Hah, says the deer who munch on my tater and 'mater greens. But, they have not touched my peppers, leaves or fruit. They may be toxic to humans, but to devil deer, apparently not.
Many deer around here and in this part of the country are dying of blue tongue disease, which is transmitted by a small fly, which spreads a fatal neurological disease. When the flies are killed off by freezes, then the disease stops, and the remaining deer are unaffected. It’s a known disease, but this year it’s been particularly prevalent. We had a deer croak in our pasture recently, by what I don’t know. but it was a younger one, so it may have been blue tongue. I’m not too tore up about them being culled out. I’m sure folks on here are familiar about my deer rants!
That’s what I thought you meant, but like Lois, I’m surprised that they eat the greens.
Makes sense- I had one bed of potatoes do very poorly and I think it was because I used very small seed potatoes.
Ouch- I really need to do something before next year. There isn’t too much fruit left (which is what I really care about), but it would still hurt. I’ve got more muscadines, hardy kiwis and a few apples yet to be picked.
If I had more space, I wouldn’t pack things so tight. I’d be nice to use 10’ tree spacings rather than 3 to 6’.
I’ve got a bunch of them, though many were added this past spring. Of the older ones, they seem to be similar to Japanese plums, except flowering with the earliest of them (like Satsuma). So late frosts are a big danger for them in the South. Also, some of them have pollination issues (Flavor King maybe?). I know from grocery store fruit and reports of others in the forum that Flavor Grenade is a very tasty one which also has decent set in non-CA conditions. Flavor Supreme has grown well, but hasn’t set any fruit for me in the last 2 years (plenty of flowers). Geo Pride is supposed to be good, though I haven’t heard as many reports on it’s adaptability. My GP and FG are a year younger and growing next to each other and both have grown pretty well. I’ll learn more about how they can do if we don’t get any late frosts next spring.
More of them started to die back, so I dug most of the bed today (I left the live plant). We haven’t had a frost yet and the 10 day forecast doesn’t go under 34F. But, it wouldn’t surprise me if we have one soon. I think this is the latest we’ve gone without a frost in the 8 years I’ve lived here. Normally it is in the Oct 25th- Nov 1st range. So if it came after 11/15, that would be pretty unusual.
