TOPIC: Protecting Newly Planted Seeds?

Hi,

I planted about 2 pounds of seeds last Fall on a hillside in Wisconsin. There are a lot of deer and turkey in that area so I'm wondering if I should try to protect the seeds so I can tell if they grow this Spring. I was thinking of putting chicken wire around the area and over the top. Am I overly paranoid? Do you folks do anything to protect your seeds? This is the first time planting so I'd like to know if the seeds grow to determine whether I should plant more next Fall.

Thanks,
Doug

Doug,
I'm feeling where your coming from on that paranoia. I feel like I live in New York City and left my door opened.

Totally inpracticle for me to think about fencing it all either. Darn four-legged terrorists have me paranoid enough about driving at night anymore and now I feel I'm gonna have to pull guard duty every day and night with four hours on and two hours off shifts! We have these city \"hunters\" nearby that think we need to feed them too and that just complicates things worse. Hope their (the deer's) belly gets satisfied with corn or they'll be eating lead at 3000 fps.

Hope for some good answers 'cause you ain't alone on this one.

Jim

The deer won't dig up the seeds, turkey may scratch up some though. The simplest way to protect the seeded area and the plants themselves for the first couple years is to scatter dead branches across the patches. That makes the critters move on to easier territory. Keeps snooping two leggers none the wiser as well. Once the plants are established and obvious though, more protective measures will be necessary.

Good luck

Thanks TnTrader, sounds like a good way to keep the critters in check. Not much snow here this year so I'll head out and start putting branches back over them.

Have a great weekend!
Doug

You guys have hit on a perennial problem, protecting the crop from predation.

Deer, turkey, mice, voles, rabbit, and squirrel... all of those critters enjoy adding 'sang to their mealtimes. Sometimes what you do to deter one gives another effective cover to live. It's a ongoing and persistent problem.

Fencing is effective against deer. however the pesky deer are effective problem solvers, and tweaking the fencing is necessary. #1 Photo below is one way to control the deer problem, however it's difficult to really reduce the local herd in this manner. Tasty, tho. That doe was my fist bow kill this year. Klaus is very very interested in that deer!

Photo #2 is another view of the fencing we are using on all our patches. While this fencing is useful for an approach such as our, it may not be a good approach for those who have widely scattered and smaller patches. a effort we are making towards controlling access from the deer, leaving them with either jumping over the fencing which is in most cases 8-9 feet tall and 3-4 feet wide.

If you look behind me and Klaus, to the rear of the photo there is a good example of the understory we are using for fencing. BTW- that's us planting there.

Now, as i mentioned earlier, some of the measures that you may take are effective against one 'sang predator, and only enhance another's predation.

For example, it is very hard for a fox, mountain lion, lynx, or dog to catch a turkey in one of our patches; however, the turkey can simply fly in or out of them.

another example is that the mice, chipmunks and voles really like living under the fencing. I think of it as the ultimate in high rise security for those critters. this year i am going to use water traps to put a hurt on those populations. i don't like using poisons, so a simple and effective water trap is going in.

search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=...p;p=water+mouse+trap

In this vid, the guys say that they are going to release the caught mice. however if you fill the bucket with about 8\" of water, those little suckers will drown in there. Works for me. I plan on putting out several in one patch. gonna have to dig them in a bit to stabilize them on my 32* slopes, but that's OK. I'm tired of finding little piles of 'sang shells where my rodent friends have eaten a few seeds.

I havn't solved the squirrel problem yet. we don't have many in the patches, as that one is pretty low on my list. again, the fencing and the water trap won't be effective against squirrel, however i can become a squirrel hunter again, like i was many years ago, i eat what i hunt, havn't eaten a squirrel in many years, however, have fond memories about the taste. my wife won't touch them... so eating them will be a solitary effort... I guess.

I like the understory barrier. Really good use of what's at hand.
My larger patches are fenced with three foot chicken wire at the bottom , individual strands of wire for amother three feet to discourage deer jumping in. The smaller patches are protected with limbs scattered across them. Mice haven't really been much of an issue, my place has plenty of chicken snakes and foxes that deal with the rodent population pretty effectively.

Good luck

TnTrader:
I like that idea with the branches all over the seedling beds to deter the turkeys. Will get out and do that once this snow melts off. Will be a project as I have 'em spread about all over four acres to find the hot spots. Think I might take the Whitjr approach he uses on the deer for the turkeys this spring and the deer as well more seriously this fall. Might have a lot of pent up frustration come bow season.

Whitjr:
I agree on not using chemicals to \"feed\" the rodents. I feel that could affect the snakes and hawks if they get one of the poisoned rodents before it dies or even a buzzard after the rodents death. I also plan on setting up a couple of those buckets and camo painting them. Dollar Tree also has 4 wood mouse traps for one buck so a $20 bill will get 80 of those and that makes 'em kind a disposable at that cost. A little pb and they cant resist. Gonna get serious on fencing off the seed production patches come March for deer and turkeys. I like BCastle's idea of the electric fence but wanting to use in concert with the green garden fencing and a little peanut butter on foil on the electric. Glad I will have game cams everywhere for the two legged seng threat as I cant wait to see one of those deer getting \"tasered\" on the tongue. Already have a battery powered charger and a solar panel and my trolling motor deep cycle battery so wire's the only cost on that. Have eight game cams now with five having external batteries and mini solar panels and those are going to be mounted high where no one can reach them without a ladder and three that I have that sip the internal batteries the lightest will be hidden lower to get a nice face pic of potential poachers. I'm with Hillhopper as I hate a thief that just wont go get a job and do for themselves. I sure like that natural boundary that you made around your patches. I have very very little understory that isn't herbal so not an option for me. Probably be lucky to have enough branches to put on the seedling beds for turkeys.

All:
Don't mean to sound like I know it all by no means as what ideas and plans and actions I have taken have nearly all been learned from everyone who participates on these forums. Have a few for poachers I learned from uncle sam being I was a combat engineer but I have to downsize (down-strengthen) them to only be warnings and cause no harm but maybe make a heart skip a beat! I have gotten five of the top item in the following link. Here's a link to some slick products and are safe: www.americanspecialtyammo.com/Gadgets.html