Among my many pawpaw trees, I only have one fruit this year!
This is mostly due to the age of my trees (first year with flowers) but also due to late freezes in April that zapped almost all my flowers.
My Shenandoah managed to escape with a few fruitlets, and I removed all of them but one, since the tree is small and only in its third season.
I couldn’t bear the thought of losing this precious fruit to a varmint, so…
I spent about $300 on electric fencing to protect it.
That’s one expensive pawpaw!
But I knew I would eventually have to protect all my trees with electric fence, so it’s a long-term investment. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fT4EcoiUa6s
I suppose so - not sure exactly what that looks like.
I went with this design because it is more likely to force the varmint to contact the wire and be grounded automatically by the grounded lower mesh.
@Courtney do you mind sharing your fencing setup? I may setup something similar as some small animal is eating my squash plants. I plan to fence the veggie plot next year and thinking of using poultry netting.
is your electric fence area protecting fruit or is that the end of a chicken coop shown in the photo? Is that ground hog trying to get fruit or chickens?!?! I never heard of ground hogs going for chickens so I’m curious. Thanks!
I’ll take some pictures later. It is a veg/fruit garden, heavily fenced with different layers of fencing with mesh at the bottom, cinderblocks, more fencing, and electric fences…mouse traps all around the corners but u know what? They still jumped the fence and damaged my squash area.
Triloba, you are a hoot! Your paw paw looks good!
I’m sure that many of us know just how you feel, on all you describe!
And I do the same thing, although I know it is not the proper thing to do. I let my young apples, and even my pomegranates, hold onto a few fruits. The trees are smarter than us, though! They seem to throw everything that they should not keep.
We have a ‘deer farm’ as well as a little hobby orchard. LOL
I think that I will eventually have to put up a prison-style fence - or run an electric fence around all of the stone fruit and grapes. (Don’t know if deer will bother the scuppernongs. ?) The pomegranates have some mean thorns for protection. Or maybe the deer just don’t like the taste of their leaves, but they leave those alone.
@Courtney have you considered trapping the little devil - and relocating him? Or are there always more where he came from? I had one this past spring, but oddly enough, he never got into the garden or any of my flower beds, etc. ? Maybe he found enough other stuff to eat. He left right before I was ready to set up the trap!
I have trapped a few but they seem to keep on moving in. I evict one, the next one moves in. I have traps, noise threatening maker, electrical wiring near the back of the fence but every year, we have the same problem.
Courtney, I can’t recall if I shared this little video before . . . but it’s pretty funny. (sort of!)
If all else fails - you might want to consider doing what this guy did for ‘his’ groundhog.
Lol my husband thought he was cute until the darn thing pooped all over the yard and he stepped on the poop. I found him putting wires all around the back of the yard and buy bulks of moth balls and who knows what else he is doing out there…the man vs. groundhog…lol
@Courtney
The pic of the “chucky” inside your fence almost looks like he dug under it? They are accomplished excavators
Your fence also could be shorting itself out via contact with foreign objects or loose wires, etc. Have you checked it? (if you want to zap yourself, easy to test, of course!)
I do have groundhogs for sure. I have trapped many and relocated them, but as has been mentioned, another one always moves in (or the same one, though i take them at least 10 miles away). I’m starting to have ethical qualms about relocation though. So i hope the fence works.
My husband has a charge checker to check on it’s strength of charger. He checks it everyday. He wired 2 gardens and all sheds. He also has a live wire in the yard just in case someone comes in the yard. Also, a camera. My neighbor used to steal fruits and veggies from our garden. They throw their junks onto our property. So, anyone or animal can get zap at any time if they don’t know the layouts on this yard. I got zapped a few times already and it was painful. My husband’s jaw was numbed when he got zapped. Good luck to strangers and wildlife!
