Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 3:12 pm Post subject: Plum tree protection from marauding labradors
I have 2 young labs and a very prolific plum tree in the garden. The oldest lab (1yo) is a great chewer/snaffler/swallower of anything edible and will undoubtedly eat any plums including stones she can get her mouth on this autumn. I really don't want to have to surgically remove masses of plum stones so has anyone got any tips about how to stop them getting to the windfall plums? It is a large tree (12x12x12 m approx) and cannot be fenced off from the rest of the garden. Fruit tree cages etc that I can find online are just too small, and if I wrap bird netting around the tree it will be heavy and pretty unwieldy making it difficult to pick the plums. If anyone has encountered this problem before and found a good solution please let me know!
How about a children's playpen. Lindam do a good hexagonal one and you can join them together if it needs to be wider. Whilst you buy it as a hexagon you can make it into any shape you like. We've used ours for all sorts from dividing rooms to gardens and all kinds of things inbetween! Very useful and temporary.
Hey Marie-Laure you're lucky - I've lost count of the number of small or young dogs with obstructed guts due to plum stones we've seen in the practice over the years! This tree produced over 60kg of fruit last year and naughty youngster will gorge herself...
Thanks for the idea paws but the tree is on a very steeply sloping part of the garden and anything rigid doesn't follow the contours. I've tried fencing off with chicken wire (flexible, can follow contours) but the 1yo neatly jumps it - clearly if I've gone to the trouble to try to keep her off there must be something worthwhile and interesting in there...
maybe train her to retrieve the windfall plums for you
on a serious note, what about higher fencing? sure you can get it as the pheasant pens on the shoot are made of it, about 6 foot tall between wooden posts? might be the only way
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We have the same issue with our apple tree, though one of the dogs has been eating them for 11 years without problem. The plums aren't as accessible and they seem to leave the stones if they do get them.
Fencing of some sort seems the obvious choice if you can find something flexible enough to fit the land.
I have this idea of having a friend build some kind of structure under/around the base of the tree to catch the falling apples - something they can roll into that we can then access but the dogs can't. Wooden or metal perhaps - make it into some kind of tree sculpture! That would help us a lot, but wouldn't stop the clever clog Labs who taught themselves last year to stand on their back legs to pull the apples off the tree
I have a similar issue with our plum tree, Basil takes his job very seriously and checks it every morning and everytime we return home - running straight into the garden instead of through the front door
Most afternoons he'll just lie under it and wait for them to drop.
It's worse at the end of the season when the wasps appear
Last year I opted to forgo the fruit and shook / picked a load tbh. The year before I put a hammock up to catch the bulk of it.
I have the same problem with Most of my fruit trees & bushes They both love to pick anything they can reach or has fallen off it's never caused them any problems other than I need to stop Bea with the apples as she put on too much weight last year I need to find some way of fencing off the apple trees as she will eat them alllll day long given the chance
They have managed to move or jump over anything I've tried so far
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That would help us a lot, but wouldn't stop the clever clog Labs who taught themselves last year to stand on their back legs to pull the apples off the tree 
They both love to pick anything they can reach or has fallen off 
as she put on too much weight last year 
