Do Deer Eat Crab Apples

Sure – deer love eating crabapples. To add to that, they show no adverse reactions after eating the fruits. As they are picky eaters, deer will favor fruits that are sweeter and juicier. While eating the crabapple, they eat the succulent parts and save the other parts – the less desirable ones – until their other food sources run low.

In that case, therefore, you can plant different crabapple trees to attract the animals to your yard. These sweet fruit varieties will give the deer food they can eat when the season begins. Typically, they will switch to the bitter types of fruits when food starts running scarce.

In this article, we’ll delve a little deeper into the crabapple and see its details, like types and stuff like that. Then, we shall look at how deer behave around other fruits, that is if they do like other fruits or not. Get ready for a couple of a thousand fruity words.

The Core Of The Crabapple

When the 19^th century was kicking in, farmers started collecting wild-growing and small-fruited apples from many parts of the world. Once they did that, they started breeding them selectively to improve disease resistance and for ornamental value without regard to the outcome’s taste. The more colorful and small fruits that showed persistence were chosen over those large ones which dropped. The idea of this selective breeding was to make the periods of bright fruit display longer and improve the urban landscapes by reducing the amount of litter from messy fruit.

This means that modern crabapples represent apple genetics from a broad spectrum of tree forms, whether weeping, spreading, or upright. Some crabapples are disease-resistant even though they have tiny fruits.

Crabapple Details

So, we have already established that crabapples are edible, but are they that way to humans? Yes – their flesh is something that humans can enjoy. In relation to apple trees, crabapple trees are the same, and the only difference comes with the fruits.

Some crabapple fruit varieties work well for making desserts or jams, and they have delightful tastes. Depending on the tree variety you are dealing with, you will find the fruit details being different, that is, in terms of the color and size.

The Flavor Of The Crabapple

The best word to use to describe the flavor of the crabapple fruit is tart. Some of the crabapple fruit varieties have extreme tartness such that many people do not consider them edible foods.

As you may know, (standard), apples can be eaten uncooked. However, with crabapples, people see it necessary to cook the fruits, especially the ones with a lot of sugar. This helps to offset the bitter flavor and deliver the essence of the apple to its eater.

Crabapple Types

There are two major types of crabapple – ornamental or edible. However, this is the umbrella categorization since crabapples are also judged by their presence in various textures, sizes, colors, and fruit flavors. For humans, it is best to classify them as edible or inedible (or ornamental, for plant breeders)

1. The Edible Type Of The Crabapple

Some fruits produced by some specific crabapple fruits have sweet flavors, making them worthy of being edible. Here are the top varieties of edible crabapple fruit trees:

The Edible Kind Of Crabapple Fruit Trees
The Red Vein	The Hopa	The Centennial
The Dalgo or Dolgo	The Chestnut	The Pink Spires

So, if you have set your mind to look for a crabapple tree with deliciously edible fruits, you can either buy or plant any of the varieties tabulated above. The fruits will come in handy when you’re making desserts.

If you choose to go the way of planting, ensure that you mention what you exactly want. Technically speaking, all crabapple fruits are edible, but not all of them have sweet tastes. Making your request specific ensures that you will not spend your money, effort, and time planting a tree whose fruits will disappoint your tongue. Ask about flesh textures, sweetness, and flavor, especially if you plan on cooking up the crabapple fruit. If your seller is not expert enough to respond to the questions, go online, and do your research to make an accurate and impressive purchase.

2. The Ornamental Type Of The Crabapple

The second type of deer-loved fruit is this ornamental one. While many of these types of trees are dwarf, some of them are of average height. This feature makes it very easy for any landscape design to accommodate and incorporate them. The fruits of these types are small, with a high level of tannin in them. Also, they have hard textures, and their tastes will be bitter or painfully tart. This renders the fruits useless when it comes to cooking up jellies or jams. Since their fruits do not have the honor of being edible, their trees look stunning in shape and color, which is why they are ornamental.

The top ornamental crabapple tree varieties are:

The Ornamental Kind Of Crabapple Fruit Trees
The “Camelot” or the Malus	The Firebird	The Royal Raindrops
The Sargent Tina dwarf	The Red Jewel	The Sparkling Sprite

Some crabapple trees like the “Spring Snow” and the “Prairie Rose” are ornamental trees that do not produce any fruit. These produce fruits that stick to the tree much longer before they fall off than the edible verities.

The Deer And Other Fruits

In North America, the deer is among the most observed animals. Many people sit and wonder if deer eat fruits? Well, these animals love feeding on any fruits that they find. If your yard has some fruit trees, deer are likely to invite themselves and feast on the flavor and the juiciness. This section of this article will focus on the fruits that deer eat. We’ll take each fruit one by one, so let’s go!

