Good morning everyone,
I think that I have a serious vole problem in my orchard. Yesterday, while touring my orchard, I noticed that many trees had been girdled from the ground level up to about 6 - 8 inches. The bark was stripped clean off all the way around.
I suspect voles, but I haven't seen or captured any so I can't be sure. How would I go about diagnosing the culprit for sure?
Have any of you had problems with voles? If so, what did you do to counter them?
Thanks in advance. I'm very discouraged as I see damage on about 1/2 my trees (and I have 120 trees in the orchard right now).
Bryce
10's out of many, many, many youngsters; these from the greenhouse nursery pots at TOC; one year whips mostly, have gone into permanent location recently. The trunk protection used there are scored corrugated plastic sheets that are rolled around a piece of pvc pipe to form the shape and taped top and bottom (some assembly required). They,re inserted over the whip and stake to protect hopefully from both critters and freeze/thaw- sun/cold effects.
Voles, field mice and rabbits may be deterred from plantings by the physical barrier. Also, most commercially used trunk protectors I've seen, are white in color, allowing aerial (Hawks) and terrestrial (Coyotes) predators to see the rodents more readily from afar. Or at least, we hope to make the vermin feel more timid and cautious about having free run in a young orchard.
There are, no doubt, many variations on the theme. I think though that barriers might be a direction to pursue at least explore.
Oh, and if you've mulched the plantings, the popular wisdom says to clear it away from the trunk so field mice won't take up residence right next to a readily accessible food source when other pickings are slim.
Viron fielded a discussion some years ago, a long thread specifically targeted on voles- in the archived forum, which I understand is having issues, related to being unable to browse multiple topics without soon locking you out of said archives. So maybe key into the search "voles" before going down the rabbit hole. (there's so much good stuff there)
The Vole discussion although long and revisited is worth taking to note.
I suspect you have apples or pears which are far more tasty to animals than other things. Either way there may be a chance to rescue the damaged ones even though the cambium and phloem tissue is gone that I have seen work in similar situations with varying degrees of success.
You will want to coat vaselene as soon as possible and try and maintain this layer on as long as necessary. If the trees are very young they might be easy to shelter, then do that as well. This will go a long way towards lessening the stress and increasing chances of survival.
A fungal bacterial antibiotic will also be of benefit. I have heard of antibiotics being a good idea when trees are active and able to have intake of externally applied products, but when you increase the humidity of the damaged trees by above mentioned sheltering (or even wrapping with films of kitchen plastic/parafilms), protective agents become vital. In the which case diseases may already be present anyway. But you will still want to do all you are able. In which case look hard at the following antibiotic procedure I pasted on another post concerning aftercare of pear grafts earlier this year and try to apply that. Then if necessary I can help you locate the product.
I probably should have mentioned that the orchard is mixed species. It is dominated by apples and pears, but we also have peach, plum, cherry, nectarine, paw paw, fig, and quince. The trees were planted in 2015 and 2016 mostly, and are on dwarfing rootstock (M26, OHxF 333?, etc.).
The peaches and nectarines that were girdled had would looked like a clearish jelly at the base of their trunk (I was wondering if that was bacterial infection).
This problem is mostly self-inflicted I suspect. We try to be as organic as possible, so I always plant cover crop between the rows and then let it grow to flower to support beneficial insects. I'm sure that provides fabulous food and cover for the voles during the growing season (we usually don't mow it down until mid-July after they are all done flowering).
Do you have a good source for the corrugated plastic? Since I have over 100 trees to protect, I'd like to find an economical source if possible.
Thanks,
Bryce
ArmedAmish said
Do you have a good source for the corrugated plastic? Since I have over 100 trees to protect, I'd like to find an economical source if possible.
TOC ordered from one of the local nursery/vineyard supply houses (some supplies from Canby?) these being the most economical they could find, eventually about 6000 needing to be put in the ground, some transplanted from nursery rows, some from other temporary in ground lodging, more from pots in the greenhouse and another outside staging area.
I'll be talking with Joanie and Shawn soon, and will pin down where they found what they found.
ArmedAmish said
The peaches and nectarines that were girdled had would looked like a clearish jelly at the base of their trunk (I was wondering if that was bacterial infection).
That oozing which is so common in peaches, cherries, and similar are a ripple effect due to injury caused by harsh physical contact or disease. In this case critter bites with the visual oozing helps indicate a proper response and therefore if circumstance warrants it then rescue some scionwood for regrafting the worst of all candidates.
