That sucks, I saw fruit tree farms list many to zone 2, but that must be incorrect or wishful thinking.

Sorry to hear that Rob. I've done that many times with deer. This year I knew the battery in one sprinkler was out and I was going to replace it but put it off one too many days and in one night they munched every leaf off the cherries.

Scott

Double posts galore the last couple of days, and this one split between comments, jeezsus! A bridge graft may be wrth trying. Nothing to lose.

This post was edited by Drew51 on Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 16:34

I should add a side note fof interest. Clearly the trees were not completely shut down for the season as there is a 1" thick ring of frozen sap around each wound...it was 50F 2 days ago and low teens last night...

Good news is that K1 will sprout back from down low. You should be able to bud back to those new shoots next summer.

I'm putting in 50 K1 this winter. I'll be budding peach, nectarine, plum, pluot, and apricot on them this summer. The literature says peach and nectarine are not viable commercially due to incompatibility but I've had enough success to try more. The fruit has been high brix possibly partly due to poor water transfer across the graft union.

Hopefully that will prove to be true and I will get to statr over with well established roots.
finding bud wood from good cultivars might be a trick around here.

I would have been fine if they had winterkilled to the ground....but this was so easily preventable....

rob:

I'd think you could use the current scions. They won't die all that fast just from being girdled. At least I don't think they will. Could be wrong in your climate.

That is sucky luck. I've never had voles girdle peaches- only rabbits, and I never protect them at so many sites for so many years. Did lose a nectarine that way a couple winters ago- there were peaches all around it left alone and an apple that was also girdled.

Strange how wildlife behaves so differently in different conditions.

"finding bud wood from good cultivars might be a trick around here."

Rob,

Can you take the wood from the current girdled trees? I know it's a bit early to be collecting graft wood, but under the right conditions I bet it would keep.

I got an old dorm fridge at a garage sale largely for this reason. I kept the temp a bit too cold (below freezing) in the refrigerator and the wood got freezer burnt, but still produced some successful grafts. I'd always had problems with wood sprouting over extended periods in the fridge before, but not with this cheap manual defrost fridge.

Edit:

Rob,

It just occurred to me you have to wait for the rootstock to throw suckers, so you can't collect wood now because spring grafting is out.

After the rootstock pushes suckers and you are ready to graft this fall, let me know if you want some budwood via mail. I've got a lot of varieties.

This post was edited by olpea on Sat, Dec 7, 13 at 20:55

Fruitnut, I don't know how long the scion would remain viable...there was a surprising amount of frozen sap at both the top and bottom of the girdling, so the tree is already losing water...hard to believe if I cut wood now it would hold until suckers are ready in early summer...???

Harvestman, I can't be sure it was voles. but the damage was all very low and I believe only under the short snow cover we had during thanksgiving. Rabbits have started to become a problem here over the last couple years. There were none and then we had a neighbor let some "pets" go....now I commonly see tracks/scat and have lost several young grapevines, and an apricot to them....entirely possible they did the peaches too.

Olpea, I appreciate the offer on budwood and may well take you up on it. I am pretty limited on what cultivars have a fighting chance up here and I know most of those are not "choice" for you folks who are in a more appropriate climate. but if you have some candidates I am open to suggestions. Generaly it seems like only 4-5 get brought up again and again..Reliance, Veteran, PF24c, Mckay,..possibly contender and redhaven.

I have Redhaven, Contender, and Madison (sometimes touted as a hardy peach).

I'm one of the people who disses Reliance. I grew it at one time, but it wasn't as good as my other peaches.

I have never tried it, but I agree with drew. Wouldn't it be worth a try to bridge graft?

I absolutely hate it when my laziness causes me problems like that! And it has many times!

bridge grafts are iffy to begin with..so much open tissue for disease and fungus to get a foothold.

peaches want warm temps to callus and heal...its going to be single digits and teens the next few days with a long cold winter just setting in....these guys are done.

One of them has a small strip maybe 1/2-3/4" wide that is still connected. On apple or something that has shown more vigor than these K-1 trees I might hold out hope but even if the tree lives into spring I think it would just be too compromised to keep putting the effort and space into it....hopefully it will limp along long enough to give me some viable scion to rework the roots

Rob, I have Reliance, PFC24, Contender, Madison, Intrepid, Sureset, Polly, Wisconson Balmer, Veteran, Raritan Rose, Hardired (likely not bud hardy in your area), which you can come and pick. I have read it has to be over 80 for peaches to callus, and have not had good luck with spring grafting of peaches. So if you want you can wait until June when it is warm and do some green tip grafting which has worked for me.

A thin remaining strip on a small tree may well be enough, you may want to put some wax or something around it to keep it from drying out.

With deep snow voles have girdled Apple, Peach, Cherry, Pear, and plum here. Now I keep a weed free zone around the trunks starting by the end of August (they start girdling when the temp starts to drop) at least 3' wide, as well as keeping the grass between the rows down.

There are organic vole baits out there, I do not know how well they work or how poisonous they are. The roof shingle method works well, as you only need to bait under shingles where the mice are.

If anyone has Early Magic I would like to trade for some scions.

Eric

Eric,
that sounds perfect. I appreciate the offer.
Assuming the I get the roots to throw some decent suckers I will certainly take you up on a few sticks.

Eric, I have EM and want to keep that plum circulating- it is outstanding and no longer commercially available. E-me

Rob, I have Reliance, PFC24, Contender, Madison, Intrepid, Sureset, Polly, Wisconson Balmer, Veteran, Raritan Rose, Hardired (likely not bud hardy in your area), which you can come and pick. I have read it has to be over 80 for peaches to callus, and have not had good luck with spring grafting of peaches. So if you want you can wait until June when it is warm and do some green tip grafting which has worked for me.

A thin remaining strip on a small tree may well be enough, you may want to put some wax or something around it to keep it from drying out.

With deep snow voles have girdled Apple, Peach, Cherry, Pear, and plum here. Now I keep a weed free zone around the trunks starting by the end of August (they start girdling when the temp starts to drop) at least 3' wide, as well as keeping the grass between the rows down.

There are organic vole baits out there, I do not know how well they work or how poisonous they are. The roof shingle method works well, as you only need to bait under shingles where the mice are.

If anyone has Early Magic I would like to trade for some scions.

Eric

It might be worth a shot to do some grafts with the trees own branches to try to bridge the girdled area. It would be a long shot but if you can save any it would be neat.

Came across this article on vole control today,

Here is a link that might be useful: Vole controle