Planting Fruit Trees and Cover for Whitetail in Cold Country

Written by Luke Ruffner Robinson, owner of Montana Fruit Trees in Missoula, Montana.

We grow trees for cold country, zones 2 to 4 in Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Idaho and Wyoming, and this is how we'd plant for whitetail up here. What we'd do is plant full-size apples, applecrabs and pears that ripen in a run from August through October, put them close to cover deer already trust, add conifer cover for deep snow, and keep your walk in and out hidden. Cage everything. Expect fruit in about 5 or 6 years.

Why fruit draws whitetail up north

Fall is when a northern deer stocks up for winter. Kip Adams, the National Deer Association's Chief Conservation Officer, says "Northern deer gain as much weight as possible during fall to use as an energy source during winter." (NDA)

That weight comes from energy, and fruit is energy. University of Missouri Extension's deer nutrition guide says "In the fall, deer seek foods with high levels of carbohydrates, which are stored in the body as fat reserves." And "Research has shown that during winter they select foods that are rich in energy over foods high in protein." (MU Extension G9487) Apples, crabs and pears are sugar on a stick. Acorns are the other big fall energy food.

Winter is where that fat gets spent. Minnesota DNR's woodland deer guide says "A combination of deep snow and cold temperatures over a long period drains a deer's energy," and that "Woody browse is nutritionally inadequate to maintain a deer's body weight over-winter." (MN DNR) A deer that gets a lot of fruit in the fall goes into January in better shape.

The northern twist is timing. Cheyne Matzenbacher of NDA points out that "Several of the northern states have hunting seasons that don't start until most of the native soft-mast fruit is gone." (NDA) So fruit that hangs late is worth a lot up here. How long it hangs varies by variety and year, and nobody has published it for northern varieties, so we're starting a drop log. NDA's CEO Nick Pinizzotto, who names Dolgo and Centennial among his favorite crabs, says: "I've seen wild crabapple trees draw deer in like mosquitos to a bug light." (NDA)

David Osborn of the University of Georgia Deer Lab writes that deer prefer some crabapples over others, that bitterness comes from tannins that drop as fruit matures, and that a planting should "include both sweet (eaten early) and bitter (eaten late) varieties." He warns off crabs with peanut-size fruit that hangs until dried. (NDA) We use applecrabs and full apples with real-sized fruit in our orchards, not ornamental crabs.

Writing about feeding where it's legal, Michigan DNR says deer and elk should be brought onto grain and fruit gradually "over a period of three weeks to allow the rumen flora to adjust," and notes apples have caused acidosis in domestic ruminants (Michigan DNR). Trees that ripen over weeks are a different thing from a pile of apples dumped in February. Another reason we plant and don't pile.

What whitetail eat through the year up north

Season What the deer needs What it eats What we'd plant for it
Spring and summer Protein for antlers, fawns and milk (MU Extension) New leaves, forbs, crops, tender browse Plum, chokecherry, serviceberry and hazel browse along edges
Late August to September (early archery) Start putting on fat Early fruit, plums and chokecherries, crops Early season orchard, plum thicket
October to November (rut, rifle) Carbohydrates stored as fat (MU Extension) Apples, acorns where oaks grow, crops, browse Late season orchard, pear orchard, acorn grove (long term)
December to January Energy over protein (MU Extension) Fruit still hanging, waste grain, browse Kerr applecrabs that don't drop (USask)
Deep snow to spring green-up Save energy, get out of the snow Browse near conifer cover. MN DNR lists acorns, dogwood, mountain maple, white cedar, ash, willow and hazel as preferred winter foods Winter cover block with browse on its edge

On the northern plains, the Forest Service's whitetail review says shrublands with silver buffaloberry and chokecherry "provide valuable year-round cover and food," and in the northern Rockies whitetail "are restricted largely to bottomlands with dense vegetation." (FEIS, Innes 2013)

