Deer Damage to Ivy & Trees - Ask Extension
I have a large patch of English Ivy next to my house. During winter deer ate leaves from most plants leaving bare stems.Would like to know if the...
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Deer Damage to Ivy & Trees #175071
Asked April 14, 2014, 8:00 PM EDT
I have a large patch of English Ivy next to my house. During winter deer ate leaves from most plants leaving bare stems.Would like to know if the ivy will regrow leaves and if so if there is anything I can to to help such as fertilizing.
Also deer have eaten most leaves from white cedar. Some branches have a few small green needles. Will they likely grow back?
The deer also ate vegetation back on spruce trees but the branches are not bare so I suspect while they look disfigured those branches will grow back in time to normal triangular shape.
Also deer have eaten most leaves from white cedar. Some branches have a few small green needles. Will they likely grow back?
The deer also ate vegetation back on spruce trees but the branches are not bare so I suspect while they look disfigured those branches will grow back in time to normal triangular shape.
Clinton County Michigan
Expert Response
Caveats in Growing English Ivy Plants:
I don’t think you need to worry about the return of your English Ivy. If they appeared to be healthy before the deer munched on them, you shouldn’t need to fertilize. These are a favorite of deer in winter. They have fallen out of favor in many circles in North America, where they are considered invasive. These days, it seems as many people wish to learn how to get rid of English Ivy plants as wish to learn how to grow them. They are also poisonous plants.The species can become a nuisance in gardens, rapidly colonizing hedges, trees and borders if not kept in check. It can even invade neglected lawns.White Cedar: Needles do not re-grow where they have been eaten off. Look at your tree and evaluate whether you think the bare spots are too extensive to live with. Also, look at the tips of the remaining branches to see if it appears that there will be new growth this year. If there is new growth, the branches may, in time, fill in the void and leave you with an attractive tree. You didn’t mention the size of your tree. If your cedar is mature (15 feet or so), it can be pruned by deer and still thrive, but there will eventually be no branches below the 7 foot height. Next winter you might want to consider fencing it to prevent further damage. Deer can stand and reach to around 7 feet high, so a cedar needs to be at least twice that height before it can sustain itself. Heavily browsed trees do not quickly bounce back. Even given care the next growing season they recover just a small fraction of their former green growth. This begins a chronic cycle of further damage during subsequent winters when these same trees will likely be visited and browsed again. This time, however, with green foliage at a minimum deer will now chew off and eat entire branches they had not molested during the previous winter. After two or three winters of repeated browsing there will be nothing left of the tree except a bare central trunk with a few badly gnawed branch stubs. While severe browsing will kill some trees, others tenaciously cling to life by continuing to send out a few green sprouts each spring. But if deer are present during subsequent winters (as they almost certainly will be) these badly browsed cedars will have little chance of ever growing into normal trees and in time will probably perish.
Commercial repellents or improvised scent barriers to keep deer away can not be relied upon. The only really effective deer barrier is metal fencing.
Fencing: It was determined that 14 gauge welded-wire fencing with 2x4 inch openings is a good compromise between cost and durability. When made into circular upright tubes for placement around individual trees, this grade of fence is strong enough to be self-supporting. This eliminates the added expense and labor of buying and setting fence posts. If added stability is desired the tube can be staked to the ground or some dirt heaped up around the base. During the critical winter months ice and snow will further anchor it. As the enclosed cedar tree grows larger inside the tube its branches will catch in the wire openings and also hold the deer exclosure tube firmly in place.
These simple deer exclosures are easily fabricated by cutting off lengths of fencing and then forming them into tubes by twisting the cut wire ends together. The minimum size for such tubes should be 4 feet in diameter and 5 feet tall. Deer cannot get their heads over a 5 foot high fence and at this height the tree will be completely protected while it gains stature. The 4 foot diameter is the smallest size for a self-supporting tube, but one that still provides enough room for the cedar to grow adequately wide and bushy during its shrub stage. A 4 foot diameter tube also has a small enough footprint so deer will not jump inside of it. And while foliage growing through the wire openings will be browsed off this should not significantly harm the tree and will provide some sustenance for wintering deer. The 2x4 inch openings will keep out snowshoe hares, that some sources claim are another cedar predator.
Another material for fabricating effective deer exclosure may be tubes formed from steel reinforcement mesh used in concrete work. However, the 6x6 inch openings of this mesh are considerably larger. This would allow hares to slip through and deer to poke their snouts in a bit farther. However the cost of concrete reinforcement mesh is somewhat less than 14 gauge welded wire fencing and consists of heavier 10 gauge wire that would provide a stronger self-supporting deer exclosure. Although not galvanized, rust may not be a serious problem. As exclosures are removed deer will be allowed to browse the lower branches and foliage. So in the end the deer will get what they want anyway, but without destroying the tree before it had a chance to establish itself. This will benefit not only deer, but also the overall ecology. Once they have overcome the deer browsing menace, these white cedar trees should have a long life possibly lasting hundreds of years as the species has few disease or insect problems.
Hope this was helpful. Feel free to contact us again if you have further questions.
