Birds pecking holes in tomatoes
bbe...@ix.netcom.com
This past year we had a great potential crop of tomatoes but 3 out of 4
would get holes in them from birds. Besides enclosing the plants in a
cage is there anything I do to keep the birds away.
Doug Bone & Jacqui Duffy
We get the same problem - especially in dry weather - guess the birds
are thirsty !!
Best way round it is to pick the tomatoes as soon as they start to
show colour - they will ripen on the windowsill. We find the birds
only go for the ripe ones - they're not silly !
Doug Bone
Auckland Regional Botanic Gardens
Aotearoa-New Zealand
Pardee
Has anyone ever considered giving the birds water? Just a thought.
In article <34a3484b...@news.xtra.co.nz>, doug&jac...@xtra.co.nz
--
Pardee
North-central Indiana
pgu...@family.kconline.com
Don Chapman
Two pretty simple solutions are flash tape hung up to flutter over the
vines, and the big yellow beachball things called Scare Eyes. I've not
found many birds willing to come near these. On the other hand, the
feathered bandits just laugh at plastic owls!
--
Don Chapman <d...@bio-organics.com>
Bio/Organics Supply Center
Camarillo CA (Near ocean N. of LA)
<http://www.bio-organics.com>
bbe...@ix.netcom.com wrote in article <34A32E...@ix.netcom.com>...
Dan Parker
Pardee wrote:
>
> Has anyone ever considered giving the birds water? Just a thought.
You know, I've heard this argument time and time again but - you should
pardon the pun - it doesn't hold water. Even with clean water readily
available in my yard and throughout the rest of the neighborhood the
birds still attack my, and my neighbors', tomatoes (and blackberries,
and strawberries, etc). Have you ever considered that the birds just
like the way the tomatoes taste? Just a thought.
Dan
--
-- "If food is the body of good living, wine is its soul"
--
-- Clifton Fadiman, American editor and writer.
-- 1904-?
--
Gary Cooper
On Sat, 27 Dec 1997, Dan Parker wrote:
> Pardee wrote:
> >
> > Has anyone ever considered giving the birds water? Just a thought.
>
> You know, I've heard this argument time and time again but - you should
> pardon the pun - it doesn't hold water. Even with clean water readily
> available in my yard and throughout the rest of the neighborhood the
> birds still attack my, and my neighbors', tomatoes (and blackberries,
> and strawberries, etc). Have you ever considered that the birds just
> like the way the tomatoes taste? Just a thought.
>
> Dan
>
I wouldn't stick to an all-water diet if tomatoes, blackberries and
strawberries were mine for the picking. Would you?
Gary
Nuzoff
cages don't work for me, it just gives the birds more to stand on while eating.
Bird netting over the cages helped save the ones in the middle only. Covering
each tom with a piece of pantyhose helped until the birds started pulling the
hose off. The flash tape had no effect at all. The Xmas ornaments put out a
week before ripening time to discourage them had no effect at all. Then the
stink bugs got to the ones that the birds did not. Next summer I'm gonna let
the dog patrol inside the garden to keep the birds away.
Natalie, South Central Texas, usda 8/9
DocCec
>Even with clean water readily
>> available in my yard and throughout the rest of the neighborhood the
>> birds still attack my, and my neighbors', tomatoes (and blackberries,
>> and strawberries, etc). Have you ever considered that the birds just
>> like the way the tomatoes taste? Just a thought.
>>
>> Dan
>>
>I wouldn't stick to an all-water diet if tomatoes, blackberries and
>strawberries were mine for the picking. Would you?
>
>Gary
>
all that much unless you are intending to slice them for a salad and expecting
company so your slices must look perfect. We just cut around the holes and
used the fruit anyway. Hey, I love the taste of Brandywines too! Why grudge
the birds a little bit of what I love? (Seriously, the best advice is to pick
them before they ripen completely, but you do lose a bit in flavor that way.)
Cec
Doc...@aol.com
Anna Silliman
I grow a lot of different bird shrubs and trees around the
outskirts of my garden. The theory is that if they have the
kinds of fruit and insects available that they really like, they
don't bother your people-food. I don't know if the theory
is right, but something seems to be working for me--we have
a lot of birds but no damage from them.
Another idea I've read about is to hang wren-houses in your
garden. If you can get some wrens to establish themselves
there, they will aggressively chase away the other birds.
The summer before last I tried this, and we did get wrens. They
scolded me every time I went to the garden! (This year they
didn't come back.)
--Anna
h...@navix.net
Southeastern Nebraska
Zone 5, but windy!
Gary Cooper wrot
>
> > >
> > > Has anyone ever considered giving the birds water? Just a thought.
> >
> >
bbe...@ix.netcom.com
What kind of bird shrubs and trees?
Peter H
bbe...@ix.netcom.com wrote in message <34A32E...@ix.netcom.com>...
