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bountifuldreams

Grrrr...Deer Resistant Veggies?

bountifuldreams
17 years ago

I have a huge problem with deer in the six acre pond bottom my family owns. Have tried to grow different veggies this past year without much success. The only things that deer didn't touch were the hot peppers and okra. They ate all of the new hickory king that I planted. Let me rephrase that: The deer ate all 400' of the new shoots that came up! This year I'm hoping to farm this area and earn enough to build a greenhouse and pay some bills. But with the deer problem, it looks hopeless!

I can only think of a few ideas to scare the little bambis away:

One is to plant something they prefer nearby and hope they munch it into oblivion instead of my crop(could get expensive)

Two is to just use my 270Remington; but, there is no deer season during growing time, so that is out of the question.

Three simply requires using dead animals placed nearby to scare the deer away(this is disgusting and messy; hence, debatable).

Four, bum deer blood or meat scraps off local hunters and markets to make a spray for my plants(hmmm...would require a lot), or place the blood and scraps strategically at the deer's entry points.

I'm really looking forward to buying a greenhouse. Any suggestions will be very appreciated. I mean ANY.

jonathon, bountfuldreams

Comments (8)

  • stevega
    17 years ago

    A fence is about the only answer. They make 7' tall poly fencing that can be installed along tree lines easily or you can put posts in the ground. Google will lead you there.
    Also, a 4' slat fence with 3' of electric wires above it will work and looks pretty good and costs more. Under heavy deer pressure, only keeping them out will work.

  • jlynn
    17 years ago

    Jonathon,
    I grew a "living fence" around my garden this year and it worked great! The deer wont go through plants that are fuzzy/stickery like cucumber, zuchini, pumpkin, etc. I grew gourds, pumpkin, zuchini, butternut squash, on the ground around the garden. I also grew birdhouse gourds on a homemade trellis on the south side and mammoth sunflowers on the north side to prevent them from jumping the fence into the garden.

    My neighbor has had good luck with using solar lamps posted in the garden to keep deer out of thier veggies.

  • laceyvail 6A, WV
    17 years ago

    Here are several techniques;

    Run a single strand electric fence about 2 1/2 feet to 3 feet high. Bait it as follows: place peanut butter on a square of tin foil and fold it over the electric tape. Hold it on with a paper clip. This works and trains deer to avoid the area!

    A solid fence that you can't see through about 6 feet tall. Though this is an easy fence for deer to jump, they won't because deer will not jump into the unknown.

    A double fence about 4 feet apart. This fence needs to be only 4-5 feet high. Deer will not jump into a constricted space.

    A standard fence 4-5 feet high with an addition that goes out at a 45 degree angle. Deer can jump high and they can jump wide, but they can't jump both high and wide.

  • kristin_2007
    17 years ago

    I found this site on a search and it looks pretty interesting. Hope it helps

    Http://gardendefender.com

    Here is a link that might be useful: http://gardendefender.com

  • mersiepoo
    17 years ago

    Someone told me of a neighbor who came out of her house and saw a deer in her garden inside the electric fence. Grr! I HATE those deer. The only thing they didn't really eat down to nothing was my bok choy plants. Everything else they decimate, they even eat my hot pepper plants.

    This year I'm doing a small garden, and getting some 7 x 100 feet of 'temp' deer fencing for my garden. Jung seed sells it for like 22 bucks. They have thicker 'permanent' deer fencing but it's like 119 bucks! Still cheaper than metal field fence though. Don't even bother with barbed wire, it doesn't do anything to deter them. They just ram right thru it, unless you string it REALLY high and have few inches between strands. I'm doing the netting because it'll keep out other stuff too.

    I'm also planning on setting up a stake in the ground around some of my plants so we can let our dog stay out at night and hopefully keep the deer away.

  • dacooolest
    17 years ago

    The deer here eat everything, from aconite to zinnias, and every vegetable, with a extra large taste it seems for hot pepper and tomato foliage. I tried a 6 foot tall fence, but they knocked it down and ate all of the plants inside.

  • slimnranger_yahoo_com
    13 years ago

    Use fish line for a fence when the deer touch it , it scares them and they won't jump over anything they can't see. space it about 4 to 6 inches. it won't work for rabbits they eat more than the deer i think.

  • trensetters1226_yahoo_com
    13 years ago

    We also have deer, we put up a 3' fence don't ask me why but the deer didn't bother anything. This year I'm going to try companion planting and still put up our fence. The deer did eat all of my bulbs they didn't eat my irises. We don't get as many deer as most people most of the time 6 doe and 3 or 4 fawns I've been here 3 yrs and have never seen a buck yet.

    Have you tried tieing irish spring on your fence, I've heard they don't like that.

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