Squirrels and racoon protection

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Barmaley
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Squirrels and racoon protection

#1

Post: # 41752Unread post Barmaley
Tue Feb 23, 2021 9:04 pm

Several years ago I tried to grow tomatoes in Eastern Pennsylvania and every single tomato was eaten by somebody before I was able to pick it! So I gave up on becoming a gardener! Last year I decided to outsmart the pests and I grew tomatoes in pots on my 24x16 deck. I found that not only chipmunks and squirrels but even racoons became frequent visitors. I estimated that I was able to steel from them 1/4 to 1/5 of the crop! I found that I was doing much better on small cherry tomatoes than on large big ones. It also seems to me that the redder the fruit was the more attractive it was for them! I thought about doing without any big tomatoes with year and go for sungolds and black cherry only ( I was thinking about esterina F1 but you guys suggested that while is it sweet it does not have the complexity of Sungold). I am kind of intrigued by Medovaya Kaplya since some reviews say that MK is better than SG.
Suddenly I got an idea: what if I will make custom made steel mini-cages which I will wrap around big tomatoes so pests will not be able to eat it! The question is: does the fruit needs full sun or only leave need it? Did somebody used my technique and what can I use as a cage?

zeuspaul
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#2

Post: # 41754Unread post zeuspaul
Tue Feb 23, 2021 9:50 pm

Pick them when they first start to turn color and let them ripen on the counter. For most tomatoes the flavor will be just as good.
Barmaley wrote: Tue Feb 23, 2021 9:04 pm It also seems to me that the redder the fruit was the more attractive it was for them!

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Nan6b
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#3

Post: # 41755Unread post Nan6b
Tue Feb 23, 2021 10:57 pm

1. Fruit doesn't need sun unless you're trying to get blue tomato anthocyanin to show up.
2. Picking them as they just begin to get the faintest blush on them will let them ripen inside normally.
3. If they're going for the color, maybe you could get away with the green when ripe, and "white" tomatoes. I HIGHLY recommend Dr. Carolyn as a large white cherry that is sweet and complex. There are so many tasty greens out there, others can tell you which ones they like. (On a similar note, I grow everbearing albino alpine strawberries. No animal eats them because they're white when ripe!)
4. With cages/ chicken wire, you need to close off the top too.

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peebee
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#4

Post: # 41757Unread post peebee
Wed Feb 24, 2021 12:24 am

I have that problem too & last year I thought I had the cleverest solution: yes I would wrap each big tomato individually. I know, crazy right but I was desperate plus I had a design in mind. I custom cut my green-coated chicken wire(thick but pliable) & carefully surrounded each large tomato or clusters if medium sized. Before closing up the "cage" I made sure to stuff a barrier of black bird netting around the fruit first, further hiding the tomato from predators. I gleefully awaited undisturbed ripening.
Well, it didn't work. Somehow, the rodents were able to eat & leave without disturbing the outer heavy wire & inner thick barrier of bird mesh. I had read that rats hate to navigate bird mesh cuz their feet gets entangled in it. Hogwash. They take bites thru it, no problem.

What did work, like some have already suggested, is that I removed any green fruit that was overlooked, as soon as it showed the slightest bit of turning color. I didn't get as much as I hoped but at least I got enough to ease my tomato hunger. What a pain it was to take down all those small cages, esp with that dang bird mesh that was a horror to remove. Never again.

Hubby took pity on me & is building a big walk-in enclosure for me this year. With half inch hardware cloth 19 gauge on the frame. We figured that was easier than enclosing individual plants, plus access to the fruits would be easier.
Good luck whatever you decide to do [mention]Barmaley[/mention]! :)
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brownrexx
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#5

Post: # 41767Unread post brownrexx
Wed Feb 24, 2021 6:03 am

I grow tomatoes in 5' tall tomato cages made of cattle panels which are like galvanized concrete reinforcing wire.

This keeps my plants up off of the ground and I pick all of my big tomatoes at "first blush" and let them ripen in the house.

If you use cages make sure that the openings are large enough for you to reach inside to pick fruits.

