Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: crichmond on June 07, 2007, 09:27

Title: fruit tree dying
Post by: crichmond on June 07, 2007, 09:27

Hi All

I have 7 ot 8 fruit trees on my allotment all dwarf varieties but one of my blackcurrants (tree type not bush) is dying, something has eaten the bark in two places near the base of the stem.
What would do this?
Only one of the trees is affected but I am worried that I may have to put some protection around the base of the other trees.

Cheers Chris

Title: fruit tree dying
Post by: corndolly on June 07, 2007, 09:30

Could be rabbits ? protection is needed for your young trees asap. A sleeve of wire netting should stop them.

Title: fruit tree dying
Post by: Trillium on June 07, 2007, 15:01

Most likely rabbits, as Corndolly says. They love certain barks and will continue to go after them. In winter it can get worse when there's little else to eat, so definitely cover all the fruit tree trunks and bury the wire into the ground 2" or so to keep the rabbits from digging. No tree thickness is too thick for them. My sister wrapped her mature semi-dwarf apple trees for winter and the snow level topped the tree wrap. The rabbits had a field day stripping all the fruiting branches and now the trees are dead. This is the second time she's replaced the trees and is now giving up.

Title: fruit tree dying
Post by: WG. on June 07, 2007, 15:24

I've seen mature beech trees as good as killed by rabbits eating the bark at the base.   Pretty much what European settlers did to trees in Australia in fact - ring barked them thinking that killing them would preserve water.