ALL ABOUT Apples (for deer)
Deer love apples and pears and plums, but mostly they love apples. We love apples, too. We also love venison. Therefore, a small orchard out behind the barn or somewhere in the back 40 (deer like security, remember) can be a good addition to food plots. We’re always happy to share with game animals and birds.
You will save yourself a lot of work AND shorten the time to apple production if you get the right trees — standard size or semi-dwarf varieties — that also will survive in the hardiness zone your hunting property is in. Dwarf trees are, in our opinion, too small and thus overly subject to deer browsing. Spend some extra money and buy trees that are 5 to 6 feet tall (already 2 or 3 years old), plant them properly (in loamy, not clay, well-drained soil on north slopes so winter warm spells won’t trigger harmful mid-winter growth), and with the right spacing (so they can always be in full sunlight and not crowd each other when mature), fertilize them at the proper time with the right fertilizer (hey, we all need to eat), spray them properly (to control