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stone
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#6

Post: # 41773Unread post stone
Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:08 am

I grow my tomatoes inside cages... those 2 in x 4 inch rectangle welded wire... fixing to add same to pawpaw and persimmon...
I have wire around the pawpaw and it helped some, but the top wasn't tightly fitting, got some fruit, lost some fruit... need improvements...

Reaching through the welded wire causes some stretching of the rectangle... but... it's all good.

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TXTravis
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#7

Post: # 41775Unread post TXTravis
Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:18 am

Besides picking at first blush, I know that determined and relentless persecution is effective on squirrels. The grey squirrels on the TX Gulf Coast were awful. I lost 90% of my crop one year, fought back hard the next and only lost 1 tomato. The squirrels did not fare so well. Now that I'm back in Central TX, the local fox squirrels don't seem to like or notice tomatoes, and the few rats that come around are easy enough to trap.

Never had to deal with raccoons in this context, but I recall a scene from the book "Old Yeller" that seems instructive. First lesson, get a dog. A big one. Second lesson, sleep outside all night every night and chase them away until the whole crop is in. It worked for the Travis in that book. I don't think I'd have the determination for that.
A seed not planted is guaranteed not to grow.

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Nan6b
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#8

Post: # 41778Unread post Nan6b
Wed Feb 24, 2021 9:16 am

Pawpaws: the fruit here is untouched until it is ripe. Pawpaws are ripe when they become fragrant & fall off the tree. I go out and shake the trees, then pick up what has fallen. It was due to fall shortly if it falls when shaken. If you wait till they're fully ripe, someone has already taken a bite out of them.

[mention]peebee[/mention] that enclosure sounds great. Be sure that it sits flat to the ground. In fact, if you can dig in a 6" deep trench fence at the base, you'll be better off. Ground hogs & rabbits will dig under fences, and rats & baby rabbits & baby ground hogs can fit into very narrow spaces. Instead of a trench fence, you could put a line of bricks around the base on the outside of the fence to stop digging.

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Barmaley
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#9

Post: # 41825Unread post Barmaley
Wed Feb 24, 2021 9:25 pm

Thank you guys for an unexpected advice to pick them blush. I found that our gray squirrels are not interested in green tomatoes. This will actually may change my intention not to grow large tomatoes! However, my idea was to to make a cage around each individual fruit, not the whole plant since I understand that the most important factor for the taste is amount of sun and I already have shade for half a day because of trees and the house. I was thinking about solid steel box which will have only a small hole for the stem and small holes for air ventilation. I will lock them around each fruit and will re-use them if needed. I am even thinking about making a mass production of the cages to cover my tomatoes expenses. Last year I spent hundreds of dollars on tomato supplies and when I estimated the cost of my tomatoes they were way north of $10 per pound!

Are there varieties which are better to get ripened off the vine? I thought that the main reason to grow tomatoes vs. supermarket tomatoes that they were ripe on the vine! I also know that Sungold are not getting tasty if collected not 100% ripe!

Are there any white or green tomatoes which taste as good as red? BTW, the tastiest tomato I got last year (my really first year) was Cherokee Purple. I read that now they have Cherokee Purple carbon which suppose to be even better. I could not find who sell its seeds!

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peebee
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#10

Post: # 41826Unread post peebee
Wed Feb 24, 2021 9:37 pm

[mention]Nan6b[/mention] , yes hubby has already planned about the possible burrowing, it should be fine.
If we also didn't have a bad coyote problem nowadays, I'd have a cat or two to patrol my yard. And rat traps? No way, not after a beautiful bird was ensnared in one, barely alive, in such agony that I had to end it's pain myself. I never ever want to do that again. Rat poison? Not after one of my dogs tried to eat a dead rat that died in our yard. Next door neighbor used some in her garage.
Ah the joys of city life :?
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peebee
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#11

Post: # 41828Unread post peebee
Wed Feb 24, 2021 9:42 pm

Are these steel boxes something you've made, or bought? They do sound sturdier than my reinforced wire\bird mesh contraption!
Zone 10, Southern California
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Nan6b
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#12

Post: # 41838Unread post Nan6b
Thu Feb 25, 2021 1:42 am

Barmaley, here's what happens to a store tomato. It's picked green, shipped green, and when it gets where it's going, it is exposed to gas that makes it ripen artificially. That is where the store-bought lack of taste comes from. Ripening them on the vine or on your table results in the same good flavor, so long as you're picking at first blush. By that point, the fruit isn't receiving much from its plant.

