I bought 2 new clems this spring and would like to plant them in the ground this fall, but I have a terrible time with gophers. Does anyone know for sure if gophers will bother the clems?
Gophers
many people have had gophers and moles eat their clem roots. i know someone who had to dig up their clems and put cages around the roots.
i would say if it is an area where bulbs have been eaten or there are active underground rodents you should not plant out clems, unless you are caging the roots with a fine mesh.
is getting rid of the rodents an option?
I have tried everything I can think of to get them out of my yard. The yard is small about 10X20 and I have 3 solar powered gopher chasers, I have put down Castor oil pellets and I have about 10 gopher purge plants all over the yard. But the little bugger still pops his head out in the middle of the yard and laughs at me. I am open to any suggestions, I can't use poison because I have a small dog that gets into everything in the yard.
I had forgotten about the cages, my sister had to use them all around her property with her roses, but she said the gophers would just come out of the ground and then climb into the cages and dig in to eat the roots. I guess I could put wire on top of the soil as well.
Can use any help I can get.
i think, a small yard can have wire fencing around the perimeter, buried deeper than the rodents dig.
not sure, but to grow the plants you want, you probably need to come up with something. good luck.
Thank you for the suggestions. If I come up with something that works, I will post it.
Do you have a dog? My Westie, Tiffany, loves to chase rodents. I don't have any gophers, thank goodness. Mice, chipmunks, squirrels, japanese beetles, aphids and crazy neighbors are enough trouble for me. She found where mice were getting in when I first moved here. She caught one, shook it, broke it's neck, dropped it, went for more. Then she started scratching at the base of the dishwasher where they were getting in. She also notices when chipmunks are starting to nest around outside. Her nature is to chase them to ground and dig them out. She even convinced the groundhog to move on. I ehlped bu putting some of her hair near the opening of the fence after I groomed her. Maybe your local animal shelter has a Westie or Cairn.
You could try putting mothballs in their holes or around the garden. My grandmother used to plant a moth ball in the base of the hole whenever she planted tulips to keep rodents from eating them. I hate moth balls and never use them inside, but I keep a mesh bag of them in the utility closet and put some near every gutter to keep the chipmunks away. When I first moved here, they were using the gutters as "habitrails". Tiffany, aka "the great white hunter" put an end to that.
She has been sulking tonight because I wouldn't let her chase the skunk we saw during our walk.
Two words: pellet gun
very good gold finch. but you would have to be a great shot to get them, right?we are a no gun household, but i respect others rights to have them. can't imagine what a good shot you would have to be to take out a gopher.
reminds me of a situation years ago. we had a australian shepard, actually two of them and one of them was a killer of our ducks, chicks peacocks, what ever we had around in the bird phase. my husband was crazy with trying different things, scolding her or worse when he caught her killing or with a kill....it was an ongoing issue . anyway we visited this lady who sold exotic animals. rheas, ostrich, deer ect. my hubbie asked her is she had a cure for a dog who killed ( i think he was thinking of putting her in the pen with the ladys rheas or something to give the dog a new perspective). anyway she answered definitely she had an solution to the problem. he gullibly said "great, what is it" she looked at him completely seriously and said "a gun".
well, bella the shepard was only finally cured when we decided to have not goats, birds etc. long time ago.
My DH is a pretty good shot. I know lots of people don't kill wildlife and I respect that. However, where my plants are concerned....destructive critters best keep out of my yard. One other thing that works well for us are feral cats. Don't own any cats but we do have feral ones around and they definitely keep the gopher and rabbit population down so we don't chase them away.
I'm with you on feral cats being important in controlling the critter population. We had a terrible rabbit population when I first started landscaping the back yard. They destroyed nearly everything I planted. That was until I saw a litter of 4 cats in the neighborhood a few years ago. The rabbit population started dwindling, and for one blissful year, I didn't see a single rabbit. Either the cats have moved on, or something else caused them to disappear, so the rabbit problem is starting again.
we have a wild cat, who has been partially tamed and goes to the vet once a year for shots etc. but she lives in garage with in and out door (and hearted bed in winter i might add).
she kills all the time, but i always see bunnies too. bunnies have never bothered my clems or much of anything. don't know what they are eating. but meow meow kills bunnies, chipmunk, and mousey type things all the time.
i saw a tunnel hole of some sort this spring near the clems, so i put some poison pellets in the hole.
i know someone whoa had to dig up a whole clem collection and but mesh bags around roots as the roots were being eaten and it was kiling the clems. so keeping them out if possible before this starts is key. once they taste the clem roots it might be all over? can not imagine digging everyone up and protecting and replanting. i think i would just give up if it came to that.