1. Pumpkins

Sure – deer will eat any pumpkin fruits that come their way. This is together with squash, lettuce, beans, and strawberries. You should know that among many of the favorite garden foods for deer is peas. Deer love to eat planted crops because of their similarity to weeds and other plants (the grass type, such as alfalfa) that the animal eats all year long.

Like other grazers, the deer will not mind walking all over your garden and eating some bits and pieces of every plant that they can find, including the pumpkins resting on the garden’s floor. This may lead to total devastation of your entire garden, supposing you have one.

To ensure that your plants are protected from deer, ensure that you take any of the following options: putting up an electric or a physical fence or getting a dog. You can also get a hideous or bitter-smelling plant that will make the pumpkins feel uninterested to the deer.

Since the deer will come hunting for the pumpkins during the wintertime, you can choose to dump the fruits in a property outside your garden. However, it is unlikely that the deer will eat the pumpkins because they may become rotten.

The Deer And Eating Pumpkins

Distractedly, the deer will break open and feast on any pumpkins they find out in the later months of November and December. The pumpkins are an excellent nutritional supplement to give deer, and it helps in the improvement of digestion. Deer will drill holes right through the fruit, eat all the inside matter, and leave the outer part.

2. Apples

As you may already know, the deer are herbivorous animals, and they like eating various fruits and vegetables. Deer love eating apples; they find them palatable, and they get ample calories. Another exciting and disgusting detail is that the deer will eat apples even if they are rotten. However, the apple fruit is not in the natural diet of the deer. They will prefer old dead leaves, lichens, pumpkins, and sunflower seeds over apples.

Vegetables and fruits are low in fiber and protein but have high water content. The deer stomach will love this, as they are many living microorganisms that will help in breaking down the fruits and vegetables. However, the organisms do not support corn and apples’ breakdown as they do with woody foods. So, the deer will tend to feed on apples during the wintertime. This is because it is one of the food items available in the chilliness of winter. Since cold times can make the deer lose up to 30% of its weight, eating apples is a way to survive.

Also, apples have low-fat content. Also, the skin of an apple contains vitamins and minerals. Those nutrients are what feed the deer, but the animal’s feeding behavior changes seasonally. More often than not, you will find deer eating apples as winter approaches closure or when spring is kicking in.

Often, the deer will enter into property or organic farms where they smell apples in large numbers. This way, the animals can be very destructive and will ultimately ruin an entire farm of apples.

3. Bananas

The whitetail breed of deer loves sweet things. This specific animal’s diet includes things such as bark, young shoots, grass, berries, and other vegetation. The reason why a deer will go for a banana is because of its sweetness. Like many other ruminants, the deer lacks upper incisors. This means that bananas are very easy for them to eat, and the fruits are sweet.

You might be attempting to grow a few banana plants outside. Maybe, you have picked out the right spot that seems to be getting a decent amount of sunlight and will not be affected by sharp winds. But, there is a big problem – your area is prone to getting surprise deer attacks.

When given a chance, a deer will not leave banana crops standing – they will attack them and eat all the banana plants. If you have any rotten bananas, try and get rid of them as they can attract the deer to enter your yard. Candy is to babies as bananas are to deer.

A deer that is in captivity will mainly be fed hay. However, they will not deny eating a banana when it is offered to them. They will eat the fruit and the peel too. If you want to give deer something that is outside their primary diet of hay, the best option to go for is alfalfa pellets. That aside, you should know that bananas are rich in fiber and potassium, which are essential nutrients need by the deer.

Therefore, eating bananas is an entirely healthy thing, and the deer will get vitamins and nutrients. As much as you want to feed bananas to the deer, remember to take a right precautionary measure as the animal can turn to you and harm you.

4. Berries

Although people may argue, the deer is among the world’s most beautiful animals. If you have watched them grazing through pasture lands and forests, you must admit that it is a fun experience. The animals are invasive and graceful and have few predators (this factor causes deer overpopulation). Deer will not think twice about entering your garden or yard and feasting on the available berries.

Of the many berries that we enjoy, the deer love eating blueberries. Like bananas, berries are like candy, and the deer like enjoying them. If you have planted blueberries in large numbers, be aware that deer can invade the farms. Also, they can invite themselves to the sheds where the berries are stored and eat them. Deer do not limit their operations in rural areas – they are usually moving into suburban areas to eat from the gardens grown in personal yards. Blueberry bushes fall victim to a deer’s expeditions since they are low to the ground.

Blueberries are rich in vitamin C, which is the most significant benefit they give deer. Deer will like eating them also because they are high in energy. The deer that invade your berries’ farm will eat all the young plants (if they are starving) and damage the adult ones. This is because they are bulky and will rub against the branches of the blueberry plants. Otherwise, they will only eat blueberry fruits. The other types of berries that the deer like are holly berries, blackberries, goji berries, and winterberries.

