Do deer eat cabbage?

Something is eating our cabbage, starting at the top. (As opposed to from the side.) Zuchinis also have been bitten, but apparently are unworthy.

There are woodchucks and rabbits around, but I don't see any places where the fence has been breached. And there are squirrels, who can get over the fence. But, I have a trap right near the cabbage, and it's usually hard to keep the squirrels out of it.

Which leaves (maybe?) deer. There's fresh 'sign' around, some near (but outside) the garden. Would Bambi eat a cabbage?

Thanks, George

Reply to
George
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Did you take a dental impression? Sorry...

Deer will eat pretty much anything green, tomatoes, peppers, the plants mostly.

Human urine is pretty effective as a shield, at least around these NE GA Piedmont parts.

John!

George wrote:

Reply to
GA Pinhead

There is a Mark Twain Story on point except that it is about elephants rather than deer.

Bill

Reply to
<salmonegg

I would have thought that you would have seen deer tracks if they were around. Rabbits eat cabbage, and in my case, took it clear to the ground, except you said you had it fenced. I planted garlic between each cabbage plant after that and I have had no more problem with them.

I have had grasshoppers and green worms, and some yellow/orange bugs with spotted backs eating on mine this year, but they start eating anywhere they find convenient. I use a vegetable spray I found at Wal - Mart that is safe up to within 48 hours of harvesting.

I caught a turtle eating the end off my cantaloupe and small watermelons, so that could be your zucchini problem. I made myself mad, because I was the one who put him inside the fenced area because I thought he would eat bugs. I gently evicted him the same day I saw what he was doing.

Dwayne

Reply to
Dwayne

All members of the deer family *love* cabbage. We have to put up 10' high fences and keep barking dogs out in the yard to keep moose (the largest member of the deer family) out of our cabbage patch.

I lost my second and third plantings of broccoli and Brussells Sprouts to a 3-day old moose calf earlier this summer. (Lost the first planting to voles -- the Alaskan version of field mice.)

Jan Zone 3, 59N, 151W

Reply to
Jan Flora

Moose? I guess there are worse things than woodchucks.

G
Reply to
George

Hi George!, First let me say deer will eat cabbage and just about anything you grow in the garden.

Might I ask you a couple questions, and maybe we can solve this riddle.

First are they messy eaters, by that I mean do they leave small pieces of cabbage all around the plant, or do they eat every thing they bit off?

Secondly, are there no tracks of any kind?

Also, have you had a dry spell, followed by rain, just before this happened. Have a good day=JustMe

Reply to
JustMe

Basically, no. There was one scrap near one cabbage, but otherwise it was very clean.

Unclear. The ground between the rows is pretty compacted by now, so I doubt anything would show up there. Early on, there were some strange indentations in the row, near where the first cabbage was eaten. As best I recall, they were maybe 1/2" (?), and about that far across. They were pretty close together, maybe 3-4" apart. But, it wasn't clear that they were even tracks - they had no toe pattern, at least that I could see.

Short answer: they didn't look like deer tracks. And, I haven't found any 'sign' inside the garden.

No rain at all. But, it has been very dry. And we do irrigate, with a soaker hose.

G
Reply to
George

Do bears go in the woods?

Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

George, your response completely disrupted my theory, the only guess I would have is deer( sorry).

What the heck!, I'll tell you what happened to me anyway. I had two rows of cabbage, It had been very dry for several weeks, and then it rained, the second night after the rain something was devastating my cabbage crop, it looked as though something had just taken a big bit out of the top of the head. That night well after dark, I took my flashlight and shotgun, and went to the garden. Sure enough, more cabbage had been eaten. As I cautiously walked down the row, at my feet, just in front of me I heard a "rrriiippp" and the cabbage just burst open on the top. Because of the drought the outside of the cabbage had became tough and not very flexible. Since the rain, the inside of the cabbage was growing very rapidly.

I know this is not your problem, but it actually happened , and I thought you might find it humorous. Have a good day--JustMe.

Reply to
JustMe

Whew. Good thing you stayed clear. Those are actually triffids and you this close to becoming a pod person when it opened. Shotguns don't work against triffids. Or maybe watch out for little aliens crawling out of nearby deer. ;^)

Reply to
Doug Freyburger

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