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Post by woodeye on Jul 18, 2022 19:31:27 GMT -6
That's bizarre. I quit gardening for 3 years because the deer ate my whole turnip patch.
My aunt in Yukon searches hi and lo for turnips at the store if she knows I'm coming to visit.
...There's no better time than turnip time®...
I'm going to plant turnips in August, plus I'm planting some round black Spanish radishes because they can be cooked liked turnips. And I'm gonna eat 'em all!!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 18, 2022 23:16:14 GMT -6
I always look forward to turnip planting time. If I can get them to germinate in our funky Fall weather, I harvest them by the truckload and drive around these old dirt roads around here, giving turnips and pumpkins to anyone who will take one.
I like growing those big ol' turnips the size of cantaloupes and slicing them like bread, to snap off in pieces to eat in a salad. Mmm, Mmm, good stuff!
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Post by woodeye on Jul 19, 2022 9:22:08 GMT -6
heavyhitterokra I'm with you 100%. Turnips are in my top 5 garden vegetables that I can grow here. My dad was fanatical about turnips. I wish I could find the pictures he used to take of them. He always had a tape measure across them when he snapped the pictures, and he loved the BIG 'ens!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 19, 2022 9:42:22 GMT -6
every once in a while, I get the turnip seeds to germinate in late August and have some beauties around Thanksgiving or Christmas, but last year, it never rained enough to keep my seedlings alive, so we didn't have anything to bake on Thanksgiving.
When I have 'em, I like to stuff 'em to use as garnish on my big platter of turkey or with a Christmas goose.
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Post by woodeye on Jul 19, 2022 10:12:22 GMT -6
True, if I had to depend on rainfall, I know I'd have problems like that. I could keep seedlings watered out in the garden this year, but all that would do is give the deer something else to eat. So I'm just gonna plant a few grow bags full of turnips and radishes, just so I'll finally feel like I have a decent chance of having some turnips this year.
I don't know if this would work or not, but before I decided to just plant some turnips here in the backyard, I was thinking about sowing some out in the garden as usual, then lay chicken wire flat on the ground, right on top of the area that I planted the turnips, with enough extra chicken wire on the ground so that the deer had to walk out on the chicken wire to eat the turnip tops. I don't think deer would walk out on the chicken wire, but my thinking in the past about deer has always been exactly wrong. It would make it harder to harvest the turnips, but at least there might be something left to harvest. I know it would be a hassle to have the turnip tops growing through the chicken wire. Ah well, it was just a thought...
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Post by hmoosek on Jul 19, 2022 10:18:57 GMT -6
True, if I had to depend on rainfall, I know I'd have problems like that. I could keep seedlings watered out in the garden this year, but all that would do is give the deer something else to eat. So I'm just gonna plant a few grow bags full of turnips and radishes, just so I'll finally feel like I have a decent chance of having some turnips this year.
I don't know if this would work or not, but before I decided to just plant some turnips here in the backyard, I was thinking about sowing some out in the garden as usual, then lay chicken wire flat on the ground, right on top of the area that I planted the turnips, with enough extra chicken wire on the ground so that the deer had to walk out on the chicken wire to eat the turnip tops. I don't think deer would walk out on the chicken wire, but my thinking in the past about deer has always been exactly wrong. It would make it harder to harvest the turnips, but at least there might be something left to harvest. I know it would be a hassle to have the turnip tops growing through the chicken wire. Ah well, it was just a thought... That’s not a half bad idea! Thinking outside the box!
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 19, 2022 13:43:36 GMT -6
My wife is trying to talk me into planting under floating row covers to keep the deer at bay.
I don't know if that would work, but I do know one thing, every year when I first lay my Plasticulture, the deer walk right down the middle of it, punching holes as they go, like it's a new toy for them to play on. Every year, I plant okra seeds in fresh deer tracks.
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Post by woodeye on Jul 19, 2022 20:06:11 GMT -6
I know, deer are impossible to figure out. At least they are for me. I had them fooled for a couple of years with white pennant flags. I drove 4 foot rebar stakes all around the garden and bought enough of the pennant flags to reach all the way around the garden. The individual flags were about 3 feet apart and came attached to poly rope that was 75 feet long I believe. When the wind blew it caused a lot of motion with the pennant flags, and since they were white, it resembled a spooked whitetail deer's tail, straight up in the air.
It worked great! I remember thinking, I have defeated the deer, my worries are over. Hurrah! Hurrah!
Well as I noted earlier, the deer were fooled for 2 years, but that's all. I guess one meandered aimlessly inside the boundaries and the others saw that there was not any danger after all...
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Post by hmoosek on Jul 19, 2022 20:22:24 GMT -6
I don’t know if this will work on deer, but I used to use this method for keeping the coons away from my corn field.
I set up a radio in my cornfield and tuned it into an all night talk show. I had a little wooden box to protect it from the elements and I would move it around to a different spot every couple of days. I turned it up loud so I could hear the talking all over the field. My uncle taught me that little trick and it sure did help.
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Post by woodeye on Jul 19, 2022 20:35:04 GMT -6
Thanks for the tip. I think it would work for sure if I'd tune my radio to Howard Stern's channel. He might scare them into the next county...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 19, 2022 21:03:59 GMT -6
I've never tried a radio at night. That might actually work. (On the wild deers anyhow). Not on Stanley. I listen to a Gospel station during the day. I think Stanley comes to listen to it with me. She's always standing around somewhere, looking to see what I'm up to while I'm in the garden working. One day, she got inside the truck while the radio was playing and ate the cookies I had on the dash.
This is her, (Stanley) swiping corn out of the chicken's feed trough this evening. You can see her ribs, even though she eats about a half-gallon of corn per day. She's been nursing twins since May 26th. It's kind of hard not to fall in love with her, even though she is a royal pain in the backside. Those are called "Doe eyes" for a reason.
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Post by woodeye on Jul 19, 2022 21:22:12 GMT -6
I totally understand, gotta love that Stanley. I just hope the cookies that were on your dash met her strict dietary criteria...
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 19, 2022 22:28:47 GMT -6
Being how her dietary criteria consists strictly of Jolly Rancher cinnamon candy, crunchy Cheetos, slightly green bananas, any kind of pepper you can think of with Scoville units up to jalapeno, and little, sour, green apples, I think the peanut butter cookies she ate off the dash of my truck would meet that standard quite nicely.
And, "No, Bon" I wouldn't wish that deer problem off on anyone. She's a genuine pain in the keester. Sure wish you guys could just sit and spend some quality time hand-feeding her vanilla wafers and getting slobbery deer kisses some peaceful summer evening. Kinda makes it all worthwhile.
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Post by heavyhitterokra on Jul 19, 2022 22:48:41 GMT -6
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Post by woodeye on Jul 19, 2022 23:08:43 GMT -6
I wouldn't be able to justify building my anti-deer enclosure if I had to buy all new materials. But, I have the steel posts, I have lots of top rail, lots of 4 foot chainlink fence fabric, lots of tension wire, etc.
I want to build the enclosure wide enough to leave it standing at all times. I don't want to build something that I have to tear down every fall, then build back every spring. I can use top rail to extend the height of the steel posts. In fact, the entire framework will be top rail, the steel posts will just anchor all of it. Each end can have have double 'doors' made out of top rail and chainlink fence material. Once the tilling is done with the tractor for the year, I can close it up, and have a smaller door made of the same, for me to go in and out of the enclosure.
The walls will be 8 feet tall, so no top needed. Theoretically. I'd like to have dimensions of 20' x 60', but I may have to vary that somewhat after I begin construction.
This is the least expensive way I know of to insure I have a garden next year...
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