The best plants we grow for whitetail

Plant What it gives whitetail When Hardy to
Kerr applecrab 1 3/4 in. fruit (Dolgo x Haralson) that doesn't drop and stands late frosts on the tree (USask) Late Sept to early Oct, then holds Zone 2
Haralson apple Full-size apples, late Late Sept to early Oct Zone 2b
Frostbite apple Full-size apples, late Late Sept to mid Oct Zone 2b
Centennial applecrab Sweet early crab, one of NDA's CEO's favorites Mid to late Aug Zone 2
Trailman applecrab 1 3/4 in. crab, very hardy and highly fire blight resistant (USask) Late Aug to early Sept Zone 1b
Krazulya, Larinskaya, Bolshaya, Vekovaya pears More pounds of fruit over a tree's life than any other orchard tree, per NDA Krazulya first in late summer, the others mid season Zone 2 (Krazulya, Bolshaya), 2b (Larinskaya, Vekovaya)
Chokecherry Fruit, browse and thicket cover Late summer Zone 2
Serviceberry Browse that gave whitetail adequate nutrition in all seasons in the Black Hills (FEIS) Year round Zone 2
Native American plum "Highly preferred browse for whitetail and mule deer" (NRCS), fruit, thicket Fruit Aug to Sept (NRCS) Zone 2
Ponderosa pine, Rocky Mountain juniper Snow and hiding cover. Wyoming rates juniper excellent hiding and thermal cover for whitetail (FEIS) Winter Zone 1 (pine), 2 (juniper)
Bur oak, northern red oak Acorns, high energy (MU Extension) Fall, decades out Zone 3
American hazelnut, Cortland hazelnut Preferred winter browse (MN DNR), nuts, low screen Year round Zone 3 (Cortland 3b)
Hybrid poplar Fast height for a screen Year round Zone 3
Nanking cherry Browse and a dense low hedge Year round Zone 2

Every fruit tree in our whitetail bundles is on a full-size root (Dolgo or Spy 227 for apples and crabs, Ussurian for pears). Full-size trees get up out of browse reach, carry more fruit and last for decades. They usually take 5 or 6 years to bear, so plant soon.

How to lay it out

Pick the spot

Fruit trees need sun. NDA's pear guide says to pick a spot "in full sun that's well drained and not likely to pool frost," and in really cold areas to plant mid-slope rather than at the top or bottom (NDA). Our cold hardiness calculator will help you check your ground.

Then put the orchard where deer already feel safe. Up here that usually means near the dense bottomland cover whitetail already live in (FEIS). Minnesota DNR describes good winter habitat as dense conifer with "Canopy closure of 70% or greater in close proximity to food resources." (MN DNR) An orchard out in the middle of an open field will get used, but mostly after dark.

Stand, wind and access

Ryan Basinger, a certified wildlife biologist with Westervelt Wildlife Services, writes: "It is important to have a good stand access trail that leads hunters to the stand without being seen or heard." He suggests setting the stand at least 15 to 20 yards off the food, on the side deer are least likely to come from. (NDA)

The rest is my opinion, not research. I'd keep the nearest trees within 20 to 30 yards of the stand with a clear shooting lane, and set the stand downwind of where deer come in on your prevailing wind, with a second spot for when it swings. In mountain draws, cold air slides downhill in the morning and drifts back up in the evening, so an evening sit above the orchard can put your scent right into it. Walk in on the side away from bedding and never cross the orchard. Decide all that, then plant the trees and screen around it.

Keep junipers away from your fruit

Junipers pass rust diseases back and forth with a lot of what we grow for deer. The fungus winters in galls on the juniper. In wet spring weather the galls shed spores that blow onto apples and their relatives, and in late summer spores from those leaves and fruit blow back to the junipers. Rocky Mountain juniper is a main host. Cedar-apple rust is worst on apples and crabs, and the related juniper rusts also hit serviceberry, hawthorn, pear and mountain ash. University of Minnesota Extension says not to plant junipers "within a few hundred yards" of those plants, and the spores "can infect trees over a mile away," so distance cuts the problem down without ending it. Fungicides aren't recommended, and UMN says to tolerate leaf spots, since they rarely hurt the plant unless it loses its leaves. (UMN Extension)

That matters for the winter cover block, which has both juniper and serviceberry. They're both good deer plants, but I wouldn't plant them side by side. Put the junipers in their own clump at the far end of the block, away from the orchard and pears, a few hundred yards off if your ground allows. Put the pines between the junipers and everything else, and the serviceberry and chokecherry on the pine side, along the sunny edge.

