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Old May 23, 2018   #40
GoDawgs
Tomatovillian™
 
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Join Date: Feb 2018
Location: Augusta area, Georgia, 8a/7b
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Deer are definitely a problem, depending on the year here. They seem to like the brassicas in late winter and early spring, happily munching on kale, collards and broccoli. In summer they love the field peas. They never touched the tomatoes or peppers.

In the summer of 2015 they were having a ball with the field peas, eating 2' plants down to 10". I read about the fishing line fence and put 20 lb fishing line around the bed at three heights; about a foot high to touch browsing noses, a line at 3' and one in between the two. And I put up the game cam.

One morning not long after the fence went up I found it torn to pieces. This is what was on the game cam:



Looks like 8 or 10 points of appetite! I ended up pruning that whole bed of field peas back and they grew back with a vengeance, thank goodness. And thankfully, with the peas "gone", the deer moved on to greener pastures. Haven't had any more problems the last two years despite some hoof prints here and there.

Maybe if you set the line back from the plants enough that they can't even get a taste, the line will bother them. And I'd add a third line.
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