Protecting base of apple trees for winter?

We have some new apple trees here, and winter is on its way. I have prepped the garden beds for the winter with a nice blend of mulch. My mom mentioned that the lady at the garden centre said the base of our apple trees should be protected. She forgot the details, but she knows we gotta do something. So I am curious: those of you with fruit trees in colder climates, what do you do? Am I wrapping the trunks in something, or is this mulch sort of deal?

All the apple trees are grafted. I think we have one goodland, and two haralsons if that helps.

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

do you get decent snowfall? the danger is mice/voles under the snow and potentially rabbits above it. wrapping or makeshift chicken wire something or…? just make that soft young bark less accessible.

greg mosser wrote:do you get decent snowfall? the danger is mice/voles under the snow and potentially rabbits above it. wrapping or makeshift chicken wire something or…? just make that soft young bark less accessible.

Very interesting thank you. Yes we get a heck of a lot of snow up here. I'll check out our options.

Yes, voles will ring your trees while they are young and tasty.

Two options:
1. Wrap with hardware cloth, or some other heavy steel mesh. They will chew through nylon and aluminum and lick their chaps for more.

2. Stomp a 2ft. diameter after every snowfall to prevent tunnelling. Voles operate very efficiently under the snow, make tunnels and nests, and you won't suspect a thing. Owls can see through this in IR I think. If you deny access by creating a layer of snow concrete, you have a better chance of defeating their natural behaviour. But you have to be on the job.

I lay a few really twiggy branches around the trunk, and nothing bothers trying to get through it. It's free, quick, and easy, and it breaks down naturally after a while, and won't girdle your tree if accidently left there too long.

Steve Thorn wrote:I lay a few really twiggy branches around the trunk, and nothing bothers trying to get through it. It's free, quick, and easy, and it breaks down naturally after a while, and won't girdle your tree if accidently left there too long.

Thanks Steve, for this idea. I suffered losses last winter to Voles, so I'm looking for ideas.
The white plastic spirals seem to work but I had Voles chew through everything below it on one tree. The flare of the trunk was chewed bare. So I thought about laying an apron of hardware cloth on the ground circling the tree but this would be difficult with all the bumps in the ground. I pictured it providing a protective shield for the Voles to eat in safety. Your idea sounds worth a try.

Cam Haslehurst wrote:So I am curious: those of you with fruit trees in colder climates, what do you do? Am I wrapping the trunks in something, or is this mulch sort of deal?

All the apple trees are grafted. I think we have one goodland, and two haralsons if that helps.

Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

I lived in Vermont for many years, and had vole issues every year once the snow arrived. Worse if the long grass wasn't cut before snowfall.
One year, inspired by a potent blend of hurry and despair, I smeared the trunks with Bag Balm. No damage. Not so much as a vole-print.
After that, BagBalm was my go-to winter prep.

Erik van Lennep wrote:One year, inspired by a potent blend of hurry and despair, I smeared the trunks with Bag Balm. No damage. Not so much as a vole-print.

Hmm, interesting. I assume it's the strong smell that repels them? I wonder if the menthol in Vicks Vaporub or Tiger Balm would work.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:

Erik van Lennep wrote:One year, inspired by a potent blend of hurry and despair, I smeared the trunks with Bag Balm. No damage. Not so much as a vole-print.

Hmm, interesting. I assume it's the strong smell that repels them? I wonder if the menthol in Vicks Vaporub or Tiger Balm would work.

I'm guessing it would, plus the base is waterproof and lasts for months. The gooey texture might also be nasty enough, sticking to their little nibbly teeth.

Thank you everyone for the great replies! I had no idea voles could be so vicious towards poor baby trees. I think I will try a combination of a few ideas.  I bet those voles will be vociferous in their frustration at not being able to access the bark.

Erik I do not have any bag balm but I do have vick's vaborub which I think I may try as a coating.

Steve we have plenty of twigs laying around so this is definitely worth a try.

And Douglas I am already out digging trails for our little dog quite often, so I will make it part of my habit to really pack the snow down around the trees as well. We don't have any heavy steel mesh so the stomping will do.

Looks like these baby trees have a much better chance of making it through the winter with their bark intact now!

Cam Haslehurst wrote:We have some new apple trees here, and winter is on its way. I have prepped the garden beds for the winter with a nice blend of mulch. My mom mentioned that the lady at the garden centre said the base of our apple trees should be protected. She forgot the details, but she knows we gotta do something. So I am curious: those of you with fruit trees in colder climates, what do you do? Am I wrapping the trunks in something, or is this mulch sort of deal?
All the apple trees are grafted. I think we have one goodland, and two haralsons if that helps.
Any advice is appreciated, thanks!