If you're making metal boxes with air holes, you will have the problem that it's going to get HOT inside that little box. You'll cook your tomatoes. Better to bring them in the moment they get a bit of color.

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brownrexx
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#13

Post: # 41845Unread post brownrexx
Thu Feb 25, 2021 7:38 am

[mention]Barmaley[/mention] you need to pick them when they start to show some color, aka First Blush. Green tomatoes will not ripen properly.

I did a lot of reading about this last year and I saw many studies that said that the flavor compounds were already in the tomato as it started to blush. I don't have links but you can Google this if you are interested.

DH still did not believe me so I vine ripened one and sliced it along with one picked at first blush and ripened indoors and asked him to pick which one was vine ripened and he couldn't do it. He is a believer now.

Store tomatoes are a different breed and will never taste as good as home grown no matter how they are ripened. They are bred for durability during shipping and producing their fruits all at the same time. home grown flavor is not a trait that they have.

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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#14

Post: # 41963Unread post Tormato
Fri Feb 26, 2021 2:17 pm


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peebee
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#15

Post: # 42000Unread post peebee
Fri Feb 26, 2021 9:16 pm

[mention]Tormato[/mention] thanks for that video, I found it very entertaining! :)
Zone 10, Southern California
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#16

Post: # 42037Unread post bower
Sat Feb 27, 2021 5:19 pm

I have to say, I have had near 100% success keeping squirrels and hares away from my veggies by draping old row cover around the bed as a fence instead of using wire. Hares understand wire fencing as something to tunnel under. Squirrels climb it in a flash. But row cover softly moving in the breeze is not something they want to cross.
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wildcat62
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#17

Post: # 42073Unread post wildcat62
Sun Feb 28, 2021 9:59 am

Fighting racoons here in the Ohio valley has become a full time & all out war. Our farm is surrounded on 3 sides by woods & the 4th by the Ohio river. Most of that property is owned by a large utility that allows no hunting. Thus wildlife is abundant. Deer, turkey, racoons, rabbits & squirrels. You name it they are here and plentiful. E-fence has helped greatly with the deer & we don't have a problem with any of the rest.
But those raccoons. @#^^$%^&#

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worth1
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#18

Post: # 42076Unread post worth1
Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:11 am

One of the problems is many people stopped eating squirrels and stopped trapping raccoons for hides.
I have an abundance of squirrels and about ready to start eating the things.
Growing up we had fried squirrels every chance we got.
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wildcat62
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#19

Post: # 42086Unread post wildcat62
Sun Feb 28, 2021 1:41 pm

worth1 wrote: Sun Feb 28, 2021 11:11 am One of the problems is many people stopped eating squirrels and stopped trapping raccoons for hides.
I have an abundance of squirrels and about ready to start eating the things.
Growing up we had fried squirrels every chance we got.
So did we but I haven't had any in years. We enjoy seeing all the squirrels and have no garden issues with them at all.

You are right on the racoons. Very few racoon hunters around anymore.

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Barmaley
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Re: Squirrels and racoon protection

#20

Post: # 42091Unread post Barmaley
Sun Feb 28, 2021 2:19 pm

stone wrote: Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:08 am I grow my tomatoes inside cages... those 2 in x 4 inch rectangle welded wire... fixing to add same to pawpaw and persimmon...
I have wire around the pawpaw and it helped some, but the top wasn't tightly fitting, got some fruit, lost some fruit... need improvements...

Reaching through the welded wire causes some stretching of the rectangle... but... it's all good.
Can you send us some pictures?

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