Rabbits damaged most of our baby apple trees.

Happy Spring 2019.. Well most of our baby apple trees look like this, with the bark stripped even though there was chicken wire around them all. The snow was so deep that the rabbits got over the chicken wire and dug down into the snow to strip off the bark from the apple trees, and other trees also. Mostly apple trees were badly damaged, some several years of bearing apples and totally destroyed. This one bore beautiful sweet 16 apple for the past 3 or 4 years, it was a super dwarf so very small..should have protected it completely over the top. Oh well it is a goner now..

This one was a johnared and you can see that the bark is not only stripped off the branches but the trunk as well, this is the case of most of the apple trees, bark removed all the way around. Not much chance of saving them, also a snow, a braeburn, and several others. There is a red delicious and a yellow delicious that had plastic tree guards on them that are not much more than whips that are un damaged, and a Honeycrisp that is bearing size, had one apple last year, with NO damage.  but all the other babies are goners.

There is damage on a Reliance peach, several plums, several serviceberries (which are on their own roots and should come back) and some other plants. All my pears and cherries seem to be ok and most of the plums and nuts.  I won't be replacing the apples as I have 3 full grown apples that are unharmed and 3 babies that are surviving, so I don't really need all the others, and it is quite an expense I can't deal with right now,

I do plan on better fencing around every fruit tree in the yard for winter 2020.