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before planting fruit trees. Deer will feed on fruit trees year around, and bucks will rub their antlers on young, limber trees, damaging the bark.
If fencing or cages can get you by until the trees are larger, then we have an army of squirrels that can strip a small planting in a number of days. As my subdivision has matured, both deer and squirrels have increased dramatically.
Deer eat most of the foliage and fruit from my apple and peach trees up to about four feet. Squirrels feed on the remaining fruit in July and August as it starts to attain some good size. These critters were not a problem ten years ago when the subdivision was young and did not provide as much wildlife habitat.
Assuming that we have a good location with no wildlife problems, we can move on to variety selection. There are varieties of fruit that ripen from June through October.
An orchard can be planned for fresh fruit throughout the growing season, or varieties can be selected that ripen all at once for the serious canner of food preserver. Some varieties of fruit are best suited for fresh eating, while other varieties are better for canning, freezing, or other preservation methods.
Fruit trees do require attention to annual pruning. While unpruned trees will produce fruit, a properly pruned tree will have strong limbs that do not break under a good crop load. In addition, a pruned tree will have better light and air penetration, which improves fruit quality and allows sprays to contact all parts of the tree.
Fruit trees are highly susceptible to many insects and diseases. It is very difficult to produce a decent or even usable crop without
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