How to Heal Deer Scrapes on Fruit Trees

Question from Chuck:

I have a 5 year old peach tree that suffered a deer scrape to the trunk, not the branches. The trunk is about 4 inchs in diameter and the antlers scraped deep into both sides of the trunk below where it starts to branch out. This happened in mid winter. Someone told me to spray something on it to close the wound. Is that what you do? Will it survive?

Answer from Pat:

The tree will heal itself, but the buck will come back. Do not use tree seal. It does not help. It actually harms the healing process. Let the tree heal itself. Clean up the edges of the scars with a sharp knife, but don’t cut away any more bark than necessary. Rounded edges top and bottom heal best, sort of an oval shape. Make the scars look like an elongated football on the ends top and bottom if possible but without cutting away any more bark than absolutely necessary. This shape heals quickest and better than leaving jagged scars. Unless the tree is girdled it will survive. Luckily deer scrape bark up and down not sideways.

Now to find a way to protect the tree from more damage until the bucks have finished rubbing their antlers. One way is to staple wooden lath strips to chicken wire and wrap it around the tree trunk once or twice, with the wooden strips vertical inside the wire. Or use wire and lath snow fencing. Another way is to build a 6-foot tall wire barrier around the tree. Deer net fencing is also available. Most is 8 feet tall and comes with instructions for installation. Third way. Purchase lengths of corrugated drainage pipe, slit it down one side and pop it around the tree trunk. All these protective devices can be used year to year and may last a long time.
Apply protection around trunks in fall next year or the same thing will happen again.