Spacing and layout

Planting Spacing Layout Source
Full-size pears 20 to 25 ft Cluster or row in full sun NDA
Full-size apples and applecrabs About 20 ft in the row, 25 to 35 ft between rows Plant at least two varieties that bloom together so every tree has a pollenizer Illinois Extension, eXtension
Weed-free circle 3 ft around each trunk for the first 2 to 3 years Mulch or keep it clean, and mow the grass around it short NDA
Conifer winter cover Block, not a single row MN DNR suggests 10 to 20% of a forested landscape in conifer cover, with a browse strip about 50 ft wide, under 15 ft tall, along the edge MN DNR
Stand screen Double row along the access trail Basinger says at least 10 to 15 yards deep for food plot screens. Our bundle is a start NDA

Our bundles are set up so every tree has a pollenizer. Everything in the late season orchard blooms together, so Haralson and Frostbite pollenize Kerr and each other. In the early orchard, Centennial and Trailman pollenize each other and the two pears pollenize each other. All four Russian pears bloom together. Bees do the actual pollinating, so don't spray during bloom.

An orchard and a clover plot go together fine, in my opinion. Keep the plot off the weed-free circles, mow it short going into winter, and put the fruit on the edge nearest bedding cover.

Water

Run drip to every tree for the first couple of summers. It's the only watering we recommend for young trees out here. A hose dumps water faster than dry ground can take it, and we don't buy the idea that dry trees root deeper by searching for water. No hydrant out there? A tank on a stand feeding a gravity drip line works.

Winter cover and the deep-snow problem

Up north, snow depth drives a lot of what whitetail do in winter. The Forest Service review says deep snow, about 16 inches or more, "restricts white-tailed deer movement and forage availability," and that whitetail "apparently select cover over food abundance when snow is deep." (FEIS)

Jessica Holmes, a Minnesota DNR wildlife manager, said this about conifer plantings for deer: "This kind of snow shelter is really critical for them to survive." (Forum News, John Myers) We think of conifers as snow cover more than a warm blanket. A big Forest Service study in Oregon found "No positive effect of thermal cover was found on body condition of elk" (Cook et al., PNW Science Findings). That was elk, not whitetail, and the authors said it doesn't prove thermal cover never matters, but the snow and hiding value of conifers for deer is well documented.

The winter cover block pairs ponderosa pine and Rocky Mountain juniper with chokecherry and serviceberry for browse on the edge (site it as above). The conifers ship as small seedlings and take years to close up, so start this one first, on the north or west side of your best ground.

A real conifer block takes hundreds of trees, and state nurseries are the cheap way to get them. Montana's Conservation Seedling Nursery in Missoula sells to "anyone with a conservation-based project," with a 150-seedling minimum for new plantings, spring only (MT DNRC). North Dakota's Towner State Nursery has a 100-tree minimum and sells surplus out of state (Towner catalog). Minnesota DNR's nursery sells to Minnesota landowners with a minimum of "300 seedlings or one 250-seedling packet," and spring 2027 orders are open through March 12 (MN DNR).

Acorns and plums for whitetail

The acorn grove (bur oak, northern red oak and American hazelnut) is a long game. NRCS puts bur oak's minimum seed-bearing age at 35 years, with best production between 75 and 150, and heavy acorn crops every 2 to 3 years (NRCS). The hazel pays off much sooner as browse. Cage every oak.

