Hello.. early this spring I hand planted 1,200 loblolly pine seedlings on my 50 acre property. They are growing like weeds right now! Anyways, like anyone who is an outdoorsman, I know the effect that deer can have on young pines. I have a buddy that lives down the road from me that planted some, and many of them were destroyed. However, he did not take any precautions to try and prevent it. And he only planted about 15 anyways. Now, I have them planted in different spots all over the property, so fencing them would be impossible (or cost thousands at least). I purchased some stuff from a friend of mine that owns a nursery that he mixes himself and says it works well.. it smells and tastes bad to deer and you spray it on the seedlings. I have also heard using dial soap shavings, and even human hair shavings. I am willing to try ANYTHING to keep the deer from destroying all of my pine trees this winter. So please, if anyone has any ideas or have tried something that works, let me know. Thanks alot!
I tried most everything to keep them out of my garden with no success. One of my Old timey customers out on the edge of the Okeefenokee Swamp told me that they would stop if I hung a new hide on the fence every morning. :-/
Dunno about deer, but in NZ we have problems with hares chewing the tips off pine seedlings. They usually dont kill them, but you end up with multiple leaders >:(
You can buy a repellant thats egg based I believe, spray the plants with a coat of that and it seems to keep em away.
There are commercial mixes avaliable but a DIY one is made from 5 eggs, 600ml of water and 150ml of white acrylic paint. Spray about 20ml of this on and around each tree, good for 4 months repelling.
Now this is a Hare repellent, dont know if it will work for deer ::)
Send us yer address and Ed and I would be happy to do some Bow and Arrow shoosting this fall for ya. ::) ;D ;D ;D
Oh dont worry.. Im an avid deer hunter as well. But that doesnt help because I can only legally kill 4. Heck, where I live, even if I could legally kill 50.. it wouldnt matter.
My uncle used to get 4 or 5 dogs and stake up around his cornfields. But then you got to keep em fed and watered. Other than that I really don't know a good way to keep em out.
Typhoon,
check with your Game commission Rep. If you are a 50 acre tree farm you might be able to "harvest' as many "nuisance" deer as you need to protect your crops. ;D
Well I don't know much about Loblollys but here in Wisconsin I have trouble with deer eating my white pines. I found that bud capping works real well. Take a piece of 3X5 paper fold it over the top terminal and staple together with a few needles in each of the three staples. I put them on each fall and they will usually last till the next summer. Repeat each year until the trees are five feet tall. The deer will nibble the side branches but the tree will still grow straight. Good luck.
For deer repellent I use one part raw eggs to two parts water mixed up well in a blender. I put the mixture in a small bottle hand sprayer and spray it on (like a plastic bottle recycled that had window cleaner in it or something similar).
I start once we get a fair snow cover on, as that is when the deer start browsing on the trees more noticeably. I try to pick a sunny day or such to give the solution a chance to dry on the needles. It should be applied probably twice through the winter or after a heavy rain. It's not perfect but it does help.
I know others that use that mixture spray and they say it " works".
I found out putting together a mixture of tabasco, chilli pepper, garlic, dish soap, and water will do nothing to keep squirrels from my red oak acorns and hickory nuts. The way the fat things went after them nuts, you would think I poured sugar all over them. So much for home fixes. I think a BB gun would be more effective.