Can they be saved? Deer ate tops and main stem of plants

[pinklady5]

I checked on my garden today to find that 1/2 of my beautiful healthy tomato plants were eaten by deer. Evidence of hoof prints exist. They ate the tops off including the main stem. Can they be saved or once the main stem is compromised, it's over? Both of my Big Beef plants included. Was so looking forward to trying them.

[Brandon558]

As far as saving the plants some one else will have to chime in on that. Best thing i can reccomend from experience is to put up some type of fence....they will take out a whole garden quick! Good luck and i know its very frustrating!

[BucksCountyGirl]

Hi pinklady, as long as they are indeterminate varieties (which Big Beef is), they should grow another main stem from what some people refer to as a "sucker".

I had a few of my cherry tomatoes get their main stem chomped this spring and as long as they were not eaten down to the ground they came back. They are behind my other plants as far as size but I am sure they will still produce. YMMV. Best of luck!

[Labradors2]

How annoying!

Is there anything showing above the ground? If there's a little stub with, hopefully, a place where a sucker could sprout, they could be saved.

Good luck,
Linda

[pinklady5]

Yes, they still have about 6-10 inches of the main stem remaining along with plenty of established suckers remaining. Good news that they should survive. Now I have to work on keeping them out of an already fencing in garden. Any natural ideas like repellents? This is new for me since I live in a busy section of town where no deer should even be.

[Worth1]

Hang your dirtiest smelling clothes up in the garden and they should stay away.
Sounds crazy but it works.
just change out thhe clothes when you change clothes.

Worth

[pinklady5]

That is funny, but your right it probably works! Wonder what my neighbors will think when I hang my underwear outside but I value my tomatoes way more! HAHA!

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by pinklady5

That is funny, but your right it probably works! Wonder what my neighbors will think when I hang my underwear outside but I value my tomatoes way more! HAHA!

We had to do it to keep the coyotes and deer out of our garden.
The rascals would bite the melons and pull them from the vines.
After the hanging of the sweaty clothes it stopped.

A deer will smell humans and high tail it out of there many times.
But if you feed them corn they will associate the smell with food and humans and wont run off.

Worth

[Brandon558]

Depending on the area....I dont know if your in the country or in a neighborhood community with deer. I lived on a golf course a few years ago and the deer took my 20x20 garden out in 3 days....i tryed a fishing line fense, all sorts or soaps, sprays, repellants, and they did it anyway. When deer are around people alot they get comfortable like humans do and our scents dont bother them like they do with wild deer in the country areas. Either way good luck....electric fence will keep them out. Dont waste your money on all that mess at Lowes and home depot!

[JLJ_]

We've found that Contech 'Scarecrow" that is a motion detector activated jet of water to be effective with most deer, especially if we hang some aluminum pie tins around in the garden and string some monofilament in spots where we don't walk to enhance the noise and confusion when the Scarecrow goes off.

Every once in a while there's a particularly determined deer, though. We have one garden with a fairly high fence (was 6' but droops a little in spots). Most deer don't even need that much fence to keep them out but we've had one persistent doe who had gotten in there enough to do damage the past several years. Neither the fence nor the Scarecrow deter her more than temporarily. This spring I saw her in there -- when there were plenty of nice young juicy green things growing all over outside the gardens. I started after her, telling her that I was going to catch her and put a little salt on her head and devour her from her nose to her toes. I don't move very fast, but apparently she detected a note of sincerity in my voice because she leapt over one of the highest spots in the fence, not clearing it well and rubbing quite a bit of fur off her underside. Whether it was the fence fright or her new conviction that an insane and probably rabid bear lives in that garden, I haven't seen her in there since. (I suspect her fright will have faded by late summer when the garden is green and things outside it are brown -- but we'll see.)

This is the Scarecrow thing we use. If I was going to buy more of them I'd check around as the price does vary somewhat, though I suspect that this is where I got ours. Wherever you shop, the reviews here give a lot of pros and cons and use tips for the device.

http://www.amazon.com/Contech-CRO101.../dp/B000071NUS

And as far as your tomatoes recovering, I've had Marglobes broken off at ground level by hail and recover to produce, so I sure wouldn't give up on yours.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by pinklady5

Yes, they still have about 6-10 inches of the main stem remaining along with plenty of established suckers remaining. Good news that they should survive. Now I have to work on keeping them out of an already fencing in garden. Any natural ideas like repellents? This is new for me since I live in a busy section of town where no deer should even be.

When I first moved to where I am now I was growing tomatoes at several locations and at one, the deer were plentiful and I always found damaged plants. I sprawled all the plants in that place and they always came back.

And you are in NJ,it's early in the season, and yours will come back too.

I live in deer country and trustme,theres nothing better than a high double fence which the apple orchard folks have to use to surround their orchards, and some use electrified fences, or did, but deer can jump over them easily.

Forget it with the bars of soap and human urine and stuff like that, it may work for a while but once the deer get used to it, forget it.And also forget about setting up a system where LOUD music is played, I swear they like that as well.

My county has one of the largest deer populations in NYS, most assume that it's b'c it's dairy country and deer thrive on that corn they grow for the cows.

Right now I'm waiting to see the fawns in my backyard, whichI can see here from where my computer is,b'c there were three large PG does that were coming down here looking for food, so I had Agway deliver some, and yes, I know it's illegal in NYS to feed the deer.

I havea herd of about 15 that hang out on my 30 acres here and have gotten to know some of them , b'c of their markings,when they appear in the back yard.

Carolyn, who was raised in a deer hunting family, my dad was a member of a gun club, and they'd get together at clamsteams and the like and talk about this and that drive and who had the best eyesight. My father wanted to teach me how to shoot a rifle, maybe it was a shotgun, I can't remember, set up a target, but deliberatley forgot to tell me about the kickback. That was enough for me and I never picked up a gun again.But my brother was as good a shot as my father. I think both had something like 20/10 vision.

[ScottinAtlanta]

The only thing that worked well here in Georgia is those water sprays that are motion detected. They actually saved my mom's rose bushes, although we had to build separate cages for every tomato plant.

[pinklady5]

I live on a busy street in a heavily populated suburban community where just about every lot is fenced in. I have no clue how they even make it to the backyard. At the end of growing season last year, I found droppings in the garden. I guess they remembered and came back for an early feast this year. I was so looking forward to this growing year too because last year the crop was ruined by all of the heavy rains we had. Individual heavy caging may have to be a future option on top of the other diversions that will have to be installed.

[feldon30]

I am using Liquid Fence which is putrescent eggs and a few other herbs. It's a concentrate or premixed bottle you buy and spray around your garden beds. It's relatively expensive, but cheap compared to proper deer fencing which must be at least 8 foot tall. Liquid Fence only needs to be reapplied once a month, is not washed away by light rain, and is effective against deer and rabbits.

[daninpd]

Deer and Pocket Gophers-that's my problem here. I have an electric fence for the deer. My garden is about about 25'X50' and I bought a fence charger and ground rod to make a fence. One time investment, long time protection.