Do deer browse tobacco?

[Billinoregon]

We have a lot of deer and wild turkeys here on our five acres. Are they likely to leave the tobacco alone?

 

[SmokesAhoy]

The deer here leave it alone. Almost a shame, cause I'd be allowed to harvest them if they did lol

 

[FmGrowit]

After the plants get about 8" tall, the deer won't mess with them. I've never heard of turkeys being a problem. coons and skunks will climb the plants trying to reach horn worms and birds will land on the plants...digging their claws right through the leaves making nice holes all over.....little bastards.

 

[BarG]

My tobacco crop was next to my vegetables and for the first year they hit my melons and veggies hard but just ate the grass between the rows of tobacco everynight [bad drought year here]. They trampled a dozen or so seedlings but that was it. Peacocks did a lot of damage to lower leaves cruising the rows and pecking the leaves or digging and dusting themselves between rows[My neighbor has 3].

 

[SmokeStack]

I am planting my tobacco this 2012 season (for the first time) on my parents Christmas tree farm. After my father passed away we stopped farming and now we are left with a beautiful pine forest - a haven for deer. We could never keep a vegetable garden because of the animals (deer in particular) would eat everything we planted, even flowers. Today I stopped by the property to mow the lawn and found that the deer ate all of the newly sprouting perennials among other plants. I searched the web and discovered that many people do have problems with deer eating tobacco. So now I am very concerned as planting time is in just a couple of weeks.
To make the story short...it seems that I have two options. Either I setup a fence or use something like Liquid Fence (a natural repellant that is made from and smells like rotten eggs). The fence would work but would look ugly on a beautiful piece of land. The Liquid Fence would also work but I don't know if the smell would leach into the tobacco leaf. Does anyone have any suggestions or am I just panicking? BTW I plan on planting about 200 plants.

Marco

 

[CoralReefs]

I am planting my tobacco this 2012 season (for the first time) on my parents Christmas tree farm. After my father passed away we stopped farming and now we are left with a beautiful pine forest - a haven for deer. We could never keep a vegetable garden because of the animals (deer in particular) would eat everything we planted, even flowers. Today I stopped by the property to mow the lawn and found that the deer ate all of the newly sprouting perennials among other plants. I searched the web and discovered that many people do have problems with deer eating tobacco. So now I am very concerned as planting time is in just a couple of weeks.
To make the story short...it seems that I have two options. Either I setup a fence or use something like Liquid Fence (a natural repellant that is made from and smells like rotten eggs). The fence would work but would look ugly on a beautiful piece of land. The Liquid Fence would also work but I don't know if the smell would leach into the tobacco leaf. Does anyone have any suggestions or am I just panicking? BTW I plan on planting about 200 plants.

Marco

I don't have an answer based on any personal experience but have you thought about doing something kind of temporary like a chicken wire sort of deal. I am facing a slightly similar problem right now as I am preparing my garden bed. I have 3 cats and a dog that consider my garden to be prime bathroom area. Sorry but that is really disgusting to me- animal fertilizer or not, they are my pets (im not so sure dog and cat feces is really a safe fertilizer for vegetables anyway). I have been looking at chicken wire. For deer of course, they probably would plow right through it.

Could always hang up a creepy looking scare crow. Might double as a tourist attraction of its scary enough.

 

[Ishi]

I use two fences made from electric fence tape about 5 ft high and space the fences 4 feet apart. Looks ugly but the deer do not seem to want to jump 5 feet high and 4 ft across in one leap. I space the fence tape about 1 ft. apart.

 

[Rayshields]

Construction safety netting comes in orange and green. It is reasonably cheap, is 48 inches tall and lets some sun through. It is ugly, especially the orange. I use it in rectangles around plants that I want to protect from deer. My experience is that as long as you keep the rectangles less than 30 feet on a side, the deer will not jump over it. I guess they figure it is a trap.

 

[Chicken]

i install some type of fence each year,,,,

this is what this years fence looks like,

>>>>

By chickenhawk434 at 2012-04-15

 

[Boboro]

In 2 years dear have not botherd my tobbaco and I have a lot of them. They wiped out my okra last year and people told me they would not eat it. Ther a pest and should be removed from populated areas. But wildlife off. act like there a threnten critter.My pest this year is the moles digging right down the rows takes the dirt from the roots. IM going to stab them with a hay fork.

 

[deluxestogie]

Deer do eat very young tobacco. My impression, from scanning the literature, is that deer do not selectively eat tobacco. If preferred food sources are not available, then they will eat just about anything. I would suspect that, if preferred foods are abundant, it would require only a minimal deterrence to keep the deer away from tobacco.

http://njaes.rutgers.edu/deerresistance/
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/factsheets/deerdef/bridgen_list.pdf
http://www.knowhunting.com/article.html?id=45
http://www.kdfwr.state.ky.us/pdf/whitetaildeerinky.pdf?lid=2145&navpath=c100
http://www.dem.ri.gov/programs/bnatres/fishwild/pdf/deerdamg.pdf
http://www.ipm.msu.edu/pdf/deer_resistant_plants.pdf
http://jccwmg.org/deer_damage.htm

Bob

 

[Chicken]

In 2 years dear have not botherd my tobbaco and I have a lot of them. They wiped out my okra last year and people told me they would not eat it. Ther a pest and should be removed from populated areas. But wildlife off. act like there a threnten critter.My pest this year is the moles digging right down the rows takes the dirt from the roots. IM going to stab them with a hay fork.

i grow a plant called CASTOR BEANS apparantlly they are a natural deterrent for moles,,,,

i'll gladly send you some seeds if you'd like to try it,?????

these plants get very tall...and have huge leaves, i grow them to let my morning glories,, and moon-flowers grow up in them,,,

the seed is very poisionous to animals, but ive never had any problems with my animals eating them, or you coulkd just chop off the seed pod when it forms,

>>here they are last year growing in front of my porch

>>>

By chickenhawk435 at 2011-07-30

 

[Boboro]

Castor plants grow in a few places in my yard. People slow down to look at it. Ive never had much troble with them before I gess the warm winter was good for moles.

 

[Chicken]

ive noticed a '' wild'' looking castor bean plant,,,in my area,,,

but i dont know if they have the same roots as these that i grow,???

it's the roots that emit a certain '' smell or something'' that moles will not go near,,,

and yes i heard on the ag. report a few months ago, that the warm winter, is going to make it bad for inscects this year,,,

 

[deluxestogie]

...the warm winter, is going to make it bad for inscects this year

Speaking on behalf of insects everywhere, I can happily say that the warm weather is making it really good for insects.

Bob (aka occasional Insect Spokesperson)

 

[Steve2md]

careful if you try to process those seeds or beans in any way...that's what you make Ricin gas from...nasty stuff

 

[deluxestogie]

Actually Sarin, Soman etc. are organophosphates, analogous to many pesticides. Castor beans are the source of ricin, which has been the doom of a number of individuals attempting to make it.

Bob

 

[Steve2md]

thanks bob, I get those two mixed up a lot for some reason.

 

[Chicken]

i dont think i would try to make it,,,,

but my enemies dont need to drink any tea at my house,,,,

i'll boil down the seed, and run that water to make tea<

 

[BarG]

Those leaves look vaguely familiar to another kind of plant . I have to spray my self 3-4 times a day to keep from getting ate up by mosquitoes. Those baby ones bite you and run before you know it.