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Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 22, 2017 9:42:24 GMT -6
I ordered a Wolf River apple for this spring. Mainly because I read they have huge apples. Anyone plant one, probably not the best for deer??
Probably plant it by the old farm house?
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Post by buckvelvet on Feb 22, 2017 10:14:34 GMT -6
I don't see any downside to a October dropping apple that has some disease resistance? Large 5 inch apple or a 1 inch crab, they all do the job.
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Post by nhmountains on Feb 22, 2017 10:23:24 GMT -6
I've watched a few deer in my main orchard eat apples in the fall. Their preference early on is smaller than 2" red apples. They'll check those trees out first and walk by larger red or yellow apples. They seem to prefer the smaller apples because they can fit it all in their mouths. They bite larger apples in to smaller chunks and have to put their heads down to feed and pick them up. They will finish up the chunks before moving onto another apple though.
Once there's a few frosts they will move onto the yellow apples. Again they prefer the smaller over larger. They have preferred trees they will go to check out first within the orchard rather than go from tree to tree. These are the observations I've seen on my land. I don't have groups of 5-6 or more deer moving through. We do have a group of four now though.
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Post by Sandbur on Feb 22, 2017 11:37:28 GMT -6
they go to the trees where they can put the whole apple in their mouth first, or they just like chestnut crabs.
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Post by smsmith on Feb 22, 2017 12:31:53 GMT -6
I've seen deer eat full size apples, I've seen them eat crabs (including ornamental crab fruit). The only time I could ever determine a preference was on my old place...they definitely preferred McIntosh over anything else available.
Would that hold true here? Who knows. I won't plant a Mac here because they're disease magnets.
I've got a Wolf River here in my largest orchard, not bearing fruit yet so I can't tell you if the deer here eat them or not.
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Wolf River
Feb 22, 2017 13:08:03 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Bwoods11 on Feb 22, 2017 13:08:03 GMT -6
How many orchards do you have Stu?
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Post by smsmith on Feb 22, 2017 13:15:19 GMT -6
Mainly 2, but there's some scattered trees too
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Post by chummer16 on Feb 23, 2017 19:20:26 GMT -6
I have a few wolf rivers, they are a great tree. I have not got an apple yet but out of all my trees they have the least issues. They are putting on great growth, no disease, and are growing straight as an arrow. I plant mostly small apples so I thought they would be a nice contrast.
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