The plum thicket is the quick one. NRCS says American plum "Twigs and foliage provide a highly preferred browse for whitetail and mule deer" and that "Plum thickets often furnish valuable protective shelter." (NRCS) With Prairie Red plum, chokecherry and Nanking cherry you've got late-summer fruit plus a thicket deer and turkeys will hide in. Plant it between bedding cover and the orchard and it doubles as a travel corridor. Turkeys use both of these bundles, so see our wild turkey planting guide too.

Planting and the first three years

  1. Before spring: pick the site, plan the stand and trail, and have drip line, cages and vole guards ready so trees go in the day they arrive.
  2. Planting day: soak the bare roots, plant at the same depth they grew, firm the soil and water in. Head full-size whips at about breast height. As the tree grows, pick scaffolds higher up and take off the lowest limbs over the years so the canopy ends up above browse reach.
  3. Same day: put a 1/4 in. hardware cloth guard around each trunk, at least 2 ft tall and 10 to 12 in. above your usual snow depth (Iowa State), pushed 2 to 3 in. into the soil, for voles, rabbits and ground squirrels. Paint the trunk with white latex to stop sunscald. Then cage it.
  4. Year 1: keep the 3 ft circle weed-free and run drip through the summer. Don't fertilize in the planting hole. NDA's pear schedule starts at about 1/3 cup of 10-10-10 spread under the tree the first year (NDA).
  5. Year 2: start light training cuts in late winter. UMaine Extension says "Don't remove more than one third of the apple tree's canopy, since this would over-stimulate shoot growth." (Kathryn Hopkins, UMaine Bulletin 7126) Bump the fertilizer up by 1/3 cup each year, per NDA, and skip the second split application if you see fire blight.
  6. Year 3: keep drip on through dry spells, check cages after every rut for rub damage and bent wire, and widen cages as the branches spread.
  7. Years 4 to 6: keep caging. Full-size trees usually start bearing around years 5 or 6.

Protecting the planting

Deer will hammer an uncaged young fruit tree. NDA recommends a cage of "about 17 linear feet of 4- to 6-foot tall woven wire" per pear (NDA). We use welded wire about 5 ft tall and 3 ft across. North Dakota NRCS notes that "if the barrier is 5-6 feet tall the plant can often grow past the reach of deer," and that "Fences or tree shelters will be required in areas of intense deer pressure." (NRCS North Dakota)

Rubs are the other problem. Colorado State says tubes help with some trunk damage "but not when bucks use the trees to scrape velvet off their antlers." (CSU PlantTalk) Leave the cage on until the scaffold branches are above browse height and the trunk is stout, and keep some trunk protection on through the rut even after that. Where elk come through, Montana State recommends "an 8-foot fence with a top rail" (MSU WARC), and our elk planting guide covers that.

Voles girdle trunks under the snow. Keep the grass mowed short around the trees going into winter. UNL Extension says "voles are less likely to traverse weed-free zones that are 15 feet wide," and that "voles often thrive under plastic weed barriers," so we don't put fabric under fruit trees (UNL NebGuide G887). Where snow drifts deeper than 2 ft, go taller with the guard.

Timing it to your seasons

Montana's archery season opened September 5 in 2026, and the general deer and elk season opened October 24 (The Western News). North Dakota's 2026 schedule had deer bow opening September 4 and deer gun November 6 (ND Game and Fish). Minnesota's archery season runs September 19 through December 31 (MN DNR). Dates move every year, so check current regs. Ripening dates below are from university sources, and where nobody has measured how long fruit hangs, we say so.