I thought I was doing the right thing for my orchard by wrapping the base of the trunks with a tall and stiff plastic sleeve. The plastic sheet had slits for ventilation and is actually sold to protect young trees. Bad idea.
That was nowhere near enough ventilation and the bark on several trees started to rot. One died, several badly wounded. [The rabbits, mice and voles stayed away, so I guess it was not false advertising.] This year a sleeve of metal wire about a foot high is going around each of them. Make the wire mesh too small for voles [1/2" hardware cloth] and mice to get through. Fasten with zip ties so you can reuse it on smaller trees next year, or maybe loosen it to accommodate the growth of the tree.  I use longer zip ties that go all around the trunk so I don't have to mess with passing the zip tie though the mesh.
Make it tall enough to discourage rabbits so they have to get on top of the snow to feast, heightening their vulnerability. A bit of repellent just before the first snow of the year will not dissipate as quickly as before.
Those metal sleeves can stay on a couple of seasons. Bonus: If you use the weed eater or the mower a bit too close, you won't damage the trunk either!

This came at an opportune time for me!  Many thanks.

This fall I have planted 6 finger thick fruit trees.  I am new to this property, and thought only of protection from the deer.  We get some snow, and we do have voles and gophers.

Without this in the daily, I might have lost the trees and the labor.

Hey there.  So, voles on our 11 acres have a frustrating past.  We moved here 23 yrs ago & voles were the most disruptive thing on the place.  Had kitties but got a dog to protect the kids & chickens & they (the voles) vanished over about a year.  Yippee - what I did not know was that the dog was the one doing the pest control, I thought it was a cat thing!  To my frustration, after our pet was no longer with us (we did not replace her) the voles returned.  A few the first year & then in masses!  Our new little food forest was decimated every year!  We replaced tree after tree & finally when they invaded my yard (they had moved in under the house!) I realized what I was dealing with and I knew there was no way to stop them without getting another dog so I dutifully filled all the holes I could find on a weekly basis with the castor oil based balls & they (the pellets) disappeared at an alarming rate but they were working to some extent keep the population down but never gone.  I have no idea what castor oil does to baby fruit trees but ours have had a large dose of it!  

NOTHING on the internet to keep these voles away permanently or kill them off quickly enough to keep my things safe.  But, FINALLY, I found a farmer with just 5 acres who was planting a grain crop & the voles were a horrible pest for him but HE found a way to protect the whole field with just a few of these things and they have worked like a charm for us for the last 3 years!!!

3rd picture shows it in use (the tubie thing)
2nd picture shows it whole (notice the ends are at an angle to allow snow & water, at least partially, to stay out of the tube keeping the blocks dry & they are long to keep them upright & give shelter for the little buggers to feel happy in - they choose the easiest shelter places
1st picture shows the cap off with the block holder exposed - you just put as many castor oil blocks in there as you want & the holder keeps them from walking away

These things take a few bucks & minutes to do - they are not even glued together just pushed into the slots.  The block we use is still the castor oil based stuff & we have not had a single vole tunnel or hole after the 1st year.  

We leave them all around the property just where the voles were eating things or making ankle spraining traps for us.  The food forest now has just 4 of these - one on each side, and every new tree foodish we plant gets one as well.  We did make a deliberate effort to "move" the voles away from our spaces by placing them centrally & gradually widening the gap between them every week or so but once the population dwindled we just maintain the few that are needed do the job.  I have these around my greenhouse that was built this past summer so more food for us not them!

So, teri, what are these things?  What are they called, where do you get them, and where do you get castor oil blocks?  I did a search and could only find pellet of clay infused with castor oil, and no tubes.

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:I thought I was doing the right thing for my orchard by wrapping the base of the trunks with a tall and stiff plastic sleeve. The plastic sheet had slits for ventilation and is actually sold to protect young trees. Bad idea.
That was nowhere near enough ventilation and the bark on several trees started to rot. One died, several badly wounded. [The rabbits, mice and voles stayed away, so I guess it was not false advertising.]

The rot happened just over a winter?

Donna Lynn wrote:So, teri, what are these things?  What are they called, where do you get them, and where do you get castor oil blocks?  I did a search and could only find pellet of clay infused with castor oil, and no tubes.

