90 Degrees

We've had a pretty good stretch of very hot weather in April. It has been 90 degrees and hotter, Saturday through today, with temps beginning to lower by Wednesday. So how is this affecting the trees? Our concern about purchasing the tubes was about heat collection in the tube. However, although the tubes are called "grow tubes", they are ventilated. About 18" from the ground the ventilation begins and is about 12" from there. Hopefully this will be enough to allow heat to escape and prevent the tree from burning. We'll let you know in about a week how that is working out.

Tree Tubes

Last year we lost the majority of our chestnut crop to deer pressure and drought. Not again. We decided to invest in tree tubes. There are orchards that choose to use these tubes to jump-start growth on their trees. Our primary goal was to protect them from the deer.

The trees that we planted are between 24-36" tall. The tree tubes are 5' tall. A 1/2 inch bamboo pole (6' tall) was installed next to each tree. The tube fits over the pole and the tree and then secured with 3 plastic ties. It was a very windy day when we installed the majority of the tubes, and they withstood the wind and heavy rains.

Without tree tubes, crop loss can be very great. With the tubes, we expect about a 4% loss due to weather and soil conditions annually.

Scare Tape

I bought this tape in the hopes of managing the deer. They have damaged at least 50% of our chestnut crop, so we are implementing a collection of techniques to keep them away from the new foliage. To test the tape, we installed fence posts around the garden so that I can tie the tape to each and watch the effectiveness. I was hoping this would help keep the birds from eating all of my berries this year, but my husband saw a bird actually sitting on the fence post while the tape tapped it on its' head. Oh well. Maybe it'll scare off the bear.

Chestnuts - Week 3

The chestnuts seem to be coming along. We have had a good amount of rain in the last few weeks, but the trees seem to have pretty good folliage. However, we're really having a problem with deer. They like the tender foliage and to that end, have eaten between 15%-20% of the trees. The stems are still in place, we'll watch to see if those affected will survive.



Today I ordered "scare tape" from an orchard supply store. I've spoken with farmers that have used this in apple orchards with good success. Basically the tape is about 3" wide and then I'll cut it in 8' lengths. When one end of the tape is attached to a pole, something like a tomato stake, it flaps in the wind, acting as a deterrent to deer and birds. I'll let you know how this works out.

Liquid Fence

A short story here, some friends told me about a spray that I could put on my plants, completely organic, didn't wash off in the rain and really kept the deer away. It's call "Liquid Fence". So I tried it and it worked! However there was one downside that they failed to mention. It stinks to high heaven - and water does NOT remove it from your hands. To give you an idea, the product is made with egg by-product (whatever that is, but imagine raw eggs sitting out in the blazing sun, not cooking, just rotting and you can only begin to think of the aroma/scent/stink). Of course, when I used it for the first time, it was late afternoon before going to a church dinner. I kept smelling my hands to see if they were still stinky, and of course there was staring. The point of this story is wear rubber gloves when applying the Liquid Fence. I have learned my lesson.

Wild Kingdom

Animals are an integral part of our farm plan. We're planning on having cows, goats, dogs, maybe a llama. The fun and unexpected part are the wild animals. Deer and groundhogs are pretty common in Virginia. What I didn't plan on are some animals that can be a bit of a nuisance.

Take mice, for example. When we moved to the farm. we decided to live in the single-wide trailer that came with the land while our house was being built. Evidently the mice had been taking shelter there before we moved in, so much cleaning had to be done to make the trailer people-safe. What I overlooked was the oven. Our first night in the trailer, I decided to bake cookies, so that when my husband came home and the kids were getting ready for dinner, the house would really smell like home. What they got instead, was "baked mouse", one of the worst smells that you can imagine. It was so bad that we had to take the oven outside and put it on the front deck. At that point I had to ask myself, how did I arrive at the point in my life where I was living in a trailer with an appliance on the front porch?

The wild turkeys are nice. Driving my children to school one day, down the driveway, I saw 2 adult turkeys crossings the road. When we stopped, something fluttered on one side of the driveway...it was 5 little turkeys. The entire family still hangs around the farm.

And finally the opossum. He/she has been eating my cat food, and I should add, is much larger than my cats. The opossum comes up on the porch at night, and when I flick the light on, we look directly into each other's eyes. He could definately win a staring contest. When I shoo him away or slam the door, he give's me the "give me a break" look and continues eating. Needless to say, I am now in search of a slighshot. 4/29/07 update - Forgot about the cat food, so he's back.

5/3/07 Ok, so now I'm open to suggestions on getting rid of the opossum before I invest in a large water-balloon slingshot that I saw advertised yesterday. I have received one recommendation for a product called "Shake Away" that consists of dried fox urine. That's right. (Of course now I'm a little pre-occupied with how in the world it's collected.)