Take 6 divine little apple buds, tenderly formed and full of promise…

6 apple buds.

Add 1 chomp by a woodland hoodlum…

Chomped by woodland hoodlum.

And you get zero apples. See, 6 + 1 = 0. Strange but true.

You might remember from Miss Crabapple’s biology class that buds turn into blossoms, and blossoms bring forth fruit. If a branch gets “nipped in the bud,” bye bye fruit pie. Luckily the neighborhood ne’er-do-wells have left plenty of buds, so it won’t be long til we’re sending out fresh crop alerts!

Extra Credit

Each of the apple trees below was damaged by a different critter — mouse, rabbit, or deer. Which was which?

1. An impressive clean cut, perfect and planar like a saw blade…

Who did this?

2. Jagged and stringy, as if stripped like honeysuckle…

And who did this?

3. Just plain dead, no nutrients getting through…

And who killed this tree?

(Remember xylem and phloem — more on those another day.)

Which was by mouse? rabbit? deer?