I think this is turning into just a breeding year for plants.
Very few tomatoes are making it to my mouth.
I have one growing indoors that is getting ready to rest on a sliced brioche roll.
Once you lose that many tomatoes it is no longer a tragedy and it turns into just a statistic.

I had a big Beefmaster tomato out on the vine up about eye level off the ground. I was gone all day yesterday morning and into the afternoon. I went to look at it to see if the tomato was breaking color yet. There it was with about a 1/4 of the tomato eaten away and the tomato next to it with bite marks. Beefmasters are notoriously hard to pull off the stem so I guess the squirrels just sat there and munched away while I was gone. The Beefmaster is close to the net opening and the opening was worked loose.

Just put a sock on your prize tomatoes and the problem is solved.
Nothing will bother it.

Hey worth, not everyone's socks have such aromatic...attributes.

At a glance I concur, fox squirrel was my initial thought. No idea what their range is, I've only seen them out in south central PA.

Weird that a dream is mentioned, for me it was deer in the comm garden eating the baby corn, not the stuff that is about ready. I never saw deer but I knew it was deer because of the prints. Then I realized they were so small they must be fawn prints. Fawn prints made no sense as they would have to jump the fence to get in. Then I looked around and nothing else was eaten, just the young corn starts. No droppings. So there was no way it was real. I convinced myself I was dreaming and woke up. But seeing the corn damage every time I go over, it seems it must be stressing me out a little too much.

Well I picked the first few cobs of corn block#1 and I can see why they are so torn up. They are fantastic. Taste and texture just blows Incredible away. At this point I'd estimate a 1/3 loss rate. And I don't see many second cobs, due to dryness and I didn't hand pollinate. Normally I get two or two and half cobs.

When the pollen started heavy, and most of the silk wasn't showing yet, I cut the tips of the cover leaves to show the silk. I typically keep at it afterward and go with a paint brush and catch pan to hand pollinate the first, second, sometimes third cobs. But when squirrel(s) immediately attacked, combined with the lack or rain, I ceased any actions. Better things to do than waste time on a squirrel food, I thought.

I may just pick them all, though I'm loathe to, because they are so good fresh daily. It started raining before I could get pics of the damage, but I might go back tonight. The next cell is here now and it is pouring at present.

That corn is beautiful.

JRinPA wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 5:03 pm Well I picked the first few cobs of corn block#1 and I can see why they are so torn up. They are fantastic. Taste and texture just blows Incredible away. At this point I'd estimate a 1/3 loss rate. And I don't see many second cobs, due to dryness and I didn't hand pollinate. Normally I get two or two and half cobs.

When the pollen started heavy, and most of the silk wasn't showing yet, I cut the tips of the cover leaves to show the silk. I typically keep at it afterward and go with a paint brush and catch pan to hand pollinate the first, second, sometimes third cobs. But when squirrel(s) immediately attacked, combined with the lack or rain, I ceased any actions. Better things to do than waste time on a squirrel food, I thought.

I may just pick them all, though I'm loathe to, because they are so good fresh daily.
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It started raining before I could get pics of the damage, but I might go back tonight. The next cell is here now and it is pouring at present.

I like to trial "weird" corn, OP varieties, F2s, wrinkled seed from a cob that is almost entirely smooth seed, etc...

Sometimes things don't go as planned, like tassels showing up a month before silks. Pollen can be gathered and frozen, before it's time to use.

Thanks MissS, it is nice, 17 rows, great color and taste, but I swear since it is an sh2 supersweet, the squirrels hit it extra hard and early. Plus some of these squirrels are getting to be old hands at this game.

I had to pick all of it. When I went back after the storm there was a squirrel coming out. It is going in a fridge to be eaten fresh over the next week. From both patches (combined block1) I got a total of the 8 above + 44 cobs - the 4 or 6 that might well be underdeveloped. Call it 48 good total, from approx 75 stalks. I was hoping for at least 100 cobs.

The carnage: A large percentage of the perimeter rows had at least one cob per stalk destroyed, sometimes two cobs on the same stalk. I pulled all the good cobs and most of the stalks. So now they are red beet and sweet potato patches. Cue the voles .

Really gorgeous corn and a visual taste of what might have been with the Incredible here. Thanks for posting those pics. We wiil try Incredible again next year.

Today I'll be pulling the Silver Queen stalks. That corn has been done a while but they're still green and I left the stalks up so that the squirrels might munch the immature ears and leave the garden tomatoes alone. So far it has worked. We'll see what happens starting tomorrow when the stalks are gone.

We need to figure something out to protect these small blocks from squirrels.

I love this xtra tender 3473 but as an sh2 it gets hit even earlier than bodacious or incredible (both SE) did the last couple years.

