Gophers and Fruit Trees

Question from Rachel:
About 4 months ago I took your advice and planted a lovely 5ft. tall Bearss lime tree in our backyard. As promised, it has been extraordinarily productive and we love it. A week ago I noticed that it was listing to the side, which puzzled me, but I eased it into a straighter position and kept an eye on it. Today I noticed that it was downright wobbly, so I grabbed the trunk and pulled. The whole thing came up, but instead of roots I found a sharp, pointed stick at the bottom: gophers had gnawed the bottom of the tree into a spear.

Our neighborhood is full of gophers, but they haven’t been a problem for our established lemon and orange trees.

Is there anyway to protect a young fruit tree from these guys? I would love to plant another one…

Answer from Pat:
Gophers are indeed an abomination. But yes, I can offer solutions. For one thing, trap the gophers, though there will be more. During the last year, gophers invaded the hill on which I live and now everyone’s garden is infested with them. We trap them and they just come back. Nonetheless if you stuff the dead body of the gopher back into the hole, it sends a message to others. I suggest a trap called “the Black Hole”. It has worked well for me and my family. Let me warn you: Don’t accidentally purchase the similarly named “Black Box” trap. My personal experience of having tried the trap that is called “the Black Box” made by Victor is that it does not work. The gophers just laugh at it and stuff it with earth. But if you get the Black Hole trap and follow directions it may catch your gopher within a few minutes. Both my son-in-law and I have caught a gopher in 20 minutes after setting a Black Hole trap and that happened in broad daylight for each of us.

Secondly and most importantly, next time you plant a fruit tree, plant it inside a wire basket made of 1/2 inch gauge hardware cloth. Line the planting hole with the basket and plant the tree inside the basket. I would create the basket as large as you possibly can. I have tried making these baskets and found it a hard job and my hands got cut. Nonetheless with diligence one can construct a very fine basket. An easier way to go is to purchase a ready-made chicken wire basket. A company called “Digger’s” makes a ready made “Gopher Wire Basket” http://gopherbasket.com/faqs_gopher_wire_baskets_stopping_gophers.html.

This is a gadget made in various sizes to foil gophers. There is a 5-gallon tree size. it will last longer if you spray paint it with rustproof paint prior to putting it into the ground.