Richard,

I’m not familiar with the article you referenced. However, it’s often a year or more from the time of an interview till articles are published. I would not rate honeysuckle a top deer food among all deer foods! In locations with closed canopy forest, honeysuckle is often one of the few browse species available. It is also one of the few browse species available during late fall or winter. This may be because it was not preferred during the growing season, so it’s one of the few left to consume. Honeysuckle is a woody species. Therefore, it is not very digestible, and not loaded with nutrients. It does respond well to fertilizer, but so do other crops that are more productive and easier to establish. If honeysuckle is already in an area and deer are using it, it may make sense to fertilize and hunt it as an attractant. However, honeysuckle can be a very invasive species. I wouldn’t attempt to start it in areas where it doesn’t already exist.

Neither Paw Paw nor American Persimmon naturally occurs in any frequency far enough north to be prevalent in Central Michigan. Fruit trees can sometimes be established outside of their native range. However, extreme weather events will frequently limit their growth or kill them. It’s important to consider weather extremes (which will occur during the life of a tree) when selecting species to plant!

Growing Deer (and trees) together,

Grant