doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Mildly OT: homegrown foods

In my experience the only thing that will deter deer is a fence. When I first started a dove patch when my boys were small I’d instruct them to pee on the edge of the field. Pretty effective deterrent. In terms of my garden, if my wife has to eat another okra/eggplant/tomato medley I’m headed to divorce court. Our spring here was hot and dry and the sweet corn did not do well. Sunflowers loved it however.

Oskar,
Green tomato/onion/jalapeno relish is really good in the wintertime on any vegetable, but especially black-eyed
peas.
Mike

That sounds good I'll have to give it a try.

My wife was tired of our numerous deer eating all sorts of her flowers and shrubs next to the house. On hope, she ordered a couple of spray bottles of Deer and Rabbit repellant from Amazon. It was called Liquid Fence Deer and Rabbit repelant . They say it works by smell, not by taste. Well, it worked well according to my wife. We have few rabbits, but lots of deer. The deer went somewhere else. It says it does not harm the plants.

6' fence is the only way we keep the deer and worse the javelina out of our garden and orchard. Jacks and cottontails can squeeze through the ranch wire fence but I got my 17HMR that really spins them good!!

Mike I have some tomatoes in pots on the side of my house. As you know I live in the city and those dang Javelina stop by about twice a month for a little harvest. Up until recently I had a jalapeño plant in a pot along side the tomatoes. They were so hot I couldn’t eat them, the Javelina also found them too hot to eat.
My tomatoes are about done for the summer, I hope to cut them back once the weather cools down some and get more up until we get a possible frost.

A 6' fence will keep zero percent of our deer out of plantings that need protecting here. An 8' fence isn't even 100% effective. Maybe our cotton, corn and peanut crops give the deer more ability to jump. I dunno.

With the right motivation full grown bucks can clear 10 foot of fence. The neighbor started at 8 ft around his garden, went to 10 ft. and the following year, took down the fence and planted sod.

The only plant the deer would for sure not eat were gardenias. I never had a fence, and quit a few years before the neighbor.

The deer got a lot of help from the woodchuck and the rabbits. I watched a black squirrel eat a cherry tomato on my deck rail yesterday, don’t know if he is a gourmet or if that is regular behavior from them.

Best,
Ted

For anyone here who might be considering trying out this "heirloom" tomato thing, this is a great book to look through.



If I had read this before I got started on this little journey, it would have saved me alot of time, cash, and trouble...

One of the nice things about growing old varieties is that you can save seeds.
There are so many varieties that everybody can find one that grows well where they live that has a flavor. They enjoy.

It’s of interest to me, because my brother grows tomatoes for a market for the last 35 years. And there is a substantial difference between what cells, with the needs of the Distributor are, and what the grower wants.

For instance, a home grower doesn’t care if the tomatoes get splits during a hot spell, and don’t care how thick the skin is.
Homegrowers don’t care how consistent sized the fruit are, or how evenly spaced They are on the plant. The home grower doesn’t care if the tomato can be picked by machine.

But early ripening, consistent size, thick skin for handling, and disease resistance, are the holy grail for a grower.

My brother makes 2x the money on perfect grade A’s that are hard as wood, baseball sized, and flavorless, than end of summer canner’s with splits, that also taste good.

It’s kind of like sweet corn, the first guy with corn and the first guy with tomatoes get all the people that are willing to pay the most.