Fruit trees/plants for deer

[kd350]

Listened to a podcast the other day that got me thinking. They are planting honeysuckle for their deer since they can’t bait.

what trees or plants would get good to get? I was thinking trying the honey suckle, maybe a mulberry tree? We have established persimmon trees on the place already

[Outback77]

Wild plumb thickets are good food and cover

[dbaio1]

We have a fair amount of wild plum trees on one section of the farm. The deer love them. We also have persimmon and crabapple that also get hammered. All seem to be pretty hardy and have survived drought and freezes. All were planted years ago so do not know the particular varieties. I would suggest contacting a tree place that specializes in trees for wildlife. The Wildlife Group is one I recently started following as we are doing some timber thinning and a few habit projects will follow that will include some plantng of crabapple, persimmon and pear in protective setups to get established next year.

[cstrey18]

Oak trees are probably the best thing to attract deer during hunting season. Beautyberry and persimmons are also good depending on location. Wild plums, mesquite and hackberry provide food and cover during the summer months. Honeysuckle can provide food throughout the winter but make sure it is one of the native varieties. Japanese honeysuckle will take over and eventually kill trees and other native plants. These are just some of the things I’ve seen in north central Texas. If you’re in East Texas you probably have a lot more options.

[Grayson]

Anyone ever try growing persimmons from seed? I have a persimmon behind my house and have a limb that cracked in recent storms. I figured I might as well try to harvest some seeds from the fruit on that cracked limb before they die and see if I could make anything grow from them. Just wondered if anyone has ever done this before.

[Texas Grown]

Let's not forget wild grapes. I know they are not a tree. But they will climb trees. And deer love them during the early part of Oct. when the grapes darken up.

[RMW]

Let's not forget wild grapes. I know they are not a tree. But they will climb trees. And deer love them during the early part of Oct. when the grapes darken up.

Deer love wild mustang grapevine the leaves and grapes, I pull them off the pecan trees and my deer come running for it

[kd350]

Is there a place to buy mustang grapes? If anything the local feed store would have them?

[RMW]

Is there a place to buy mustang grapes? If anything the local feed store would have them?

Google mustang grape seed and you can by online

[Drycreek3189]

Apple trees of different varieties that drop at different times might be something to consider.

[PoppinPiggies]

We are giving up on trees after years of making solar watering systems, building cages around them ect... we just can't beat the grasshoppers. We've planted a few oak varieties, peach trees, persimmon ect.... grasshoppers destroy them

Trees are a longterm play anyway, we figure time spent towards pasture improvement might be better at least in the short term better for us now. Need to look into some of the more bushy and vine type plants y'all have mentioned

[Luckytxtoo]

Get a hold of Dr. Deer on FB. Doc knowsdoes it all!

[MAP]

we have several big mulberry trees and I've never noticed much deer activity around them. I've been planting alot of trees and have another few dozen bigger ones to plant this fall. I've also been planting alot of acorns and really the only success I've had with those are burr and chinkapin, I think I also have a few sawtooth acorns growing. You might want to look into growing dwarf chinkapin oaks, I'd like to plant alot of those for deer and turkey, but they are hard to find down here. I use to buy stuff from nativnurseries but have never had much luck with them and I'm not impressed by the roots that come on their trees. Now I order acorns from people over facebook and I can get hundreds of acorns for the price of 3 or 4 small foot long trees from nativnurseries.

[tundrafiend01]

I think one tree that's pretty overlooked is the sawtooth oak. One of my neighbors swears by them. They seem to be a great option for most of Texas, they don't seem to care about soil type, and start producing acorns as early as 4 years of age.

[Lincoln Hawk]

IMO you're better off protecting/caging naturally occurring young woody plants until they get out of deer range. Wire mesh or brush both work. Think hackberry/cedar elm/live oak/gum bumelia. No nursery charge, no digging, no watering all summer.

There's no way in hell a honeysuckle makes it in the wild in central or S. TX without protection.