Do Deer enjoy tomatoes?

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Jake229

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Neighbor
Joined
Jun 26, 2019
Messages
47
Location
Cornfields of SE Iowa
Hello!!
As you may have read in the “introductions” area, my bride and I are 2 weeks away from moving to our new homestead. With that said, we have 30 tomatoes and peppers in containers to move. We originally had planned on being somewhere where we could have had our plants in the ground, but that didn’t work so well. Actually it is a blessing, we got a better place with more land and a nicer home! The plants are doing amazingly well in containers. We should have a bumper crop of tomatoes and some peppers. Thank goodness we are only moving 2 miles, I can put the containers in my son-in-law’s enclosed trailer for the short trip.

Anyhow, there is an abundance of white tail deer in the area. How can we keep them from getting eaten up from the deer and raccoons? I purchased this item at Menard’s
https://www.menards.com/main/buildi...729-c-5768.htm?tid=2401233411653616460&ipos=1

What is the best way to hang or string this around the containers or for that matter, around the plot where we will be planting a garden next year? My thoughts were to get PVC pipe and manufacture a frame around the area. Another thought was to drape the fence (it is very light) over the top of the containers (laying on top of the sticks holding up the tomatoes).

I would like to hear from you fine folks, how do you keep critters out of your garden....

Thanks as always!
Jake
 
Just trying out posting photos, I am confident everyone knows what deer look like :)
 

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I have never heard of deer eating tomatoes before.
I suppose you could put some netting over the plants to stop animals getting to them.
 
After decades growing and selling produce at the farmers market I have found only 2 methods that work with deer.

Sleep beside your plants. One year they were raiding my peas so bad I set up a tent with the opening pointed towards some uninhabited woods. Of course I didn’t sleep well. Every time I woke up during the night I would fire a couple of rounds into the woods from my 22 rifle.

It kept the deer guessing the first week. Afterwards they avoided the tent no matter where I put it. I'd sleep in it about once a week to renew my smell.

Deer love peanut butter, the cheaper and oilier the better. They can’t help themselves. For years now I use an electric fence around the main garden. Usually deer would simply jump over the fence. However, if you smear peanut butter every 10ft or so on the electric wire they won’t jump over. They will stop to lick peanut butter from the wire. Once is usually enough, after a good shock they will stay gone about 6 weeks.

That said I don't think I've ever seen a deer actually bite a tomato... chickens are a different story. A deer might nip a leaf or two.
 
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Just trying out posting photos, I am confident everyone knows what deer look like :)

If you want the picture to be larger, after you up load it next to the image it has a tab for thumbnail or full image. Click full image and it will be easier to see.
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Thanks so much! I wanted to share our new homestead on the other forum post like I promised I would but couldn’t figure out the photos feature. For some reason, I was thinking I had to use a photo hosting service. It makes it quite easy to do.
 
If you want the picture to be larger, after you up load it next to the image it has a tab for thumbnail or full image. Click full image and it will be easier to see.View attachment 11425
Just try to remember those of us with slow internet connections. I can always click on the picture and get the original size if I want to see it bigger.
 
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