cervid do eat tomato plants from time to prison term . Here ’s how to keep harm to your plants .
Deer are a delight to take in from a distance , but when they‘re traipsing through your veg garden , you may find yourself wonder , " Do cervid eat tomato plants ? " And if these four - legged visitant start crunch on your plant , delight is probably the last word on your psyche . Many vegetables , along withfavorite bush , perennials , and one-year flowers can become a buffet for these ravening creatures . Learn how to discover deer damage on tomato plant plants and how to protect your crop .
Deer and Tomatoes
veggie gardens offer a tasty bountyfor both man and cervid . As their native environment is increasingly taken up by housing developments , deer are pressure into smaller and belittled habitats . They quickly become wonted to suburban living and are draw to vegetable gardens where the food source are plentiful and nutritious .
Humans and deer also share many preferred edible plant , include bean plant , beets , broccoli , sugar , lettuce , strawberries , and sweet corn . Tomatoes are notably not on the preferred plant list for deer , but these animals can be unpredictable and may take a few bites of nipping tomato foliation or ripe fruit if other nutrient sources are limited .
Plantcompanion vegetables and herbsthat deer rarely browse due to their prickly grain or pungent olfactory perception near love apple plants . These include cive , cucumbers , eggplant , leeks , onions , rosemary , rhubarb , andsage .
Credit:Robert Muckley / Getty Images
Robert Muckley / Getty Images
Identifying Deer Damage on Tomatoes
Tomato plants are susceptible to deer at any time during their ontogeny , from the seedling stagetoharvest clip . If your tomato plant is pretermit folio or sporting damaged fruit , cervid might be the cause . start by looking for deer tracks around your plant . Their bisulcate hoof print are sluttish to pick out .
cervid - damage foliage has a jumpy , jagged boundary because deer lack upper incisor tooth . They bite down on a leafage and puff , leaving behind a ragged remainder . Leaf impairment because of rodent , such as rabbits and chipmunks , has a regular , square margin . cervid take a bite out of advanced love apple or eat whole yield , look on the size .
Peak alimentation time is early morning and late evening . Although cervid are rarely seen feasting in the garden , they usually leave behind plenty of evidence of their bearing .
5 Ways to Protect Your Tomatoes from Deer
If you mistrust deer have been snack on your tomato plant , you may want to debate the following selection for keeping the critters from wrecking your harvest home .
1. Install a deer fence.
A fence is the best way tokeep deer away from plantsyou do n’t want them to eat . Mosttraditional landscape fenceswon’t keep out deer . These large , spry creatures can easily jump a standard 4 - foot - tall fence . Height is fundamental to excluding deer from a large area such as an full vegetable garden or backyard .
The best cervid fence is 8 feet improbable . Many commercial deer fence options are useable , but they come with a high price shred . you’re able to make your own 8 - foot - grandiloquent deer fence by stacking two 4 - invertebrate foot breadth of wire fencing material on top of each other .
A well - built and regularly keep electric fence can also suffice as a cervid roadblock . An electric fence does n’t need to be 8 feet tall to be efficacious ; 4- to 5 - foot - grandiloquent galvanising fences commonly keep deer out .
2. Build a micro-enclosure.
Wildlife specialist have recover that cervid quash insert small spaces . The animals perceive the small quad as being too high-risk for dissipated introduction and going . nurseryman can use this to their advantage . set up a stock 4 - metrical foot - magniloquent fencing around a love apple temporary hookup measuring no more than 16 feet foresighted and 16 feet blanket . inquiry has render that cervid are on a regular basis deterred by the 16 - foot second power , leaving the plants growing inside alone .
3. Hang a bar of soap nearby.
If you are protect a singletomato plant life in a containeror a small , call down seam , having a bar of very fragrant tub soap nearby can keep deer from browsing your tomato . Begin with the right soap for the job — an individually wind , highly fragrant small measure . Leave the bar enfold and drill a small hole through the max . Thread a piece of yarn or jute through the hole and attend the taproom of grievous bodily harm on a stakes near a love apple plant . If you have several tomato plant , localise several legal profession of soap around the circumference of the planting .
Deer be given to become habitual to a strong scent over clock time , so switch your repellant of choice every few workweek to keep them from becoming too comfortable with a particular odor .
4. Spray the soil with a raw egg mixture.
Wildlife specializer have found that a bleak egg slurry can in effect repel deer . To make it , commix a XII raw eggs with 5 Imperial gallon of water and apply it to the soil around tomato plants with a sprayer . The testis quickly rot in the earth , producing a putrid odor that is detected by cervid but not by humankind . Reapply the egg and water mixture after every rainwater .
5. Sprinkle the soil with bone meal and blood meal.
Typically used as soil enhancements , blood meal and bone meal have also proven helpful in rebuff deer . Mixblood meal and os mealtogether in a 1 to 1 ratio and sprinkle the dry mathematical product on the soil around tomato plant . Reapply after every rainfall .
