TOPIC: Year-end review

I have been meaning to post lessons learned from the 2017 season. I realize that the Board is not very active and there will not be very many responses.

Still. I don't give up. I tried rat poison this year. Spent $200. It was totally ineffective. Worthless. Late in the season the mice moved on to another food source. Probably hop-hornbeam seeds. I could have scattered peanuts and gotten better results. I will try that next year.

Yes these forums have been pretty quiet...let us know if you get anything that really works for mice and other pests. I have heard someone talking about diatomaceaus earth, wonder if that worked as it is pretty natural

My seed producing bed, the first year I had it out that fall when berries were full and green and just starting to turn red... I checked it one weekend and there were 3-4 red berries.

I checked it the next weekend, and ever single berry had been eaten (400-500 berries).

Talk about SICK ! or I guess more like it ANGRY at the mice or what ever it was that ate all my berries. It was a learning experience for sure.

The next year I cut two lengths of drain pipe about 2 foot long and pinned it to the ground with some landscape spikes and filled the middle with rat poison...
I did that when the berries were about half filled out and green... and kept putting rat poison in there until I had harvested all my red berries.

It did the trick. I do that every year now and it has worked well for me.

I used to get DeCon in pellets... but dont see that anymore at our Walmart... but they have some TomCat brand rat poison in green blocks and I use that now instead and it works. I just toss them into the drain pipes (which I have located off to the side of my seed bed)... and they eat em up and die out.

And... I get to pick and plant my red berries.

TNHunter

good looking berries TN.

Sounds like you have a plan that works, TNhunter. Good job.

I relied on locations that don't have much rodent pressure to make up for the places where mice eat everything. Also I made sure to get out early. I planted seeds from August 21 to September 29. Got 4,700 seeds planted in 24 locations. Hope to see some results from all this work in two years.

Having a bag full of berries can be pretty messy. They melt and turn into a squishy mess of berry pulp, dirt, and seeds. So now if I have a lot of berries I clean the pulp off. I can plant dry seeds faster than I can plant berries.

Here is a photo of one of the last plants that still had berries. All my other photos were accidentally deleted.

sure is pretty...

Nice little wad of berries for a 2 pronger...

I bet that one will come up a 3 prong next year.

I usually pick my red berries for 3-4 days and then plant them. They keep well at room temp for a few days and then I just plant them as whole berries.

This week I visited my seed bed one more time and found the last 3 red berries and picked them. I am going to get out and plant them this evening.

TNHunter