year around attraction. Very nice... 

How close are bear to your property? 

Had a tripod feeder up higher near the timber, but that didn't work out as bears always messed with it.  Moved tripod feeder down low, and designed a hanging feeder for a replacement.  Problem solved.

Have plenty of bears in the area.  See pictures from my cams below.........should be more when fruit trees start producing....   Fun to watch.

[Timberstalker]

What a place Wacenturion.  Thanks for sharing your adventures.

[JimmyHoffa]

Those bear pictures are great.  I particularly like the last one with the bear looking out over the 'village'.

[Wacenturion]

Apricots seem to naturalize very well without supplemental water, at least in canyon bottoms in the low elevation east Cascades. There is one I like to visit on the Colockum that produces incredibly sweet, flavorful cots.

Thanks....now on my add list.

[Wacenturion]

Couple pictures of this year's plantings....9 cherries, 3 pears and 2 Italian prunes.  Total of 14 trees spread out along one of the food food plots that is approximately 600 ft. long, and adjacent to the atv/utv trail on the opposite side.  Easy watering.

[Wacenturion]

Do you plan on retiring There? Cool projects.

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Already retired.  Problem is I have two beautiful young granddaughters that live less than a mile from me.  One is 4 1/2 and the other brand new....one week old.  Not sure I want to be 6 hours away from them right now.

[nwwanderer]

The 4.5 needs to be turned loose on your eastside place, the new one will not be far behind.  Good luck and good job

[Wacenturion]

The 4.5 needs to be turned loose on your eastside place, the new one will not be far behind.  Good luck and good job

She has already become attached to the "ranch".  Just hope someday I get to introduce both her and her sister to hunting like I did with her mom.  Daughter got her first deer when she was 12. 

[DOUBLELUNG]

I love that third picture of the bear standing under the feeder. It needs a "son of a ..." thought bubble   

[Alchase]

Wacenturion, you have some beautiful land. I could look out on that view of the valley all day long.

[Wacenturion]

I love that third picture of the bear standing under the feeder. It needs a "son of a ..." thought bubble   

Got to say the bears are the most entertaining for sure.  The two pictures of the bear on the tripod feeder and then looking back at the feeder after he knocked it over are just two in a sequence of several photos that show him looking at feeder, climbing up, getting on top, walking away after if fell and then looking back at it....funny.  Didn't hurt the feeder.  Kind of figured I was asking for trouble up near the timber with it.  Learning process.

The feeder pole in that third photo to give some reference is 15 feet tall at the top.  I have it pointed uphill so it's somewhat less in height due to the slope, but the bottom of the barrel is still at least 9 1/2-10 1/2 feet off the ground.  Agree with the caption comment...

[Southpole]

I like "The Thinking Bear" or is it "The Pondering Bear" picture.

[Twispriver]

I hope the trees survive to maturity. Bears are devastating to young trees and they have no problem coming in at night to do their damage. I recommend pulling all the fruit until the trees are 10' to 12' tall and consider pruning the lower limbs to 5' or 6' up the tree. I don't know what size of tree you purchased but most nursery and orchard trees are grafted on stock that allows you to pick 80% of the fruit from the ground. If that is the case its tough to keep the bears from ripping limbs off of them. I am up to about 110 trees on my property and last year I suffered some damage until I pulled all the fruit and ultimately shot the bear that didn't quit tearing up the trees even when there was no more fruit to be had.

[Wacenturion]

I hope the trees survive to maturity. Bears are devastating to young trees and they have no problem coming in at night to do their damage. I recommend pulling all the fruit until the trees are 10' to 12' tall and consider pruning the lower limbs to 5' or 6' up the tree. I don't know what size of tree you purchased but most nursery and orchard trees are grafted on stock that allows you to pick 80% of the fruit from the ground. If that is the case its tough to keep the bears from ripping limbs off of them. I am up to about 110 trees on my property and last year I suffered some damage until I pulled all the fruit and ultimately shot the bear that didn't quit tearing up the trees even when there was no more fruit to be had.

Thanks for the input.  I was thinking along those lines as well.  Definitely going to prune to ensure lower limbs start branching at least 5' up the trunk.  Never really had thought about fruit removal, but like that idea as it would cetainly keep bears away.  All the trees I purchased are basically semi drawf, no dwarfs trees, as I had semi and dawrfs in my back yard years ago and readily know what to expect height wise from both.  Most of the trees I bought fall into the 5'-8' range.  See cherry trees below.......
 

[bearpaw]

I like pic of the bear studying the feeder! 
He's probably still figuring how to access that feeder...

I used to lease a ranch that had plum trees, the bear hit that old orchard hard in the fall, there are volunteer plum and apple trees scattered around the area most likely from bear scat.