Onions & Deer

Do deer eat onions? I have some beds that butt up against a wooded area and want to plant something that the deer don't care for.

Thanks
BB

I don't think so.

Hey BB,

I had several onion beds outside my fence and the deer would not touch them. They ate almost anything else outside the fence but onions and garlic they do not like at all.

Jeff

Great!

How have you been doing Jeff?

Thanks

BB...I've never had deer go for my onions (or garlic, or shallots, or leeks). Those deer sure "walk the buffet" from time to time in my gardens but have never chosen alliums (yet)! And it is quite common to catch 3-8 deer in my garden at various times of the growing season.

I think you'll be safe. As long as you are getting ample sun next to that wooded area I say go for it!

Shoe

I think onions like ample moisture....I assume you don't have tree roots back there.

No. 12 inch raised beds with adequate sun.

I'll give it a shot.

Rabbits will eat them though, my onions and chives are down to the ground from the rabbits nibbling.
Sandra

Uh Oh

I get rabbits too

BB

Sledms, I bet your rabbits will taste pretty good! Pre-seasoned!

Rabbits don't touch onions here, and I grow thousands. BB, I suppose if they go for your onions you can easily put up a 2 ft chicken wire fence around your raised bed.

Shoe

Or break out the shotgun!!!!

LOL

BB

Good idea. (I have a great rabbit piquante recipe if you ever need it!)

Hope you have a great garden this year. By the way, did you ever decide on growing leeks?

Shoe

Thanks. I'm looking forward to a good year

Yes about the leeks

I am growing them. Found them at Vermont Bean because Dixondale was out. Actually my weekend will probably consist of planting onions and potatoes

BB

Rabbits eat all my morning glories if i don't protect them. They think my flower bed is a 24 hour buffet, just for them. They nibble on the onions all winter-I have the walking onions.
Sandra

last year the rabbits went down the row of tomatoes and eggplants and bit off almost every last one of them, they (it) just bit them off above the ground and spit them out. Apparently they didn't like the taste, but tried them all. Garden now surrounded by chicken wire.

Hmm...I wonder if you have cutworms? That is exactly what their damage looks like, too. If not, your chicken wire fence will certainly keep the rabbits at bay.

Shoe

I have had rabbits to do that to tomatoes too, the squirrels will also steal your green tomatoes. If they are too big for them to steal they will just take a few bites out of them and ruin them.
Sandra

Don't think it was cutworms. The partially eaten plant was dropped a ways away from the cut stem. The other thought I've seen was blackbirds, but I haven't really had any problem with them. The peppers in the next row were left alone. It looked like somebody went down the row and tasted each one then spit it out, looking for something more tasty in the next plant.

I battle the "critters" every year, sometimes I win and sometimes they win--lol
Sandra

Deer didn't bother my lettuce or onions, (getting back to the original question). This year I'm going to try some leeks, too.

Hey BB,
Doing well. We're getting decent rain this month so far. My garlic and strawberries are happy. Planted English peas today. Getting set to put my onions and Irish potatoes in.

The seedling shelves are slowly filling up :) Trying 10 different heirloom tomatoes this year to see how they do.

Hope all's well with you.

Jeff

You'll have to share your strawberry secrets with me

Well so far I'm still learning what I'm doing with Strawberries. Last year I got them established in the fall and had some berries in the spring but I had them outside of the fence and when forage got scarce, the deer came and ate every single plant.

This year they're inside the fence.

From what I've read, in South Georgia, they plant in the fall Sept/October so they get a good head start on growth then harvest in spring April/May. After they harvest they plow them under and start again. So essentially it's an annual crop. The reason being that so many diseases hit them and it's so hard to keep them alive in the heat that it's easier to do that.

Well being from the north they're a perennial to me. I'd grow them for 3-4 years up there before I'd replant.

So I'm kind of doing a hybrid of the 2 approaches. I'm starting them in fall 12" apart both ways in raised beds mulched with straw. The straw keeps down weeds which are bad with strawberries and keeps in moisture. Strawberries are really shallow rooted and if the deer had not eaten mine the drought would have done them in. I'm using drip tape on them this year.

I'm hoping to get a smallish harvest this spring and keep them alive for a full harvest in '09.

We make Strawberry Jam for the market with fresh Strawberries and it's probably our best seller, people love the stuff. We supplemented ours from a local u-pick and will probably do that again if I can't get a decent crop.

Jeff