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Help! All people who grow fruits/veggies!

DavyJones

Is ready to take this hobby to a whole new level
Now that we had some trees removed from our yard we receive full sun, which while great for my new sarracenia and temperate drosera, is also great for some fruits and veggies. I have a pot of strawberries which are now flowering prolifically. I'm rather excited. The first strawberry of the year was just getting big, fat, and turning bright red, when, to my surprise (actually not surprised, I was warned of this beforehand, only to shrug it off), the berry disappeared. Ugh. Anyways, the pot is sitting on our deck, so I'm sure it's not squirrels or raccoons, since they never seem brave enough to come up on the deck (at least I've never seen one there,) but there we do have chipmunks. There is also a rather unruly pack of 6-8 blue jays that have been bumming around our yard, and some medium sized blackbirds with shiny feathers. I'm guessing they are probably the culprits. Someone in the neighborhood has been feeding the jays peanuts, witnessed by the peanut shells we're finding scattered throughout our yard.

How can I keep things away from my strawberry pot? I looked at netting at Home Depot, but it was $15 for a small length. I will not be getting $15 worth of strawberries out of this little plant, so I don't feel its worth dishing out that much cash. I've also heard before that if you spray your plants with a mixture of hot red pepper and water frequently, it will keep things from eating plants. Has anybody had any luck with this method, or any other methods? Preferentially ones that are not too unsightly, since my mom is a stickler for a tidy yard. (Yes, almost 23 years old and living with the parents. Not too fun.)

thanks for your help. I know I'm not the only one with this problem, so I'm looking forward to some interesting answers/help!
 
You could try scottychaos' cd method... Just hang a cd above or near the pot and it supposedly scares away birds.

Did you look at chicken wire? I didn't think that was too expensive.

Good luck!
 
Umm use a wooden owl?
 
get yerself a gyun!

Even BB guns will work! :)

Or maybe...get a cat/dog? CDs will wrok for alittle, until they realize they dont hurt them...They will only realize your fruit are spicy after they eat them...Wire is the best. Good luck! :)
 
You can shave up a bar of Irish Spring soap into small chips with a cheese grater and sprinkle it on the garden & around the plants. This supposedly keeps deer away from gardens so the soap might keep other critters away too.

The hot pepper spray sucks! It doesn't smell like hot pepper (to me) and I've had mealies get on my succulents with or without the hot pepper wax. So I don't know if it would actually bother any other critters or not. :(
 
cage'um.......would bet its the birds stealing them, they love berries, especially red berries.......only thing that can be done is cage them or you will not get any strawberries......around here its a constant battle with robins.....oh and hot pepper spray doesnt work on birds....capsicum only bugs mammals....birds are unaffected.....
 
wooden owl + cat

id say go at it from 2 directions. put up a wooden owl and occasionally move its perch. my cousin had decent success with this method. then get a cat and make sure there are some good stalking hiding places close to the berries then let nature take its course.

obregon562's method would be the most fun except my way you get a cat.

let us know how it goes
d
 
yeah I had blue jays do that same thing to my strawberries! I just let them eat though. So I can't say about getting ride of them. I would think the pepper spray would prevent you from enjoying them too though. On the bright side I beleave one of those birds crapped in my garden and now I have one of the largest strawberry plants I have every grown. It has sent off tons of shooters and is just pumping out store sized berries! Nothing beats letting nature do it's thing!
 
I wouldn't rule out a squirrel. They get much more courageous when food is available. Also, I've never seen birds take an entire strawberry, while squirrels are only too happy to take the whole thing. If you're in a place where you can shoot a pellet rifle and plan to grow more fruit, a good pellet rifle might be a good investment.
 
  • #10
depending on the size of the berry and the size of the bird i have seen them haul off the occasional whole strawberry......but most often they just peck out the red area......
 
  • #11
There were two berries on the plant at the time. One was full size, just coloring up. The other was still about only halfway developed. The larger berry was clipped of clean about .5 inches above the flower, nothing left except a stem. The half-developed berry was just pecked at. I have about 20+ flowers developing now, so I need to find a solution soon. I'll try and find some cage tomorrow, and will keep everybody posted on what works. Thanks for the suggestions!
 
  • #12
Hot pepper spray works well for some critters, but birds have a very dull sense of smell and taste. So if it is birds, the pepper spray probably won't do anything. (I've seen parrots eat jalapeños like they were apples.)
If you want to cage them, I suggest spending the extra cash for poultry wire; it lasts much longer than bird net. Get yourself some scrap wood and build a little frame, then wrap it in poultry wire. You can also use aluminum electrical conduit to make a frame - it's cheap aluminum pipe that sells for about $3 for a ten foot length, and you can bend it into all sorts of shape with a $12 pipe bender (which is, incidentally, the coolest-looking simple tool/improvised home defense weapon I've come across at a hardware store to date.)
~Joe
 
  • #13
I just build a barrier out of chicken wire whenever I have that kind of problem.
 
  • #14
go with the wire cage, everything else is a gamble, and the cages are permanent so once you invest you can reuse them every year.

we did this at my house for alot of our veggies that had animal problems...

( like last year when the squirrels came in a single day and ate about 30 vft bulbs ) haha
 
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