ArmedAmish said
The trees were planted in 2015 and 2016 mostly, and are on dwarfing rootstock (M26, OHxF 333?, etc.).
If some of your pear or apple candidates are badly voled to the ground level then grafting is still an option. I happened to have a larger than you would need quantity of the apple m26 and pear 333 and 513 scionwood as a result of left over experimentation. You can have them for free from stopping by. You can graft like kind to like kind with reliable expectations as pear and apples are rather reliable, and a double graft performed by saving your own scions are also a reliable method to save your 3 seasons of growth.
The permaculture solution of putting bulb flowers, and diverse pollinating or attracting plants is a great idea, but don't plant them next to the trunk. Plant them at the place where the drip line will be when the tree has matured. Also, I use my mini schnauzzer to drive away small voles, mice, rabbits, etc.
John S
PDX OR
Unfortunately, I broadcast clover and vetch over the whole orchard every Fall. That way, I don't have to run equipment in the orchard in the Spring when the ground is soggy. By June, we usually have grasses that are up to 4 to 5 feet tall.
We do this because our land was basically sterile for decades as a Christmas tree farm. It took several years before grasses would even germinate in the soil. It seems like I've turned a corner and may need to adjust my practices...
Thanks for all the tips. We going to go after the voles with a vengeance, now that we know they're a problem!
ArmedAmish said
Do you have a good source for the corrugated plastic? Since I have over 100 trees to protect, I'd like to find an economical source if possible.
Joanie said they purchased the protectors from OBC= Oregon Bag Company in Canby. Thinks the minimum purchase is going to be way more than your going to want, with your tree count.
Suggests mixing up some white latex paint with manure and lime. painting the trunks with the solution. No specific proportions are given, 'just some.' Happened to act as a deterrent when used at TOC on exposed nursery pots and those painted in the nursery rows. The ORIginal purpose was mainly to protect from sun scald, summer and winter damage. That would be a more economical alternative to other sorts of physical barriers. Seems the critters don't much like the taste of the manure and lime, paint mix.
Also suggested, if the girdling is not complete on some of the trees- try your hand at inarch grafting to save what you can of the plantings.
Nature abhors a vacuum - if you kill 100 voles in one area, 100 other voles will quickly move in, especially since there can be as many as a thousand or more voles per acre. Poisoning them pollutes the groundwater and can kill cats, dogs, owls, hawks, snakes, and other predators.
It seems to be much more effective to make gardens and orchards as inhospitable as possible to voles and as inviting as possible to predators. This isn't easy or quick, but it definitely works to a degree. When we bought our small tree farm, the most important advice we received was to keep 1 1/2 feet on all sides of each tree clear of any growth, including grass. Voles like to be sheltered from predators and tend to shy away from bare ground. This has been useful advice for our garden and orchard as well. Everything in my garden was being eaten by voles, including onions and garlic! Now we weed-eat (down to bare ground) around each bed, and it has made a huge difference. When we slack off the voles return with a vengeance. Unfortunately this means that I don't mulch around each fruit tree, as much as it pains me. As John said, plant and mulch no closer than the drip line.
Interestingly, I'm also finding that they don't seem to care for wood ashes; so when sprinkling it around my fruit trees, I like to pour an extra amount down any vole holes that I spot. Wood ashes increase pH levels, which my soil needs.
Sadly my dogs aren't interested in chasing voles. I have been encouraging them to urinate around the trees, though, in the hope that this will discourage voles. Does anyone have experience with this?
This is my first time dealing with voles, and they are certainly destructive and vexing.
For anyone accessing the Old Forum Archives, an error message will appear at random(?), so be prepared to get kicked off of the entire Home Orchard Society website, not just the old postings. I can get back on the site by rebooting my modem and computer, but I don't know if that solution will work for everyone. It's a pain, but the archives provide some enjoyable reading.
This is what I use. I cut hardware cloth nto approx 1 foot by 1 foot squares, and make loose sleeves with room for trunk expansion. I fasten them with zip ties.
Unfortunately I can't load the photos directly, using a tablet computer.
Before using these sleeves, I lost many small trees to voles. Since using them, only one. That was via inderground tunnels that moles made, giving the voles deeper access.
These sleeves do not expand, so must be removed after a few years depending on how fast the tree grows.
I just have them touching the ground or at most about an inch deep. If deeper, roots grow though them and they are very difficult to remove.
