#423 - What Everyone Gets Wrong About Planting Fruit Trees for Deer with Thomas Damren

Welcome to the WHTL Podcast, your source for Whitetail Deer Hunting Tactics, Stories & Expert Guests. In this episode, we're back in the studio with Thomas Damren. We Discuss: Rootstock is the "engine" of a tree — it decides size, speed, and hardiness. Home Depot trees are grown on dwarf rootstock built for yards, not neglect. Start with just five trees before planting a full orchard. Seedling rootstock outgrows dwarf and semi-dwarf even with zero maintenance. Compost, mulch, and a shovel test set a new tree up to survive. Window-screen tubes protect trunks from voles without the downsides of plastic. No single apple variety is perfect — every one has a worst trait to manage. Crab apples bear younger and more reliably than full-size apples. A weeping crabapple can be bred to hang low as a natural scrape tree. Trademark protects a discovered variety's name; only a bred variety can be patented. And So Much More! Want to become a better whitetail hunter? Click the link below and sign up for the Whitetail Master Academy today! https://bit.ly/WhitetailMasterAcademy Follow along on social! IG - @WHTLDEER TikTok - @WHTLDEER YouTube - @WHTLDEER Thanks again for all of the support from our partners—none of this would've been possible without them! -Buck Land Funding: https://www.firstbankers.com/bucklandfunding -Hawke Optics | Use Code WHTL for 15% off: https://bit.ly/hawkeoptics_ -OnX: https://bit.ly/onX_Hunt -Painted Arrow: ⁠⁠bit.ly/PaintedArrow -Latitude Outdoors: https://www.latitudeoutdoors.com/