North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Dianne Stephany" <iluvdanc@rochester.rr.com>]

HI,

We are in Zone 5/6 in Rochester NY...deer had a trail through our yard but now seem to go around it.

 

Here is a recipe from Jerry Baker for "deer buster egg tonic" to spray on plants:

2 eggs

2 cloves garlic

2 tbs cayenne pepper

2 cups water

 

Put all ingredients together in a blender and puree. Allow to sit for 2 days in covered container. Pour or spray over the plants to protect from deer.

 

I haven't used this recipe, but it is similar in ingredients to "deer away".  I used 'deer away' and it did keep deer away, but also burnt and killed a downy serviceberry bush when I didn't dilute it enough. The deer away does rinse off with rain and needs to be reapplied. The deer used to prune our Emperor Francis cherry tree quite often. It lags behind the other cherry trees in growth.

 

The other thing that we do is to cage our trees from Oct to April using 6ft garden stakes with deer netting. Of course that was a bit labor intensive and wouldn't work for most of you with acres of trees; but for our 17 baby trees it is worth it. 

 

Dianne & Gary Stephany

Rochester NY