I thought about blending up a batch of thai hot peppers, mixing that with latex paint, and painting the trunks. Never got around to it.
I've been using the hardware cloth sleeves for about 6 years. When the trunks are thick with thick bark, they no longer seem necessary. I've forgotten a few and the trunk expanded to squeeze against the guard, but managed to remove those.
Lately some feral cats have moved in. That might help although there are concerns about cats killing so many birds. Four years I put up an owl box but no owls have moved in.
Where I abide, NE Portland, I am unaware of vole problems. I have never had a tree girdled. Not even a nibble.
My Buddy Tony, who lives up in Beavercreek, struggles mightily with Winter critter attacks. Heh, heh; I sometimes call him Tony the tree killer. Though I take few precautions, and he constructs elaborate defense systems for his trees; he suffers much predation and tree death, and I suffer almost none.
He has mountain soil, red and rocky. It appears to be a fairly harsh environment. Lots of conifers, and otherwise sparse of vegetation. And, the local critters? Probably desperately hungry during the cold winter months.
I have dumb luck, I suppose. Neighborhood cats, prowl my jungle-like lot, hunting small rodents. My trees though never sprayed, have suffered few diseases. Fire Blight doesn't cause much damage hereabouts. Even scab, has little impact on my trees excepting in heavily shaded areas, close to the ground. I don't even have to water or fertilize. Bottom land; rich soil, deep and moist
Easy to point the accusatory finger at yer neighbor, Job..... When you, luckily, never suffer.
Nowadays, I'm paying close attention to the plights reported here. Should I move to a less favorable location, I'm aiming to profit from your painfully acquired acumen.
I had another challenge with voles. When I planted some containerized trees, moles loved tunnelling into the rich nursery compost.
Maybe that rich nursery compost attracted juicy earthworms or larvae for the moles to eat. Apparently, voles utilize mole tunnels to access some tree roots. I lost numerous young trees to complete root destruction. There were lots of mole hills and mole tunnels adjacent to those baby trees. I tried lots of things, including making a big hole and lining with chicken wire, before planting trees in the lined holes.
Then I started bare-rooting newly bought containerized or ball-and-burlap trees. I washed off all of the soil, using a garden hose with nozzle. I planted the new trees using only the soil from that hole, no amendments. Since then, there have been no mole-tunnels by my new trees, and no root destruction.
The bare-rooting allows for correction of girdling roots, and gets the plant started in the soil that it will be living in permanently. But I think that process helped with the root destruction via moles and voles as well.
When I moved to Vancouver (1990) I built a house on the last remaining lot and used a weed spray to kill weeds. A day later there was a poisoned vole and the last one ever seen in the neighborhood.
Then I got interested in summers for gardening in interior Alaska, which I do every summer now. But there are voles that loved to eat the mongolian ground cherry shrubs in the very rich garden soil areas and never in bare soils where I eventually moved them. However this was not due to the soil life but the heat sink effect that the voles are attracted to in the microclimate effect.
This last summer I opened up my gutted out deep freeze that I use to store scionwood and left the hatch open with wet rich soil at the bottom. I guess that works pretty good in the dry of summer because all the voles got thirsty and they could not jump back out the 30 inches. So I put a shoe in there and observed and fed them until the first frost cold really did them in. I vouch they do eat meat as when the first one died of cold the rest ate it!
JeffV -- Thank you very much for posting that last reply. I wouldn't have known. I have occasionally read about painting the lower portion of a trunk with latex paint, or a water/latex paint mix (50/50), for protection against sunburn or for pest protection. However, the type of latex paint has never been mentioned in such articles. I haven't yet painted any trunks, so being aware of the issue is VERY helpful. Knowledge be good!
Some of my trees develop a layer of lichens on the trunks and stems. I'm pleased with that because it's a sign of unpolluted air, and I also believe that it helps to protect the stems from invasion by pathogens. The last thing I'd want to do is paint on something intentionally impregnated with biocides.
Tim
Unpolluted air. Ummm.
Less cancer in our lungs, possibly more Cankers on our trees.
As I recorded elsewhere; In years past, my trees suffered no Anthracnose. Local air was sufficiently polluted with sulfides, to suppress the infective agent.
Nowadays, we have sparkling clean air, but greater vulnerability to some diseases.
Depending on luck, tree varieties, and location.... We may be called upon to take drastic measures in order to bring forth a harvest. Any harvest!
It can be a real struggle, to avoid resorting to a "Nuclear Option".
Idyllwild
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
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