TOPIC: Inspected my patches today

I was pleased to se the growth on the seedling beds, and there were two that had more seedings up in them. Interestingly enough, these two beds were the only two we hand-planted.

There were no losses in the seedling beds... the 3-leafers were all there from my last look-see 3 weeks ago.

The rootlet beds are however another matter. Deer are decimating them. I had planted 5 different beds of rootlets, having bought 300 [3 yr old] rootlets. All came up, initially. Deer are eating my rootlets in a big way. Three of my bed are decimated, maybe one or two plants left there, all others eaten. Grumble, grumble, grumble....

I'm gonna have to kill some deer....

I would like some opinions as to the top growth of my 3 -leafers.. Should I expect any more leafs or stems growth in these the first year?

The 3 leafers will not get any bigger this year. I hope the deer move on too.

I agree with latt on the babys

I know it doesent help seeing the tops or getting berries this season on all of those rootlet tops,but they should be ok as far as coming back up next season,sevral friends actually top there own seng as I have read on the 3rd and 4th season.

Now if you can just figure out to get rid of the deer or controll the issue some how.

Billy.

Thanks guys-

So most of the growth of the 3 leafers is downward, after the initial top growth? I understand that these must put down at least 1-2\" in order to suvive the winter.

I'm still gonna kill some deer.

When i did my last look-see 3 weeks ago, I put out my game camera near one of my rootlet beds. I retrived it yesterday. I'll have to see what that shows up, what direction they are coming from, what size they are.... cause.....

I'm gonna kill some deer!

Here's some of the deer photos caught raiding my rootlet beds. Actually this is one of me after setting up the camera

Here's another \"raider\" going to the rootlets...

There are 3 rootlet beds to the far right of the photos, not really shown well in any of the pics. I positioned the camera about 8' up a tree, looking towards a funnel where the deer or whatever must travel to get into these beds.

Another of them... I hope that you guys can see that these beautiful and smart creatures really like rootlets!

While they are both beuatiful and smart... they are also good to eat!!!!! I've already chosen my treestand location....

My game camera took 114 photos before the memory card ran out of room. almost all were of deer.