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  • From: Diana Jancek <dijaan AT charter.net>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Wire deer guards
  • Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:36:45 -0400

I've been using this wire fencing for years now. The moms are teaching the fawns (with skinnier noses!) to reach into the cage, they even step into them to get at what they want. I actually ran two of them back into the woods behind my field last night. Way too tame. Everything I've ever tried; dog hair, Irish spring soap hung on the fence, two plastic deer fences about 10 feet apart, it all works for awhile until they figure it out. Once my dog spooked a bunch of them who were inside the fence and they bolted through it got caught up in it and dragged it 200 feet into the woods!
Now to make matters worse, the farmer who used to grow beans about a half mile from me is planting corn these last years. I always counted on the deer leaving my plants alone once the beans came up, but no more. I'm thinking maybe when the war is over and Blackwater Security doesn't have work anymore I could hire a few of them.......(Eric Prince lives just down the road a piece).
Diana/West coast of Michigan/zone 5-6ish

Dave & Katharine Campbell wrote:
061820080211.22387.48586EC0000285B20000577322230703729B0A02D29B9B0EBF97089B0E05D20A900E0B AT att.net" type="cite">
I make wire deer guards by cutting 2"x4" welded wire into ~30" lengths.  They still are curved, so make a small natural hoop.  Leave a little bare wire on each end when you cut to stab into the ground and help anchor them in place.  We put them over rows of anything the deer bother, like lettude, chard, sweet potato slips...  They also make a nice frame for shade cloth or frost fabric.  Expensive the first year, but you can use them for years after that, or until you hit some you've forgotten in the weeds with your tractor mower!
==davec / Tiffin IA / Zone 5
 
-------------- Original message from Road's End Farm <organic87 AT frontiernet.net>: --------------


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> Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
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>
> Try a little blood meal scattered over the leaves; deer don't like the
> taste. (Not if you're intending to sell sweet potato shoots, of
> course; people don't either!) Needs to be re-applied after any
> significant rain; though if you have it on most of the time, the deer
> may not notice short stretches of no protection, as they may have
> already decided "those don't taste good, go eat somewhere else" and
> may not try them again for a while.
>
>
> Fish emulsion sprayed on the leaves may also do the job.
>
>
> What are the wire deer guards?
>
> > -- Rivka; Finger Lakes NY, Zone 5 mostly
>
> Fresh-market organic produce, small scale
>
>
>

>
> On Jun 15, 2008, at 9:40 AM, Dave & Katharine Campbell wrote:
>
>
> Wrong!  I set out my sweet potato slips about 2 weeks ago and
> THE VERY NEXT NIGHT the deer came thouugh and neatly nipped off about
> a third of them!  Moral: put out went the wire deer guards right away!
>
> ==davec / Tiffin IA / Zone 5
>
> -------------- Original message from Allan Balliett
> <: --------------
>
>
>
> > >One thing we do have a clear memory of is the deer eating off the
> sweet
>
> > >potato leaves.
>
> >
>
> > hopefully, they won't do that at the slip stage! I'm going to try one
>
> > o f thos e Premier 2-layered fences around the sweet potatoes and a
>
> > small bean field.
>
>

>
>


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