Block #2 in the backyard has the dogs patrolling at least...last mid season at that spot, I had Incredible over potatoes that went untouched by squirrels. Hopefully this 3473 will make it though as well. It will be a while yet. The fence went up last week because rabbits were eating the sweet potato vines.

That's some pretty corn, JR! Real pretty.

I thought that bird netting around the two corn beds would keep the squirrels out because they wouldn't like the netting catching on their claws. The netting was secured tight at the bottom so they couldn't go under it but they somehow found a way in. Probably climbed. Only something like a chicken wire cage with enclosed top or a shotgun would work. I think I the two ring leaders were the ones that came down with lead poisoning two weeks ago because since then the tomato thievery seems to have abated to just one now and then, not an every day thing.

Pickles swears that she's going to build a chicken wire enclosure over the winter to protect the tomatoes. The ones from the garden will join the others up here at the house, probably 30 total on two lines of pallets. I don't think she realizes how big that cage will have to be.

What I suspect is a dastardly groundhog/woodchuck sharpening its filthy paws on a heretofore new planter containing a Roulette Hybrid Pepper Plant, which was undisturbed: The Gotch

Just got back from a garden trip in England to find all my edamame (soy) plants eaten to the ground. They are groundhog heaven but I have not seen the critter yet. Finally found where it got in to the other big veggie garden. It literally has a tunnel from the barn to under the garden shed by the garden so comes out in that garden from under the shed. I have rebuilt the barrier over the years but groundhogs are STRONG! Have to work on reinforcing that more. In the edamame garden it climbed over the gate. Fortunately I have another bed of edamame elsewhere that was OK. Plan to harvest it today!

My groundhog has gotten over it's fear of stairs, I guess, because I have chased it off my deck several times so far--this is the first year I have ever seen a groundhog on the deck after many years of growing plants there. We are in a very dry spell. It's possible the tomato damage I had the other day was not an overnight racoon episode, but an early-morning groundhog raid.

I don't usually have too many critter problems but I do this year. It is so hot and dry that the critters are eating my garden. An entire row of newly planted green beans was mowed down overnight by bunnies. I have that part of the garden fenced but it turns out that the young bunnies can fit through the openings in the wire because I saw one of them on the garden.

They have also been going after my sweet potato vines. They ate all of the leaves off of the young plants, leaving only the stems. I immediately caged the plants but anytime a leaf protrudes through the wire it gets eaten off.. The vines are going to be crowded inside of these cages but hopefully I will still get some potatoes. Luckily I grow bush type sweet potatoes although the vines can still reach 3' in length.

Something is also eating my corn. Probably racoons although I have never had trouble with them before either. I put out the trail camera last night to check on this.

I’ve got a badger in the yard, but so far it seems to avoid the garden. Never dealt with badgers, but I read they are more meat eaters than vegetarians. They are apparently digging up the Texas leaf-cutting ants.

Something is eating my ripe peppers, gnawing on them and leaving behind little gnawing marks, though, and I think it is some sort of nocturnal rodent. Mainly in one bed where there’s lots of cover nearby. No way the abundant Barred Owls have not spotted the rodents yet, but the cover is close enough that the rodents can likely make an escape.

I’ve lost more than a few almost red poblanos, Jimmy nardellos, and corbaci to the rodents. They love the pepperoncini too. Anything ripening and that isn’t blazing hot. The red ripe jalapeño, serrano, aji cristal seem safe thus far.

Gardens are buffets open to all. None of the plants are native, but the critters figure out what tastes good pretty quickly.

Found my first hornworm in weeks. Saw the damage first, hunted it down and it was pretty big. Squirrels are leaving things alone for the time being. The cypress are fruiting and they are on that fruit.

Most of the critters know I'm a crazy old coot and leave me alone.

My brother has a plot at the comm garden for the first time: corn, squash, potatoes, beets and spinach. A fresh spot from lawn, rototilled and made compost rows. His corn was less damaged as I kept my remnants up as a decoy, but the squirrels eventually got across the garden to it. The other day, right in the middle of the row of late corn and potatoes, I found a groundhog hole!

@karstopography a badger?

I didn't know that they lived in TX. Is this common? I have only ever seen them on TV.

@JRinPA; found the same thing here a few years back. Stuck a hose down in, turned it on full force; it shot out of there at Warp Speed never to be seen again.

@brownrexx; "I have only ever seen them on TV." They're regulars on the B1G Ten Network...

That's news to the Badger State, as well.

Pound-for-Pound, (IMO) the Wolverine in the toughest critter in the known Universe; the Badger is a damn close second!

The Gotch