Sorry to hear of your illness. I do hope that you are much better!! That radiation can be a real ordeal in itself.

I'd be making sausage about now. Do hope your tree recovers. Peaches are pretty resilient.

Keep us posted!!

Michael, it's good to see you on GardenWeb. I left you a message through the blog you and Judy post, but I'm not sure it went through.

Deer are a bummer. They decimated a few cherry trees earlier this winter. I sprayed them w/ Bobbex (deer repellent) and it kept them from rubbing for about a month, then they were back at it again. I sprayed the trees again and so far they've left them alone. Hope the hunters have thinned them out some.

Peaches grow so fast, you probably won't loose much.

Michael, I wish you a speedy and full recovery. Early on, I had trees obliterated to the ground. Now, I fence all my trees until about their fourth or fifth year. I think the danger is over now that the rut has past and most bucks will lose their antlers soon. October and early November are the worst months for rubbing behavior. However, if you have a bad winter, you might see browsing on some of the smaller, more tender twigs.

Sorry to hear about your health circumstances. The issue with the deer is just salt in the wound!

We have used two strategies (this would be 3 for you with the fence) to keep deer away from our trees.

1. A good quality tree wrap will help protect from all but the most aggressive buck. A couple of very good options can be found at: http://www.buckbegone.com/treewraps.html

2. We use a fear based repellent that plays on a deer's instinctive fear of predators. The easiest to use all-weather product we know of is Deer Repellent Packs. You can find those here: http://www.deerrepellentpacks.com

Those two strategies in addition to your fencing should keep damage under control.

Good luck with your health concerns and the protection of your trees!

Here is a link that might be useful: Deer Repellent

Hi,
just want to share my lucky experience with Milorganit organic fertilizer for fighting deer. For some reason, they don't like the smell or something else from this fertilizer and finally have left me and my roses and my apple trees along. I hadn't seen any deer damage since I applied Milorganit on my yard and garden area. So simple and inexpensive.