I lost a lot of trees this year. Daughters and I had made two trips up to our orchard (4.5 hour drive) and planted 50 2 year old trees we had grafted at home and grown in a seedling bet to get them to size. We also planted other things as well, but those two rows of 25 were nearly all eaten, from the top down. I was laid up by a car accident a week after the first two trips, had multiple spinal proceedures ending about a month ago. Went up as soon as I could handle the car ride. all of the northern most row, and all but 4 of the row just to the south of that. just short peeled stumps.
Found a porky in one of our larger apple trees. One prickle rat down. have seen them in the area before, and chased them out, but this was the first time we had a lot of damage. Deer cages and trunk guards didnt matter to them. Hopefully the stumps put out suckers for me to graft onto. that was a lot of holes to dig. if I can at least not have to dig them again that would be something. All antique cider apples on 106 <sigh>.
Tom
Tom Kleffman
currently building a fruit orchard from scratch on the Bayfield Peninsula of Wisconsin, 4 miles south of Lake Superior, dead center of the snow belt, zone 5.