Tomatoes disappearing, and bean beetles

9 years ago

I had 2 orange grape tomatoes on my biggest plant, just a couple days shy of being harvested... the first tomatoes since putting in my new garden this year! Went out to water today, and the entire branch is gone. :(

The way they chomed the branch looked just like the way the branches on my dwarf apple tree disappear... so I'm blaming the deer.

Any good, budget friendly remedies to keep the deer away?? I have 4 raised beds in the back garden, ranging from 4x4 to 4x10. Constructed with 2x8s. Plus an additional 8x20 bed in the front (just potatoes and brassicas in that one,) half a dozen container tomatoes, and a lone dwarf apple tree that I've never gotten a ripe apple from.

I can't afford an all-out fence right now, and I haven't managed to get any posts/stakes hammered deep enough into my clay soil to make them sturdy.

Started noticing holes in my bush beans yesterday as well. I was out hand-picking little brown and black spotted beetles from those this morning. Not sure if there's a more effective method of managing those?

Comments (3)

Kimmsr
9 years ago
If you have problems with deer you may want to watch this video from PBS Nature. The only solution I have found that works is to cage individual plants to keep the deer, rabbits, or whatever else away. The video shows deer leaping over a 9 foot high fence.

Here is a link that might be useful: the private life of deer
msmorningsong
9 years ago
The beetles you described should be eliminated with Spinosad. I use it on many veggie crops, it's organic. Keyword in smile.amazon.
Good luck to you :)
*Kimmsr's video is awesome, if I had deer issues, I'd go with that :)
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Weicker
Original Author
9 years ago
Thank you!!

Waiting on my Spinosad to be delivered. Hope it gets here soon! The beans have attracted another new pest... some kind of black fly looking things (not beetles) that multiplied like crazy overnight. The beans were looking really rough today.

I picked up a bottle of Liquid Fence. It's been raining, so haven't applied it yet... but I'm hoping that might solve the deer and rabbit issue. (My black seeded simpson lettuce got chomped now too!)

I'll definitely be figuring out some kind of fencing for next year.