Hello all,

I successfully made my first air layer earlier this summer, and the plant grew to a nice, healthy  18+ inches with 4 different branches.  Next step, plant that baby in the front yard and have my first in ground tree.  Only one problem, the deer, although they don't really seem to like the fig, have no problem sampling it day by day while reaching that conclusion (a problem I don't have with my fenced in back yard...I thought deer didn't eat fig trees anyways?).  Well, 5 days go by, and there is virtually nothing left of my poor fig.

Naturally, I plan to call up my friend and see if he's interested in some bow hunting, and I'll certainly get a little cage come next year, but I have a more pressing problem.  The branches on the fig tree still exist, and they seem to be trying to bud again.  We're about 1.5-2 months out from leaf dropping, and I don't want my tree to spend a bunch of energy when its not going to get any good return out of it.  Do I let it do its thing, or do I pinch the buds off and try to force it into dormancy for the year?  I planted it a couple weeks ago (wrong time of year, I know, but it was already getting root bound)

Thanks for any advice.

Let it be

Deer will not eat anything I put sevin dust on.
I use it on cuttings after I first put them in the ground.

Try to find a dust that ruins the taste for the deer.
Once they try it they leave em alone.

Doug

I hate promoting sevin, but it does have it's uses.

edit:
Im doing a experiment on using hot pepper spray
around my property to see if I can keep them
wishing to go elsewhere.

I find Bird netting works fine to deter deer from my young nut trees.

There are some excellent techniques for deer deterrents here;

 http://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/deer/deer_damage/ddmtnonlethal.asp

I reached the conclusion that they don't really like figs either, but when you live in city you have to contend with dozens of deer each taking a sample. I've found that milorganite will keep them away for a few weeks.

I envy the people outside the cities. They can just make jerky out of trespassers.

I LOVE DEER,........ on a plate! with boiled potatoes, green beans, carrots, nice mushroom gravy and bountiful plate of figs on the side.

hang some cheap dollar store soap in the area. I pull a cheap supermarket bag through a hole drilled in the middle. It amplifies the scent, collects water, dumps on a nosy deer and has a strange texture, even makes noise in the wind. Perfect! Deer hate it...

A compound bow works wonders.

If you are a vegetarian, donate the meat to the poor...they'll be happy for the bounty of the land.

Sevin dust works nicely as has been mentioned as a non-lethal alternative. A

Saw a new product the other day that supposedly repelled deer, but don't remember the details. You might do a little googling.