We have a terrible deer problem in my neighborhood, and they have attacked my Japanese maples only once. I have about 20 JMs, and a deer once once ate a couple of branches off a newly planted Acontifolium. I had bought the Acontifolium as a newly grafted plant and grew it in a pot on my deck for the first year, and planted it late last winter. Shortly thereafter, a deer took some bites out of the maple, but they haven't bothered it since. They have never snacked on any of my other JMs, and I have at least 10 of them growing in spots around my yard other than my deck and patio.

If you aren't sure, you might plant your maple in a container on your deck until it gets larger. I have a number of JMs growing in containers on my deck, patio and other spots around my yard. I use a high quality soil mix (Metromix) and prefer plastic pots or glazed ceramic pots. Regular clay pots dry out much quicker, so need watering more often.

I live in a deer infested woodsy area and the deer love all maples. They'll stand up on their back legs and grab the low hanging tree leaves. I tried planting a new JM but it was decimated by the deer eating the leaves and young branches. Good luck! PIM

There is no point in planting a bunch of stuff among deer and not having a good tall fence. If a fence is too expensive then you can afford to have thousands of dollars worth of plants at their mercy, damaged whenever they amble along and take a notion.

Deer are vulnerable to winter food scarcity despite being native to cold climates and will eat plants down to nubbins in a hard winter that have never been touched before during the whole time you have lived there.

This past winter a deer ate about half of my JM. One side has sprouted leaves and looks good; the other side does not. What is the likelyhood that the eaten side will revive?

In my area deer will eat JMs but it's not their favorite. I spray all mine spring through fall with a deer repellent. In the winter I do have to cage or net them, since otherwise they can get decimated. But this applies to most of my plantings.

They don't bother my JM's much...but then I spray mine year round. If there were an attractive way to fence my front garden (where all my maples live) I would...but there isn't a practical/aesthetic way to do so.

I DO have little chicken wire cages around all their trunks to keep the males from racking them.

Oh yeah, and if you have rabbits they will sometimes gnaw the bark of young maples, and eat the tender new leaves.

Yes the deer ate it. Is it a gonner or should I salt it so they enjoy eating the rest of it that much more?

How about I squirt some ketchup on it?

I would prune off the deer-damaged parts (there's actually something in the deer's saliva that can be harmful to plant growth), and then either regularly spray or cage the tree. Japanese maples are reasonably tough, and it may well come back to life, if it isn't too far gone. I wouldn't necessarily write it off just yet.

There is a deer repellent called Plantskydd which is made from blood and lasts 6 months. I tried it last year and it seemed to be quite effective. See link below

Here is a link that might be useful: Plantskydd

jayco, thanks for the feed back. I'll give that a try.

I forgot to tell you, I had 2 that were pretty heavily browsed, and both are still living. One of them is fine; the other is pretty poorly shaped now, but I'm just going to wait until it gets bigger and prune it.

An old timer recommended urinating in a spray bottle and spraying. Sounds gross, but works. While I watch the deer feasting at my neighbor's, they avoid my yard. Guess I would too!

deer attack mine, ive lost 3 out of about 10 to deer attacks. i believe theyve munched leaves as well.

Earlier this year I relocated all my front yard JM's to my fenced back yard because the deer kept munching on them.

'I do have a lot of experience with living in the country & protecting my plants from the wildlife I feed -- without toxic chemcals.'

Hate to rain on your parade, but moth balls are a pretty toxic little package of chemicals.

What kind of containers and soil do you plant your smaller japanese maples in? I just had deer chomp off most of the branches of one of mine last winter. I replaced it with a larger tree this summer and have sprayed the new one. Now I'd like to get a small one and try a container JM so any advice on soil, container would be helpful.

You size the container to correspond to the size of the tree. I grow ALL my JM's in containers, typically starting out with young 1G sized plants. I immediately plant them up into about a 3G sized container and then routinely upsize them as they grow. My largest (and oldest) is in about a 25G sized container and that's as big as I can manage.

You want a very durable and textural bark-based potting mix. These are difficult to find commercially so many container growers tend to make their own. I'd urge you to investigate both the 5-1-1 mix and the gritty mix discussed endlessly on the Container Gardening forum. Either will work perfectly well, however the gritty mix is less moisture retentive and faster draining than the 5-1-1 so watering frequently may be a bigger issue. I prefer the 5-1-1 as my summers tend to be very dry.

If too much trouble to make your own, you can modify a packaged potting soil. Check back here for instructions if you wish to go that route .

Also, be aware that if you live in a colder zone (below 7) you will need to provide winter protection for your potted JM's. If grown in a container, their roots are subject to cold damage/freezing at a relatively mild winter temp (below 25F for any extended period of time).