Variety Ripens Drop or hang Bundle
Centennial Mid to late Aug (UMN) We're logging this Early season
Trailman Late Aug to early Sept (USask) We're logging this Early season
Native plum Aug to Sept (NRCS) We're logging this Plum thicket
Krazulya, Larinskaya, Bolshaya, Vekovaya Krazulya late summer, others mid season (our notes) "Fruit attachment is brittle, possibly causing early fruit drop in windy conditions" (NDSU). Dates: we're logging this Early season (first two), pear orchard
Haralson Late Sept to early Oct (UMN) We're logging this Late season
Frostbite Late Sept to mid Oct (UMN) We're logging this Late season
Kerr Late Sept to early Oct (USask) "Does not drop." Fruit "will stand very late frosts while on the tree." How late it hangs up here: we're logging this Late season (2 trees)

Your dates will shift with elevation and the year. Four trees will feed deer, but in a good year they'll clean them up fast. I'd plant the full season orchard, or two late season bundles in different spots so you've got options for the wind. That's my opinion, not a published number.

The fall they start bearing

Let the fruit hang and drop on its own. Don't pick it up and pile it by your stand, which is what turns habitat into bait in most states. Keep trunk guards on through the rut, even on bigger trees, and keep raising the canopy so a buck can't tear it up. A trail camera on the orchard is the easiest way to see when each variety drops and when deer start using it, and we'd love to see those notes for our drop log. Montana makes it unlawful for a hunter to use cameras "capable of transmitting real time information, pictures or videos" to track game (Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation), so check current regs before you hang a cellular camera.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Dwarf or semi-dwarf trees. They stay in browse reach and don't last. Full size only.
  • Ornamental crabs with tiny fruit that dries on the tree.
  • One variety. You want a run of ripening dates and a pollenizer for every tree.
  • Junipers next to the orchard, or right up against the serviceberry.
  • Skipping cages, or pulling them too soon and losing the tree to a rub.

Safety and the law

Baiting. Planting trees is habitat work. Rules on fruit you pick, move or pile vary by state and change, so check current regs every year. Minnesota's deer statute is the clearest: "wildlife food plantings," "orchard management, or other similar land management activities are not bait," unless crops are "reintroduced and concentrated" where you're hunting (Minn. Stat. 97B.328). South Dakota bans bait stations for big game and turkeys from August 1 through February 1 and March 15 through May 31, but doesn't count food nobody placed or gathered that comes from accepted farming, wildlife food plantings or orchard management (ARSD 41:06:04:03). Montana's feeding ban exempts "a normal agricultural practice" and "cultivation of a lawn or garden," and it also bars purposely feeding in a way that creates an "artificial concentration of game animals or wild turkeys that may potentially contribute to the transmission of disease" (MCA 87-6-216). North Dakota's old unit bait rules never covered "food plots, standing crops" (ND Game and Fish), and a 2025 law, SB 2137, keeps Game and Fish from restricting bait for deer hunting on private land (ND Monitor). It covers private land only, so check before you hunt public ground. Wyoming and Idaho define bait as something placed to attract big game and don't name food plots or orchards, so ask your game department there. Picked and piled fruit is bait almost everywhere.

CWD and feeding bans. Minnesota bans placing grains, fruits and other feed for deer in 37 counties under an emergency rule that runs through December 29, 2027, and it exempts feed "present solely as a result of normal agricultural, forest management, or wildlife food-planting practices" (MN DNR rule). The DNR's reason: "food sources can concentrate deer and allow for close contact," which is how chronic wasting disease spreads (MN DNR). Let fruit fall where it grows.

Bears. Fruit draws black bears and grizzlies. Montana FWP's advice is to "Pick fruit immediately once it is ripe" around homes and to "Consider installing an electric fence around fruit trees and gardens." (FWP) Plant wildlife orchards well away from houses and outbuildings.

Livestock and chokecherry. NRCS says chokecherry "is potentially poisonous to all classes of livestock, but cattle and sheep are the ones commonly affected." (NRCS) Penn State warns that wilted cherry leaves release cyanide (Penn State). Keep cattle and sheep out.

Junipers. They're seedlings, and junipers are male or female, so you won't know which you have until they bloom. Plant them together, in their own clump away from your fruit.

Ready-made whitetail bundles

See everything on the wildlife orchard bundles page, or browse fruit trees for deer food plots.

More planting guides

Sources