onions, garlic, and gophers

habitat_gardener · July 6, 2019

Onions and garlic have always been easy crops for me: plant in December or January. harvest in May. This year, the gophers beat me to it. By mid-April, I noticed some of my onions had not survived at the community garden. Then all the Walla Wallas were gone. By the time I figured out that this particular gopher had developed a taste for onions, half of the 100 I'd planted (5 varieties) were gone. The ones that remained were still small, but I picked them anyway. April seemed way too early to be thinking about gopher predation!

I had hardware cloth under most of the garlic, but that, too, started disappearing before the bulbs had sized up. They were barely the size of marbles. Some were munched from the top, others from the bottom, so it could have been several critters.When I dug up that bed, however, there was a gopher tunnel running right under the hardware cloth!

So for next winter, I'm wondering if it makes more sense to plant in containers at home, or to try to plant everything in hardware cloth (I have a big pile of it that was going to get recycled). I have mounded raised beds, without borders.

Do gophers also like beets and turnips and rutabagas? They seem to have stayed away from the beds that have brassicas, but I wonder if that's coincidental.

I'm not interested in hunting them down. That would make gardening a dreaded activity rather than a joy.

July 6, 2019	#1
habitat_gardener Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: California Central Valley Posts: 2,543	onions, garlic, and gophers Onions and garlic have always been easy crops for me: plant in December or January. harvest in May. This year, the gophers beat me to it. By mid-April, I noticed some of my onions had not survived at the community garden. Then all the Walla Wallas were gone. By the time I figured out that this particular gopher had developed a taste for onions, half of the 100 I'd planted (5 varieties) were gone. The ones that remained were still small, but I picked them anyway. April seemed way too early to be thinking about gopher predation! I had hardware cloth under most of the garlic, but that, too, started disappearing before the bulbs had sized up. They were barely the size of marbles. Some were munched from the top, others from the bottom, so it could have been several critters.When I dug up that bed, however, there was a gopher tunnel running right under the hardware cloth! So for next winter, I'm wondering if it makes more sense to plant in containers at home, or to try to plant everything in hardware cloth (I have a big pile of it that was going to get recycled). I have mounded raised beds, without borders. Do gophers also like beets and turnips and rutabagas? They seem to have stayed away from the beds that have brassicas, but I wonder if that's coincidental. I'm not interested in hunting them down. That would make gardening a dreaded activity rather than a joy.