The deer will not leave any blueberry variety out – they will eat them, except for one: the elderberry. Also known as the Sambucus Canadensis, the elderberry is a wild plant that you can purchase online or from greenhouse nurseries. This berry type spreads quickly and thrives impressively, and it can grow up to a vertical height of 15 feet. Deer do not like it.

5. Raspberries

Raspberries always attract deer since they have several nutrients that include vitamin C, vitamin K (12%), folate (6%), vitamin E (5%), potassium, iron, and manganese (41%). On top of those nutrients, raspberries also have lesser amounts of niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, calcium, pantothenic acid, and vitamin B6.

Deer love feeding on raspberries since they are very healthy. If you don’t take any preventive measures against deer invasion, the animals will not stop breaking in and consuming all the raspberry plants and fruits.

6. Oranges

Deer are used to eating oranges and love picking them up when they fall. While there are beliefs that orange peels can help repel deer, those ‘facts’ are not researched-based, meaning that they are not authenticated. The truth is that deer love any and every fruit that falls to the ground. Oranges are not a significant part of a deer’s diet since their supply is minimal. As established and reiterated through the article, deer love eating plants, flowering weeds, non-woody plants, and grasses.

If you have a field that is full of oranges, it is normal to find deer coming around to feed on them. Apart from orange peels, deer will also like feeding on beans, sweet potatoes, potatoes, wheat, soybeans, and grass that has been grown for deer. What is being described in this portion is a herbivore diet, and orange peels are well in that diet.

When fall comes, and all the things in the deer’s main diet start becoming scarce, the deer will switch to eating evergreen plants and grass. During winter, the deer will be forced to eat that which is available.

Although the claim that orange peels keep away deer does not hold, it won’t hurt if you tried it out. This will help to cement the falsehood in the claim or even open you up to an exciting task. To ‘repel’ the deer, take orange peels (not pieces nor the whole fruit). Then, rip them into pieces of about 2 to 3 inches. Once you get that done, scatter the peels at the edges of paths and on your garden beds. The ‘advantage’ of using this option is that the orange peels do not compose very fast. So, you will not have to make many reapplications of the ‘repellent.’ I hope you understand why this portion has a good number of content words put in quotes.

7. Strawberries

If you don’t remain vigilant, deer will destroy all your strawberries and their plants. So, this calls for you to take measures before the animals attack your strawberry fields and destroy all your berries. You should have already known that deer love strawberries and the animals love eating both the fruits and the leaves of strawberry plants.

8. Pears

If you plant any pear trees (also known as the Pyrus spp.), you may want to know everything about them. These fruits are tasty, and deer love eating them since they are crisp and rich in sugar. This sugar helps the deer by giving it energy.

Deer are attracted to eating pears, persimmons, and apples. All the fruits are very rich in carbohydrates.  They love feeding on pear plants and trees. Generally speaking, deer love eating fruits because it gives females the energy needed for nursing young ones. Also, males need to eat fruits as it helps in their development. If you want to start growing pears, the best option is the Kieffer pear tree. Let’s look at it briefly.

The Kieffer Pear Tree

Wherever you are in the country, the perfect pear to grow is the Kieffer pear tree. It thrives well in various climatic conditions. The fruits that these trees give are crisp, hard, and coarse. This is as compared to the Pyrus communis, or the European Bartlett variety, which deer do not like eating and avoid very much.

If you want to attract deer in the quickest way possible, you should go for the Kieffer pear trees. This is because the trees produce a large fruit amount in a short span. This means that you will get a lot of fruits in about four years. Many Kieffer tree varieties deliver their produce (or fruits) between 3 to 5 years after they have been planted, with a little pruning, of course. The trees of this plant grow up to 30 feet in terms of vertical height. Their spread coves up to 20 feet. This implies that the fruits are quite massive and intimidating. While Kieffer pear fruits are more appropriate for pickling or canning, the deer is not stopped from eating them at all.

The only options you can take up are electric and fencing wires to prevent the animals from invading the farm and eating the pears. It would be best if you got your entire property fenced to deter the deer from coming. The solid fencing that you decide to use should be around 8 feet tall.

9. Watermelon

As we have mentioned previously, the deer loves eating sweet things. So, fruits are their favorite to-go snacks. So, watermelons are impressive things to the deer since they are very rich and filthy sweet. Each bite of the watermelon has significant vitamin C, A, and B6 levels. Also, it has lots of amino acids, antioxidants, and lycopene. Apart from the fruits, deer love eating the vines and leaves of the watermelon. But what about the watermelon rind?

The Deer And Watermelon Rinds

Deer are picky animals and do not like eating the outer part of a watermelon fruit (or the rind). When the animal gets a watermelon, it pokes holes through the rind to chew or scoop some of the fleshy parts formed by an element called the lycopene (a carotenoid.) So, you will not find a deer feeding on the rinds of watermelon.