This is something you have to build though there is a small version sold at the hardware box stores. Which has the blocks associated with it that can be used in this bait station I believe is the proper term.  Buy a length of 2 inch plastic pipe and one T and one end cap for each station.  Make a 45 degree angle cut at 16 inches in the pipe then a square cut at another 16 inches then another square cut at 16 inches. Assemble the square ends in the T so that the points of the 45 are up when the upright tube is up.   Drill a small hole in the cap to insert a wire which will reach to the bottom.  Insert the wire in the cap with a bend at the top to keep it from falling through. put the bottom end of the wire through the hole in the bate cube and bend it to keep it on. Put the cap on so the bate is down in T then tie upright of the bate station to the tree.   The bait then is only accesable by things that like to hide in 2 inch holes.

Teri and Hans: I am confused. Castor oil is repellent to moles (so I presume voles). The pipe/T contraption is being called a place they like to retreat to ("they choose the easiest shelter places"), and a bait station. Castor oil in the T, if buried into an existing tunnel seems like it'd work well to chase them off, or at least out of that one tunnel. Teri, where/how do you place your T-pipes? I like the idea of repelling them. I do not want to "bait" them, as poisons will then be entered into all the critters who are vole predators, too.

BTW: I am excited/relieved to have another thing to try to minimize voles: I'm weary of them eating my potatoes and squash and mowing down pea plants at the base.

Donna Lynn - Hans explained very well (thank you!) what my husband did to make these things.  Very simple to make & probably lots cheeper than buying them at the store though I have never seen them for sale anywhere before.  The bait we use is bought at any feed or hardware store, MoleMax which has Rucinus Communis Oil which is castor oil as its active ingredient.  Any brand with this active ingredient will work fine.

Barbara - I am afraid that the only way to get rid of this pest is to kill the residents off & then try to keep them at bay with perimeter stations.  It's been 3 years & we still are filling the stations close to the house so they find their way around our perimeter stations anyway.  They take the stuff to the nest & feed it to the little ones so most of them die underground (I think).  Don't bury the stations in their holes/highways, just set them on top of the ground like I showed in my 3rd pic.  If you don't have something to support the upright position then just poke a stick in the ground & zip tie it up.  They find the stations quite quickly.  The stations are easy to move around to where you need them.  If you have a little city of them in your garden then start at one edge with several of stations & move the majority of the stations farther & farther through the garden, leaving 1 at each side edge as you move along ending with just 1 or 2 at the edges of the garden.  Our food forest is about 7000 square feet & we only have 1 on each side at this point.   If you just set these out around the perimeter you will trap them inside the garden, they will eventually die but I did it that way to try to 'move' them out - we had zillions of them - I have no idea how 1 dog kept them off 11 acres!

Our cats have not had any ill affects but I have seen evidence of an emptied stomach once - I'm guessing it did not sit well & they tossed the 'bad food'.  As far as predators being affected, I have not seen a decline in hawks & we never had owls to begin with.  Our area has grown so much that even the coyotes have moved away.  We are down to deer, a cat or 2, a rare lost bear & a few elk that wander through anymore.  

I also learned a new trick this past weekend but it will take a full growing season to implement - Apparently the comfrey plant is un-tasty to these vole destroyers and when it is planted at tree bases (I suspect several would be needed for each tree) the voles stay away.  As I have the Russian comfrey that does not spread I will be buying & trying this next spring with common spreading comfrey.  Never have too much comfrey so I will be putting it around any new trees planted & probably in the ring bed around the greenhouse.  Good luck!!!

It is ALWAYS the right season to put out these tubie things - bait stations, Hans around your food sources.  Be sure to watch the bait levels regularly as you divest your property of these snackers, you will need to refill less & less often as the population dwindles.

I looked up castor oil as vole repellent, and found an interesting article, and a recipe.

First, castor oil is extracted from the castor bean, not too hard to grow, and if a person grew it, then possibly the seeds could be ground up and the meal applied directly to the soil.  Be aware that castor beans are toxic as is the oil… but it’s a dramatic annual, grown as an ornamental, and I don’t know how toxic.  I’ve grown it, when I didn’t have inquisitive kids and animals…

According to the online article, there is a smell to one of the compounds in castor oil: ricinoleic acid.  

Castor oil, plus water to dilute, and a surfactant to allow the very heavy, viscous oil to mix into the water.  As is noted in previous posts, move the animals out of your soon to be vole free area from one side to another, or center out… imagine you are herding them away… as this isn’t a poison, and won’t kill them.  You are encouraging them to move away, and so there needs to be a place that’s better for them, and a pathway to reach it.

From what I understand, the castor oil is quite repugnant to the burrowing rodents, and the rest is just getting it spread around.

Anyway, the proportions are
3/4 cup castor oil
2 tablespoons of eco-friendly dish or laundry detergent or soap
1 gallon of water.

Spray it on the ground, respray after a rain.

