I have heard a lot about planting fruit trees & such for deer, such as apple, pear, blackberries, and others but has anyone ever planted fig trees for the deer? Fig trees(bushes) grow fast and will produce all summer so they should make a good source of food. What do you think???

Never tried figs, but do like hunting the fall producing pear and persimmon trees during bow season.

I used to hunt a spot that had a big persimmon tree on it. I don't know how many deer I have shot off that spot, but it is quite a few.

Deer love figs. We had a couple growing up and deer would camp out under it. You are going to protect anything you plant for quite a few years though.

My buddy had a grapefruit tree in his yard and every buck used it to scrape off the velvet. He finally called me over to help rmemdy the problem.

As a tip, if you do this, plant a few trees that you really take care of rather than a whole bunch hoping a few survive.

You really, really need to fence them off for the first few years of their planting or the deer will just wipe them out. No idea why they get after fruit trees, I'm sure it has something to do with the smell. But they absolutely destroyed everything I planted to the point that I gave up.

the peach trees in my in laws back yard attract them and squirrels like crazy... squirrels are great target practice

Peach trees work in East Texas.

I can echo this^^^

I haven't planted fruit trees. But we take pears off our pear tree and freeze em til deer season. And when the deer movement slows down the pears come out and I guess it's like candy. It's the best attractant I've ever seen. And pretty good cover sent when they rot. Lol

We thought about planting apple trees but instead we just get a load of ground apples from the local orchard in mid-October. I get the box of my truck filled with Royal Gala apples (about 850lbs worth) for $60. Before I bring them up to the camp my wife picks about 50lbs out for apple pie, cider and apple sauce.

I used to do that on corp land at Whitney and it works, even if they have never seen a pear.

If you plant some fruit trees, make sure you have time to deal with them for a few years. I have to water mine during this drought weekly (if it doesn't rain) it gets old fast. Also had to fence them off, or they will eat the leaves and kill it that way as well (I planted semi dwarfs for personal consumption).

If I where just planting for deer, I'd go pears, they do well in Texas if you get the right cultivar.

yep, deer LOVE fruit trees ... they will eat them right into the ground if you don't put up some fencing for the first few years to protect them. My parents had a huge fig tree in their back yard, my mom got a couple to root that we planted out by the artisan springs on the ranch ... deer nipped them off at ground level within a week. We replanted but put up 8 foot diameter goat wire to protect them for the first couple of years to get them established. We still have a couple down by the springs that the deer & hogs root around under when the fruit is ripe and starts falling on the ground. We also had a couple of large, heavily producing pear trees at the shop that we would pick up all the fallen ones from the ground that had bad spots into a 5 gallon bucket, took to the ranch and poured out several times a week ... deer loved them!

just remember if you plant bushes or trees, set up some fencing/netting to protect until they get a good hold.

also ... we had a peach tree (~6 inch diameter base) in the yard that was not producing the past 4-5 years, my wife had me yank that sucker out with my front end loader last fall and I was going to cure for BBQ wood ... but she got to feeling guilty and asked me to replant outside the yard fence to see if it would grow. That thing put on several dozen peaches this spring, cling free, sweetest peaches ever but the deer at fruit, leaves and limbs up to about 5 feet off the ground (natures pruning) ... guess my wife got it's attention. Funny how it never produced inside the yard, but disrupt the roots and tear up the bark with a chain and it put on more fruit this year than the past 7 years combined. but yes, the deer would come within 10 feet of the yard fence with blue heeler barking to eat the peaches off the tree and ground.

Deer eat fruit to balance out minerals. Here is a feed composition chart feed chart. Ideally the calcium to phosphorus ratio is 2/1, notice that many feeds have a high ratio of calcium/phosphorus, apples reverse that. Deer can generally utilize anywhere from a 4/1 ratio to a 1/2 ratio before needing to balance it out. The short answer is that deer love fruit because it's high in phosphorus.

We have a wild plum thicket on our place and there are deer in it every year eating the plums.

Domestic plums have a 1/3.33 calcium to phosphorus ratio.

Much like Cameron, I too gave up on after the first year of planting fruit trees. If the wildlife didnt destroy them, then the weather would. If they are not native to Texas, then your going to need to put the fruit trees on a spaying schedule, which is a pain in the butt. They must be watered almost weekly for the first year, if you dont have at least an inch of rain. Some fruit trees need cross pollination to bare fruit which will probably require a different tree, but the same type of fruit. There are many physical factors that are required when growing fruit trees. Do your research before planting and plant in the winter. There are tree tubes on the market for wildlife protection which work, but dont them believe when they say you dont have to water the tree. It very time consuming. I tried figs a few years ago, but didnt water them as required.

As of now, im sticking to only Texas native trees. They are more drought tolerant, and can deal with our climate a heck alot better. Im in east Texas trinity county. Just a few weeks ago I found a Mexican plum growing wild on our place and some major animal droppings with the seeds and skin still in them. Whatever it is (90% sure its deer) they are hitting it hard. So im collecting seeds to see if I can grow more Mexican plum. Plus I heard they make great pie. Good luck

those little Mexican plums make awesome jelly too!!!

Don't know if it will grow in your area, but my mom grew jujube trees in an old field near a water trough. This is in the hill country. The jujube is like an Asian date and kinda apple taste. Good for people and deer consumption. They ripen end of Aug and September.
Also, Mexican persimmon, the one that the trunk looks like crape myrtle and the fruit is green and turns black when ripe. It grows wild in central Texas and all kinds of wildlife like it.

For me I would want a fruit/mast tree that is producing fruit or mast crops during October or later since I am planning on hunting around it.

It's the same decision you make with food plots. You can design them as kill plots or supplemental food plots depending on your goals. A tree or two will not supply enough fruit/mast to serve as a major supplement. Here in MN some guys will plant an entire grove of trees with mixtures chosen to drop fruit from August well into the winter.

0ak will be easiest and will produce more total mast for the deer....

The big downside of oaks in general is the length of time it takes to produce a mast crop. Oaks don't lend themselves readily to being transplanted and are subject to being over browsed while small. Once they get established and producing they are great.

I planted about 80 Nuttall oak trees this past spring. I scattered them around the lease so maybe some will make it. I checked on them about a week ago and it looks like 1 out of 3 are growing like weeds. I put 2 in my front yard at the same time and one is almost 3' tall, other is 24+" tall, both were 12-14" when planted. The only watering the ones at the lease has gotten is rain. The 2 in my yard have gotten rain & the sprinkling of the sewer system, which will not keep the grass green in a typical summer.