Deer eating leaves

Hey Guys,


Just hoping to get some opinions on keeping the deer off of my vines. They have been coming in late at night eating the leaves off. I'm in southern Ohio & the deer are a big problem. I also hear once I start getting grapes the turkeys may come in after them - but I'm not worried about the turkeys yet.

I just put up a single wire electric fence tonight & have intentions on adding the peanut butter in aluminum foil every 10 ft tomorrow - as I read on another vineyard site this tactic works well.

I have a local vineyard that uses 2 single wire electric fences 4ish feet apart. He says they will jump one, but not 2 wires.

Any comments or suggestions?

Thanks,

Brian

I use peanut but on my polytape. It works but you need to stay up with applying it. Different parts of the vineyard will probably see different pressure. I tested my fence today without a shoe on and wow, there is no way a deer will want to go in there after be zapped like that

I use "liquid fence" on my apple trees and it works like a charm, but after a week or so, or after a rain I refresh it again.

I use a battery powered fence charger. I found deers in my area are only interested in new shoots in the spring.

may sound stupid but if you can find goat manure and spread it around you run the deer off and fertilized your vines in one shot, deer hate the smell of goats
Dawg

The 2 wires at 4 feet does work great. Everything else is bull, some things might work for a day or two then back to norm. The best way is to just shoot the ****** vermin. Never had A problem with turkey but I do put up my side nets as soon as i see color or the birds and coons will be a pain.

if you have a high cordon trellis, the deer will not eat the grapes. new leaf loss has minimal impact as you would probably prune this area in the spring. deer will normally only eat what is at eye level. once netted the deer will not bother the grapes again.

I found the electric fence, peanut butter/tape combination great for my garden. I also ran a ground wire about 12 inches below the hot wire to insure good ground to hot wire contact by the deer. there hoofs can be a good insulator so that normal hot wire through the deer to ground may not be viable.

It does take a very hot fencer or wet ground to stop deer. As said above, they are somewhat insulated. I use a solar fencer and it isn't all that hot when the ground gets dry.

I did hook my ground wire to the trellis wires. If they're leaning on the hot wire and touch the trellis they will get a major hit.

I guess I'm lucky. I have a 10 ft deer fence all around my place. Occasionally they will jump it, but not often.

There is a guy her that laid pallets down around his garden, and from what I understand the deer will not walk on them.

so you've raised goats and know this is bull , because I've raised hundreds of goats over the years and spread goat pellets on my garden, my fruit trees and my vines, even in my flowers of which my entire yard is filled with,, and I live amongst some of the best deer hunting in Arkansas, foothills of the Ozarks, you can check my area out in Boone and Crockets records book,, I live 1/2 mile into the woods, and 2 an 1/2 miles to a town of 400 people.
Dawg

TonyR said:

The 2 wires at 4 feet does work great. Everything else is bull, some things might work for a day or two then back to norm. The best way is to just shoot the ****** vermin. Never had A problem with turkey but I do put up my side nets as soon as i see color or the birds and coons will be a pain.

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The OP has 175 vines, thats a lot of goat crap. Double fence works and you dont have to redo it every few days.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll most likely be doing the double row at 4'. I just hate thinking about mowing around it.

I know it's late in the season, but what I've found works for me is a double electric fence.

The outer fence is two wires; lower one at 30" off the ground, upper one is at 42" off the ground. Both wires are charged with a 100 mile fence charger made by Zareba. The inside fence is a single wire which is 32" off the ground and not charged.

Before putting up the fence my game cam caught deer in the vines between 4:30 and 6:30 (or so) just about every morning. Since the fence went up (early May this year) there have been no deer recorded in the vineyard.

The vineyard is just a little over 1 acre with about 250 vines so far. The first year I planted about 850 vines but the deer destroyed the the majority of them.