keeping animals from biting all red tomatoes? How?

[coffeeman]

I have tomatoes last 2 years. I plant a generous supply of plants. Animals seem to ruin 2 out of 3 of all the tomatoes. How do I stop them? Do fences work? could it be birds?
Scare crows work? Playing music, I heard works?

Last season I planted a bunch of pepper plants. Bought from Lowes. They all died or lived but didn't grow any peppers? I felt real bad.

Is it too late in Pennsylvania to grow from seeds, tomato plants or pepper plants.. Going to 30 degrees tonite.

had good luck with cucumbers last season.

All ideas appreciated....Coffeeman

 

[Looking4new]

I use chicken wire around all my beds. That seems to keep the animals at bay. Chicken wire across the top stops the birds in their tracks. It also helps that I have 6 cats that like fresh bird.

 

[Streetcar]

Tree rats ,squirrels , will bite many tomatoes. I just plant extra for the ones they ruin

 

[SPYDERLK]

Pre-empt the animals. ... Pick em when they blush. They will ripen fine inside.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I have tomatoes last 2 years. I plant a generous supply of plants. Animals seem to ruin 2 out of 3 of all the tomatoes. How do I stop them? Do fences work? could it be birds?
Scare crows work? Playing music, I heard works?

Last season I planted a bunch of pepper plants. Bought from Lowes. They all died or lived but didn't grow any peppers? I felt real bad.

Is it too late in Pennsylvania to grow from seeds, tomato plants or pepper plants.. Going to 30 degrees tonite.

had good luck with cucumbers last season.

All ideas appreciated....Coffeeman

If you don't have a problem until they turn red, the previous poster has your answer. Pick them when they start turning red, and they will ripen fine in a window. Squirrels, in my experience, like the green tomatoes and they pick them and carry them off. They seem to only do this certain years, and they seem to prefer my bird seed. Turtles will often eat ripe tomatoes, but only those low on the vines. Bird pecks are easy to discern, and I have only seen them eat ripe fruit. I have never known a racoon to eat tomatoes, but if they wanted to, they would be hard to stop. Of late, deer seem to like to browse the plant itself. Rabbits have never been a problem to my knowledge.

I have good luck only planting vigorous plants as soon as the danger of frost is over; never grow them from seed. I mix about a 1/2 cup of bone meal and 1/2 cup of blood meal in the bottom of the hole when I plant them; grow them inside support cages made from concrete reinforcement wire, mulch them with straw or cottonseed hulls and keep them watered. Had a great crop last year. Don't know what to say about your peppers; they seem to do best here in late Summer. I grow them pretty much as I do tomatoes, but no cages.

My biggest problem is gophers. They will eat the roots off a tomato plant; I cured that by planting them in another cage about 8" in diameter and 10 or so inches deep, made of hardware cloth.

 

[oosik]

I've always had problems with some form of animal or other "nipping" the fruit & veggies. Tomatoes & strawberries in particular. I've used chicken wire to cover the plants with great success. Just be certain that the plants & fruit stay under the chicken wire.

 

[sixdogs]

Pre-empt the animals. ... Pick em when they blush. They will ripen fine inside.

This is the easy answer for most of the problem. We added some cattle panel fence sections around our garden. These are 16 ft sections of 1/4" wire meant to contain cattle or hogs so I figured would work with my tomato and pepper stealing dogs.

We pounded in some steel posts and used plastic zip ties to hold the panels to the posts. I also used bolt cutters to shorten the panels a few inches. Our garden is a long rectangle so we leave the sides up permanently and just add the end caps as required. For the long sides, we plant runner or vine plants such as gourds, squash, beans or humming bird flowers. All works great and I highly suggest.

 

[Streetcar]

Coffeeman
I just planted my late tomatoes
What damage is being done to tomatoes
Tree rats will bite small chucks from many tomatoes
Turtles will eat most of a low hanging fruit leaving smooth cuts
Possums will eat most of tomatoe but will leave teeth marks
Deer eat plants and fruit
Groundhogs will eat all but the stem
Birds will peck small holes during dry times
This is damage in southwest Ohio that I had

 

[stuckmotor]

I used to have a dog that would pick an occasional tomato.

 

[STx]

Birds and tomato worms have been the bane of my existence every time I've grown tomatoes. One year, we grew them in containers on the porch and covered them with bird netting and the birds pecked them through the netting. I had to build a structure over them that would prevent the plants from getting close enough to the netting for the birds to get to them at all.

Since we've moved to our country place this year, we built a couple of raised beds and I hooped 20' PVC over the top of the beds. We covered the PVC with deer net, leaving just a little bit open on the ends to allow bees, butterflies and such to get in and pollinate things. The bonus if this setup is that when it cools off, we'll be able to cover the netting with plastic and have an instant greenhouse that we can grow summer vegetables in over the winter.

The picture is before we planted and added the netting but, it shows what I'm describing.

We have chickens now also so, if the tomato worms start showing up, I'll let them in there for a few hours to do their thing and add some fertilizer.