Those are the basics.  Together we may be able to do further research, try it out, and develop some wisdom and experience on this.

I think I might need a mechanical means to mix the very thick castor oil into the emulsifying soap/detergent, or mixing with some of the water before mixing into the whole gallon of water.  Or, possibly I could use alcohol to get the water and oil to mix….

I think I might apply it to the ground around my new trees.  I am not sure what would happen if I applied it directly to my new tree trunks…

I have some white kaolin clay powder.  Mixing the castor oil into the clay, (with or without water?) and apply that directly to the little trunks might work…

A little heads-up: "Castor oil can repel voles, however, normal castor oil which is usually found in stores will not be effective in repelling voles. The experts suggest that you will need super stinky based castor oil as the odd smell of castor oil will force the voles to change that place."  https://outdooralive.com/does-castor-oil-repel-voles/

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:
1. Wrap with hardware cloth, or some other heavy steel mesh.
2. Stomp a 2ft. diameter after every snowfall to prevent tunnelling..

Douglas gave you perfect advice. I have nothing to add. ❤

Coydon Wallham wrote:

Cécile Stelzer Johnson wrote:I thought I was doing the right thing for my orchard by wrapping the base of the trunks with a tall and stiff plastic sleeve. The plastic sheet had slits for ventilation and is actually sold to protect young trees. Bad idea.
That was nowhere near enough ventilation and the bark on several trees started to rot. One died, several badly wounded. [The rabbits, mice and voles stayed away, so I guess it was not false advertising.]

The rot happened just over a winter?

Yes. They went on in early September, which was a bit early, but I thought what's the difference? At least, it's done. A fair amount of snow and a rainy spring... by late March, as I was checking them over, I discovered the damage. The slits in the plastic were too narrow, I suspect, and offered too little ventilation. The 1/2" mesh is also cheaper and pretty easy to put together.

Where do you buy the castor oil baits for the T-contraption?

Cathy, bait can be purchased at most hardware or feed & farm stores in the pest section.

Hello friends I want to know is what I found here I learnt a lot about from here what I wanted to thanks premies and all here.

I am a bit worried that this discussion quickly evolved into chemicals.
There are good ways to protect your trees without poisons: wire around the trees and packing the snow around them.
Even if we want to keep animals from eating our trees, they are also part of the ecosystem.
Usually when we destroy one species, we get problems with their predators.

I suffered quite a bit of damage from rabbits nibbling on fruit tree barks last year. This year, I have surrounded my trees with a ring of hardware cloth/chicken wire. I generally am utilizing scraps and offcuts that I staple to two stapes in the ground.

If I worry about deer pressure on something such as a young bush I will envelop the whole thing in a bubble of wire that is kept together with pieces of wire. This will allow me to open it up in the spring to let it grow. I almost lost a bush cherry to my local deer herd when I wasn't looking.

Timothy Norton wrote:I suffered quite a bit of damage from rabbits nibbling on fruit tree barks last year. This year, I have surrounded my trees with a ring of hardware cloth/chicken wire. I generally am utilizing scraps and offcuts that I staple to two stapes in the ground.

If I worry about deer pressure on something such as a young bush I will envelop the whole thing in a bubble of wire that is kept together with pieces of wire. This will allow me to open it up in the spring to let it grow. I almost lost a bush cherry to my local deer herd when I wasn't looking.

It might be rabbits or mice. If you live far enough out  of town and have a dog that you can get loose at night, rabbits won't come near. Mice tunnel under the snow and they will breach chicken wire. They won't breach hardware cloth.
a couple of years ago, I had used these semi-transparent plastic tubes to go around the trunks of my fruit trees. Even though they have small holes for ventilation, I lost several apple trees to excessive moisture. If I use those again, I will add 1/4" holes all around, put them on as late in the season as I can and remove them as early in the spring as I can.
Deer are a bane here too! And those pests really act fast, like overnight!
My hubby is a hunter so we can add meat to our larder. Since we aren't all that young that we can hunt a lot, however, I protect my orchards with 2"X4" welded wire as high as I can afford. We also try to notice deer traffic to make the most of it: by creating a funnel, we can funnel deer in an area where we have good visibility and where we can sit in ambush. We usually get a deer every year, sometimes 2, solving 2 problems at the same time.

Thekla McDaniels wrote:
First, castor oil is extracted from the castor bean, not too hard to grow, and if a person grew it, then possibly the seeds could be ground up and the meal applied directly to the soil.  Be aware that castor beans are toxic as is the oil… but it’s a dramatic annual, grown as an ornamental, and I don’t know how toxic.  I’ve grown it, when I didn’t have inquisitive kids and animals…

The plant is quite beautiful,  but as you say VERY toxic beans.  I grew it one year as it was labeled by an alternate name at the garden site and it took me a minute to realize what I had.   We do have inquisitive kids in the garden from time to time,  so I did not grow it again.   The poison Ricin is produced from castor beans.

