Here in colorado our peaches are waaaaaaay late and although the color has developed they are rock hard. Unfortunately the squirrels are starting to ravage them. Usually they are much faster to ripen after developing color so we only lose a few to critters. I hate to pick them in grocery store condition. Is there anything i can do to help them along?
Non-toxic ideas to keep squirrels off?
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Ya mine were a good two to three weeks behind normal schedule and then all ripened at once while work was hectic! You can brew up some compost teas or if your super crazy you could build it a poly tent to keep it warm and just remove a wall or ventilate it from 9-5 or while its in direct sun. My late peaches actually seem on track though as far as polly and indian free.
For Squirrels i suggest real dogs
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The real dogs say that they are up for the task but the peach trees are in the unfenced front yard and the tomatoes are also in front and the dogs will extract their squirrel protection fee from my tomatoes (a favorite of both dogs).
Does compost tea accelerate ripening?
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I believe it does and i believe it helps keep the soil warm and bacteria and fungi moving. Yeah my old dog would eat cucumber plants themselves to the ground. I think very light shade cloth works better than netting and you could use that to keep squirrels at bay, but you in general want to keep that area warmer to speed ripening