Critters and tomatoes! Yikes!

[flowerbug]

I got so tickled about this @flowerbug , that's exactly how I feel too.

it is like drawing a big target on something, i swear...

 

[so lucky]

it is like drawing a big target on something, i swear...

I have learned to never utter the word "Never" when talking about things that could happen. "I never get headaches anymore" "My car just never gives me any problems" "I never have deer damage in my garden" all are asking for disaster to strike.
But the reverse is, sadly, not true. I have tried saying "I never win big in the lottery" and "My kids never throw me a surprise birthday party with a cruise as the gift". Alas, it NEVER happens.

 

[flowerbug]

I have learned to never utter the word "Never" when talking about things that could happen. "I never get headaches anymore" "My car just never gives me any problems" "I never have deer damage in my garden" all are asking for disaster to strike.
But the reverse is, sadly, not true. I have tried saying "I never win big in the lottery" and "My kids never throw me a surprise birthday party with a cruise as the gift". Alas, it NEVER happens.

well like what happened with the crocosmia the past night. never even thought deer would touch it. just went out to look at it, almost all the flowers are gone, too bad the hummers didn't protect it, so i also go out to the road to see if the recycle trash pickup is coming because we have rain heading our way and i didn't want to go out in the rain to get the bins brought back in. look up and down the road, no truck in sight, come in, and lay down here to ponder and the truck pulls up... hahahaha!...

in the greater scheme of things though i call these First World Problems... in a blink they're gone and really don't matter that much - others have it much worse.

 

[canesisters]

Tomato plants are supposed to be toxic, potatoes, too. However, there was another season when the only deer damage was to the potatoes! Saw those 3 ...

Steve

There was just a big discussion on FB about tomato plants being toxic - or not. Someone posted that tossing a few leaves into tomato sauce helped UP the flavor and a STORM of poison warnings came flooding in. Then several folks posted articles saying that they are not toxic except in very large quantities.
https://www.thekitchn.com/are-tomato-leaves-actually-poisonous-222259

This made me wonder - if they ARE toxic... and horn worms eat them pretty much exclusively... why do we take so much pleasure picking the little buggers off and tossing to the chickens? Wouldn't the worms be even MORE deadly because of their diet???

 

[thistlebloom]

@flowerbug , of course the hummers can't protect the crocosmia. Everyone knows they don't fly at night when the ninja deer are wreaking havoc.

 

[catjac1975]

Hi again everyone, it seems that the only time I talk to you guys is when I'm waiving the distress flag. Sorry.
In all my years of gardening I have never had animals get into tomato plants. Oh yeah, when I free ranged our chickens they would jump up to peck now and then. But this attack is outrageous! I'm pretty sure it's coons due to the amount of damage. But I didn't even know raccoons liked tomatoes especially if they don't have a place to wash them. I have 3 rows of 12 tomato plants and there are 13 plants out of the 36 that may not recover. This morning I found 9 big beautiful red tomatoes partially eaten out in the grass and 20+/_ green ones chewed upon on the plants. Lots of little branches broken and clusters of small green tomatoes broken off.
Any suggestions other than staying up all night with my shotgun?

Try a human urine near the plants. Works for deer.

 

[baymule]

Try a human urine near the plants. Works for deer.

Yeah, because you're already pi$$ed off anyway, oughta be real easy to come up with the required amount.

 

[Ridgerunner]

There was just a big discussion on FB about tomato plants being toxic - or not. Someone posted that tossing a few leaves into tomato sauce helped UP the flavor and a STORM of poison warnings came flooding in. Then several folks posted articles saying that they are not toxic except in very large quantities.
https://www.thekitchn.com/are-tomato-leaves-actually-poisonous-222259

This made me wonder - if they ARE toxic... and horn worms eat them pretty much exclusively... why do we take so much pleasure picking the little buggers off and tossing to the chickens? Wouldn't the worms be even MORE deadly because of their diet???

Practically everything we eat contains something that is toxic. Ever swallow an apple seed? Then you've swallowed cyanide. I forget the name of the toxin but cabbage has something that can mess up your thyroid. The secret is dosage. There might be enough cyanide in an apple seed to kill a worm small enough to bore into the seed but there's not enough to harm you or your chickens. You'd need to eat a few pounds of cabbage a day for several days or even weeks for the poison to build up enough to cause issues unless you had a very sensitive thyroid.

Potatoes contain solanine which can harm you in large quantities. A normal human would have to eat more than 50 pounds of potatoes at one setting to get enough to harm themselves. I just can't eat that much. Green potatoes, the ones exposed to the sun, contain concentrated amounts of solanine so you should avoid those. But regular potatoes, no problems.

Do tomato plants contain toxins? Yes, that article mentions them. But one bite won't kill you. One hornworm will not kill your chicken. If they had an exclusive diet of hornworms that might be different.

 

[catjac1975]

Yeah, because you're already pi$$ed off anyway, oughta be real easy to come up with the required amount.

I must say, our NYBoy would have fun with this.

 

[Carol Dee]

I must say, our NYBoy would have fun with this.

He sure would have