Protecting oak sapling from deer

Qualitymark

I have an oak sapling in a pot for the last 15 years or so; every now and then I take it out and trim the roots and put in fresh earth.

I'm thinking of giving it to friends who have mountain land. However, they also have hungry visiting deer.

What can I use to protect the sapling from being eaten to death by deer?

Oldtree

Only effective method is seperation, four posts and surround with a high fence.

amandstu

I won't vouch for it being effective but what I did when we were bring visited by these animals was to cover the most cherished plants with netting (actually it was chicken wire netting).

The theory behind this was that (unless they had such a free run of the place that they ended up eating everything) the deer would hopefully only damage plants that were relatively unimportant to me.

I noticed that they were fond of the wild montbretia and I was as "happy " as it was possible to be in the circumstances that they tucked into them rather than other more vulnerable plants.

Whether or not I was just lucky I did manage to protect these shrubs (veronicas -btw with us deer are just a winter problem)
Eventually I was able to eract barriers and they haven't been back here for years even though they are in the neighbourhood.

This ,even though I know they could get in if they really had a mind to since I wasn't able to erect barriers all around the property (any barrier has to be very high of course).

Qualitymark

amandstu wrote: »

I noticed that they were fond of the wild montbretia

So that's why my friend's been unable to establish it!

This ,even though I know they could get in if they really had a mind to since I wasn't able to erect barriers all around the property (any barrier has to be very high of course).

Electric fences at six feet and 10 feet :evilgrin:

amandstu

Qualitymark wrote: »

So that's why my friend's been unable to establish it!

but once they are really well established even the deer won't destroy them completely as they develop into such an amount of bulbs (corms I think is what they are called) bundled together in a tangled mass that all they really do is to trim the surface .Mine lasted that way for a few years while the deer were here without ill effects even though the deer seemed to prefer them. (it was a bit like pigs digging up roots)

Qualitymark

amandstu wrote: »

but once they are really well established even the deer won't destroy them completely as they develop into such an amount of bulbs (corms I think is what they are called) bundled together in a tangled mass that all they really do is to trim the surface .Mine lasted that way for a few years while the deer were here without ill effects even though the deer seemed to prefer them. (it was a bit like pigs digging up roots)

I'll dig a load of them up from my suburban garden, where they're a nuisance, and put them under chicken-wire in my friend's garden.

I gave up on planting out the sapling in their place and have pollarded it, trimmed its roots and put it back in its big pot with new sand and compost and vermiculite. Let's hope it survives.