Cris Fellows wrote:

Thekla McDaniels wrote:
First, castor oil is extracted from the castor bean, not too hard to grow, and if a person grew it, then possibly the seeds could be ground up and the meal applied directly to the soil.  Be aware that castor beans are toxic as is the oil… but it’s a dramatic annual, grown as an ornamental, and I don’t know how toxic.  I’ve grown it, when I didn’t have inquisitive kids and animals…

The plant is quite beautiful,  but as you say VERY toxic beans.  I grew it one year as it was labeled by an alternate name at the garden site and it took me a minute to realize what I had.   We do have inquisitive kids in the garden from time to time,  so I did not grow it again.   The poison Ricin is produced from castor beans.

Indeed: in older times in Europe, it was used as an aborteficient. Not a pleasant one from what I heard. This is what the Poison control center says:
"Poisoning from castor beans is rare. They have a hard coat, which prevents the release of ricin. Toxicity results when the seeds are crushed or chewed prior to swallowing. Nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain are expected after ingestion of crushed/chewed castor beans"..
It looks like a regular bean seed too. As pest control, it might work if broken down fine. Around trees, I would put it right before the first expected snowfall to keep it away from pests, or if placed inside of a sleeve of chicken wire. Chicken wire will still allow passage of voles and small mice.

Fortunately I have only seen a couple voles in the yard several years ago and I relocated one.  The other one got caught by my cat then got away. Then she killed one (maybe the same that got away?) but didn't want to eat it, so I don't think she likes how they taste.  Interesting that Teri's dog ate them.
I have a question about putting a few small twiggy sticks around the tree base. Please someone explain how that helps?
Will these same tips keep squirrels away from trees? I don't know if they eat fruit, but they like to steal nuts and the walnut tree is fairly small but close to a large manzanita bush so they can jump from one to the other very easily.

I'm thinking of an alternate to the tall stiff plastic sleeve with slits that Cecile mentioned.  What if 1 inch holes were drilled into it  for more ventilation or if you have a large enough diameter black drainage pipe to drill holes in that? Then cut in half and set in place around the trunk and zip tie it together through smaller holes drilled for them or just tie with wire.

Some critter was chewing on my tomatoes that hung below 12 inches from the ground. Do rodents eat tomatoes?  Or rabbits? Or maybe it was 'coons?  I put some field fencing around the tomatoes just loosely and not even completely enclosing them but just to deter the critter who might think twice about getting 'trapped' inside if a predator showed up while he was feasting.  It seemed to work, or maybe they just didn't want to stretch up to the higher fruit..

Earlier this summer something chewed the thick stem off one of the squash vines so that ended the life of it. It was very sad. I was thankful it didn't keep nibbling on more!  Same thing was happening to my potato vines - stems getting chewed off at different levels. Any ideas on protecting these smaller stemmed vulnerables?

For rabbits and voles, I am use a tree tube just a few feet tall, and for deer, I use a chicken wire cage. I have a lot of deer pressure. I’m very near a state park in a very rugged area, well rugged for Indianapolis.

One system that worked well for me against deer was to fence my whole property of about 2 1/2 acres.  

I found it was easier to fence the dog in than to fence the deer out .

The deer did not come in to the dog’s territory.  

Being a Komondor, she had a grand deep toned bark.  You could tell from her bark she was big.  We had a national park across the road, and lion and coyotes and the usual predators.  The presence of the dog also kept them at bay

Thekla McDaniels wrote:
Be aware that castor beans are toxic as is the oil…

Castor oil does not contain ricin and is nontoxic.  It is a valuable addition to your natural remedies medicine cabinet.  Castor oil packs can relieve and/or heal many problems.  If taken by mouth, castor oil will relieve constipation or totally clean you out, depending on how stopped up you are and how much you take.  Castor oil on hands helps relieve that scaly winter dryness and castor oil on your lips (don't overdo to avoid doo-do) will keep them soft and avoid chapping even in severe weather.

Keeping organic castor oil on hand is as wise and worthy as growing comfrey.  Both have myriad uses towards health and good harvests.

I also leave any base suckers growing around the main trunk so that critters eat them before the trunk is easily accessible.

I use pool noodles around my small trees. It works well. They eventually wear out and then I replace them. I paid for regular tree protection, but these are cheaper.