Red Christmas Tree Balls?

[GoDawgs]

I was telling a friend about the birds pecking almost-ripe tomatoes and she said she had heard that hanging red Christmas balls above the tomato clusters would help. Theoretically the birds peck the balls and after finding they're fake they just dismiss the idea of pecking red tomatoes.

She also said that she was told from somebody else that the technique works best when the balls are hung early in the season before anything ripens so that the birds learn early on that red round things aren't edible.

Has anyone heard of this or tried it?

[eyegrotom]

I have heard about that also, but I have never done it, I usually don't have a problem with the Birds pecking My Tomatoes.

[Nan6b]

What eyegrotom said.

[Sue_CT]

I have also read that they are mostly looking for the juice inside when they can't find water. I have a small hand dug pond with a waterfall and a small fountain that the birds love and I have always suspected the availability of water nearby is the reason they have never bothered mine. I have had one partially eaten by some type of animal, although not often. I just bring them in after first blush and don't have to worry about it at all any more. Unless a worm gets to one while its still green I don't need to hang balls on my plants. If you insist on leaving them on the plant until they are ripe you might want to try it. It wouldn't hurt.

[GoDawgs]

The birds have a bird bath nearby. Last year I put one right at the tomato row. Couldn't be any closer yet they preferred the tomatoes!

Most of the tomatoes are canned. Early in the season it takes a while to get enough tomatoes together to have enough to make canning worthwhile. I've always picked at blush but before they ripen they always develop spots and funk. Often it looks like anthracnose even though the tomatoes are free of it (at least to the naked eye) when they're brought in. So I'm thinking the only option is to let them get a little farther along in ripening before picking so there's less time between coming in, gathering enough tomatoes to do the canning and then doing the actual canning. The plants also get a regular fungicide spray, mostly Serenade and occasionally Daconil.

When I bring them in I put them in flats on the kitchen table. I read yesterday that they should be rinsed well with water right after bringing them in. That will remove 98% of any bacteria on the tomatoes. I had not been doing that but am now. Several articles also said to lay them stem side down as test have shown that they have more longevity that way. I already do that.

Right now there are just about enough to can a batch

[Sue_CT]

That has happened to me when I bring in tomatoes off infected vines. I don't think it has anything to do with bringing them inside. They are likely contaminated already when they come in. Unless your house is contaminated with anthracnose or tomato fungi for some reason. I think the idea to rinse them is a good one. I have never done it either but I will now if I am bringing them in late in the season. That is when I have had the problem. I also can mine and have not for 2-3 years because I was using up what I already had. I think I did one batch last year. I would like to do more this year. Yes, I have to save them up for canning also since I don't plant determinates. The problem with the birds is very odd. Are you certain it is birds? Many animals and insects like tomatoes. Birds around here tend to like insects and berries. I would look into bird deterrents if it is some particular variety of bird you have locally, like the mylar things you can put on a pole to scare them away. Any bird will do what it has to do to get water, but I don't know of any around me that like tomatoes for food.

[GoDawgs]

This year we increased the number of early finishing determinates just for canning and to get the most out of the plants before the heat comes in. Rio Grande, Early Girl bush, Early Annie and Red Siberian are all loaded and almost ready. There will be plenty to can then! We're also starting to get a few slicers here and there.

[brownrexx]

My 6 chickens LOVE tomatoes and they are birds. We let them free range and lately they found the garden and started pecking the low hanging tomatoes so I had to put some barricades around the tomato cages. It's too hot to keep them in the coop all day. They are not going for the water, they want the seeds.

I have been getting extra squash and cut them them open for the chickens to peck. The eat all of the seeds and leave the pulp and skin which I then compost.

[Nan6b]

When I processed tomatoes in a food mill, I gave the skins & seeds to my niece's chickens. They loved them.

[Sue_CT]

Ah, the seeds, that makes sense. I have heard of feeding a lot things to chickens that most birds don't usually eat, but most birds do eat seeds.

[EdieJ]

When we had chickens, they got all veggie & fruit trimmings as long as they weren't all diseased. They would get so excited when they'd see one of us coming their way with a plastic grocery bag. Tomatoes and melons were their favorites.
Our problem is rabbits. Somehow the babies got under the garden fence last year. You'd be surprised how far up they can stretch on their back feet. And how many tomatoes they can destroy in a short amount of time.

[worth1]

When I was growing up my job was to feed the many chickens.
They sometimes ate clabbered milk from our cow and all the vegetable scraps including the tomato skins seeds and trimmings from making tomato juice and so on.
Dumped it all in two big tractor tires split in half.
Not only was the meat out of this world the eggs were too.

[brownrexx]

My chickens get all of the kitchen scraps that I know that they like. There are a few things that they turn up their beaks at like celery, lettuce, anything citrus and green peppers but they also love to head to the compost pile and dig around in all of the gross old stuff.

Today I cut up half of a big seedless watermelon and then gave them the rinds. They just love those and will peck them paper thin. On these hot days they hang around under the bushes in the shade all day and having watermelon to eat in the shade is a super treat for them and keeps them hydrated.

[bower]

That's funny, I heard that you hang red christmas balls on tomato plants to shame them into ripening.