>This past year we had a great potential crop of tomatoes but 3 out of 4
>would get holes in them from birds. Besides enclosing the plants in a
Birds are attracted to red fruit so it is highly likely that if you let the
tomatoes ripen on the vine the birds will eat them. I have a cherry plum
tree which supplies the birds with fruit early in the season. I also let
them eat the strawberries and in exchange they eat the slugs and snails. So
let them peck a few tomatoes. Think of it as a investment in pest control.
poe...@ix.netcom.com
In article <68csc1$5qr$1...@news.alphalink.com.au>, "Peter H"
<NoSpa...@alphalink.com.au> wrote:
In Norway, they cover their currants and other berry plants with a netting
(not a cage) at about harvest time.
HTH
/z.
Gary Cooper
> In article <68csc1$5qr$1...@news.alphalink.com.au>, "Peter H"
> <NoSpa...@alphalink.com.au> wrote:
>
> > bbe...@ix.netcom.com wrote in message <34A32E...@ix.netcom.com>...
> > >This past year we had a great potential crop of tomatoes but 3 out of 4
> > >would get holes in them from birds. Besides enclosing the plants in a
> > >cage is there anything I do to keep the birds away.
> >
> > Birds are attracted to red fruit so it is highly likely that if you let the
> > tomatoes ripen on the vine the birds will eat them. I have a cherry plum
> > tree which supplies the birds with fruit early in the season. I also let
> > them eat the strawberries and in exchange they eat the slugs and snails. So
> > let them peck a few tomatoes. Think of it as a investment in pest control.
>
Yesterday while browsing catalogs, I saw an ad for an all-green tomato,
which is yellow-green when ripe. The vendor claims that birds, squirrels,
etc. will wait to eat the 'maters until they turn red, which of course
they never do.
I don't remember which catalog it was, though.
Has anybody tried this scheme? Does it work?
Gary
Alf Christophersen
Gary Cooper <big...@utdallas.edu> wrote:
>Yesterday while browsing catalogs, I saw an ad for an all-green tomato,
>which is yellow-green when ripe. The vendor claims that birds, squirrels,
>etc. will wait to eat the 'maters until they turn red, which of course
>they never do.
>I don't remember which catalog it was, though.
Maybe Thompson & Morgan who have had this for at least one or two years
now.
>
>Has anybody tried this scheme? Does it work?
Sorry that I haven't tried it yet. I have got a huge and very thorny
Himalaya black berry (loganberry type??) in my greenhouse and I need
special equipment to remove it. The 8 m long greenhouse is at moment
completely ruined :-( (Beside the blackberry, lots of weeds has entered
it too, so it is impossible to do anything there right now :-((
Alf Christophersen
alf.chris...@basalmed.uio.no
FarmerDill
>Yesterday while browsing catalogs, I saw an ad for an all-green tomato,
>which is yellow-green when ripe. The vendor claims that birds, squirrels,
>etc. will wait to eat the 'maters until they turn red, which of course
>they never do.
>I don't remember which catalog it was, though.
>
>
Gary ;
Totally tomatoes (Route 1 Graniteville SC) has Evergreen, Green Zebra, and
Green grape as well Yellow, pink , purple and white varieties. In over a half
century of growing tomatoes, the only non-insect to bother them were box
turtles. They will bite large chunks out of any they can reach. I haave
robins, blue birds, blue jays, threshers, grackles, crows, starlings, doves,
martins, summer tanagers but never any bird damage to tomatoes and I grow,
whites, yellows, pinks purples, and reds.
Dill
Gary Cooper
On 2 Jan 1998, FarmerDill wrote:
> Totally tomatoes (Route 1 Graniteville SC) has Evergreen, Green Zebra, and
> Green grape as well Yellow, pink , purple and white varieties. In over a half
> century of growing tomatoes, the only non-insect to bother them were box
> turtles. They will bite large chunks out of any they can reach. I haave
> robins, blue birds, blue jays, threshers, grackles, crows, starlings, doves,
> martins, summer tanagers but never any bird damage to tomatoes and I grow,
> whites, yellows, pinks purples, and reds.
>
> Dill
>
This is amazing. What, if anything, do you do to keep the birds away from
the tomato fruits?
Gary
Michael
1. Get a cat.
2. Paint some rocks red and throw them around while the tom's are still
green. Ouch!
3. Buy one of those "injured and dying bird" noise makers. Expensive, but
they work.
Karen
In article <68maa8$1...@dfw-ixnews10.ix.netcom.com>, "Michael"
<guid...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
I have been growing dozens of varieties of tomatoes for years. I have never
had a single bird touch any of them! Slugs will eat holes into tomatoes.
Groundhogs take big chunks out. But birds aren't interested... around here
anyway. The green tomato "Green Zebra" is one of my favorites! Very tart,
slightly larger than cherry tomato size. Excellent in salsa and pretty
canned in their skins with other red and yellow tomatoes.
KG
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