Hi all, I'm rather tired and want to put together a video presentation of the catch-and-release. Took him over 5 minutes to leave the cage! Will put it all together with some music and stuff.
There may be more of them, so I set it back up again. Here's a few pictures of him[1] in the cage:
[1] -- No, I did not check.
He wanted to stay in the cage so you could take him back to his preferred habitat,aka our garden! ;)
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owww... so cute. you should release it. i don't like to see animals in cage.
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Yep, that's what I did, far away from our garden.
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Ha ha - he didn't want to leave the cage! He wanted you to take him back to your delicious garden.
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hehe finally !!!
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I know, right?
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Yeah you were funny the first three or so times. Now I'll flag you if you show up around here.
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No.
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good catch :)
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Now that he has enjoyed some cheese, he can sit in time-out and think about what he did wrong 😆
I had a feeling last night that you'd catch the critter. Curious to see if there's more.
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Nice feeling! Nothing new today, although the sweet potato's two vines are stripped of leaves and they had leaves yesterday. So, there is more to deal with; might not be more woodchucks, though... Have-a-heart traps set and baited with stinky cheese... :)
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Usually foliage eaters leave a pretty good indication they've visited by shitting somewhere near where they helped themselves to your plants. 😆 The deer eat my blackberry leaves and I can always tell by the mounds of crap all around the bushes!
I'm trying to think of what eats potato leaves besides beetles'n'bugs..hmm
have you had any problems prior to this, with your sweet taters?
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Yes -- the leaves had holes in them from insects. Leaves missing, I don't think is insects but perhaps I let them go too long?
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They will drop 'spent leaves', but dropping most/all is usually a disease - which is probable because many garden insects spread it. Do you use compost tea or any sort of kelp/seaweed for micronutrients?
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Would animals scavenge the "spent" leaves? I saw a lot of leaves under one pepper plant, but none around the sweet potato -- I think they're being consumed...
The kale, for instance, I removed several yellow and chewed leaves today (the lower leaves), but none had fallen off.
Also gave the squash and cucumbers a severe haircut yesterday and today, bagging the leaves (and one whole cucumber plant!) for the trash as I don't want whatever disease they've got coming back... And sprayed neem oil yesterday but with the rain I'll need to again.
I used some kelp/seaweed once, perhaps a month ago. What schedule do you use for it? It's raining today and tomorrow so I'll add it to the watering the next day, if it makes sense to. Thanks!
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I don't think most animals will opt for ground source if there is fresh foliage available. It sounds like something might've preferred your sweet potato leaves. If it is a disease, the lower leaves will show deficiencies first. Sometimes they dry out and by the time they are released from the plant - crumble into dust. Not uncommon for late season. If it was recently planted, then that is something to look into.
We are getting hammered with rain here as well. Had a bad wind storm yesterday and I've got a big clean up effort ahead of me.
I use all natural fertilizer and organic amendments the same way; I look at the recommended strength/mixture and I only ever feed at 50% of any recommendation. The kelp/seaweed can be used pretty frequently, I use it once a week. It will generally not harm the plants because it actually feeds the microbes in the soil and the microbes convert nutrients in the soil that the plant is unable to intake. Micro and macro nutrient deficiencies can sometimes mimic disease, so if you know you're feeding them what they want - it is more likely a disease. It's certainly not easy to give accurate diagnosis because many types of problems can look very similar.
The Neem oil spray can be applied every week or biweekly and is usually not going to wash off in rain if it was dry before rainfall. I will suggest spraying the undersides of the leaves, if you're not already. Many pests will feed from beneath the leaves, like aphids for instance. The undersides of the leaf can tell you a lot about what sort of pests you're dealing with.
Rain splashes soil born illnesses around the garden and many times up onto leaves. Another reason I prune my tomatoes up so high from the ground - at least 18" from soil. I also mulch with straw or wood chips to provide a protective layer between plant and soil. Don't get me wrong, disease can still spread! I lost about 20 plants in the recent set of storms.
Heavy rain followed by wind can spread spores of a sick plant very quickly. I actually have my tomato plants in 5 different locations for that reason. Once it starts, it spreads fast. Powdery and downy mildews are ruthless spreaders. I've had all sorts of problems to solve this year, so I can tell you that after you conquer a problem, it gets easier the next time. Then new problems come up..LOL 😆
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Lovely story and nice pics Thanks for sharing
Keep the good work
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Beautiful animal what will you do with him?
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See my next post. :) He's safe, miles away across two rivers so won't be back.
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Perfect!
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you mean you want to let the critter go?....may be you can start training them
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Haha, nope! Miles away across a salt-water river and a fresh-water one. Unlikely he'll be back.
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Wow, who knew they were so cute?! I am not sure if I've ever seen a wood chuck... we have rock chucks out here! Haha also called "yellow belly marmots".
Why did you decided to catch and release them? Were they causing you troubles on your property? Or?
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Yeah I'm working on another longer post, with many details and links to previous posts which led up to capturing the critter on camera, and then capturing it in the trap. Here are the links of the previous posts that will be in it:
https://steemit.com/garden/@libertyteeth/two-large-green-tomatoes-got-chewed-up-yesterday-who-knows-about-electric-fences
https://steemit.com/photography/@libertyteeth/so-now-i-need-a-machine-that-can-chuck-wood-at-what-the-camera-captured
Where is "out here"? I'm near Boston, MA. We have a lot of critters -- the woodchuck (perhaps more), rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, many birds, bats -- but no deer, or at least, none that have entered our property.
Oh, and I followed you (not looking for follow-for-follow, just informing :) ).
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Jokes on you! I already followed you! Hehe! Thanks for following me too! I look forward to learning more about you in your future posts!
Ooooh, out here is in Central Oregon. I live in the Crooked River Grasslands! Hey we don't get deer either! But we have ground squirrels (like mini prairie dogs), who were the WORST on my garden, badgers (haven't seen one, but lots of holes on my property), antelope (actually called Pronghorn - they don't come close at all, not like deer), rabbits, pack rats, and more! Ack! I'm sure more that I don't even see? Haha
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LOL that's too funny. I as well!
I think I know someone from Oregon (memory's hazy; recovering from multiple concussions -- apologies if I've already told you that!). Take care!
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Nope you haven't! But I may have well forgotten as I just have a bad memory. Hahaha :) now you for SURE "know" someone from Oregon! :)
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Wow, wonderful. I knew you were close to catching the critter. I hear you want to release again. What are you going to do to, not to allow it to come back again?
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Miles away across two rivers. Unlikely he'll be back.
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Hahahahahaha. Ok
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IT is charming))) Thanks for sharing)
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It's just it's nature it will come again.
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Heh finally you won 1 battle against woodchucks , but the war is not over yet ))
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I had a similar problem and bought a kill trap, but it was illegal to use so it's still in my basement. I decided to put chicken wire around my shed instead.
The problem is when you release them someplace that they aren't familiar with, they can't survive.
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Nobody can write legislation saying I can't defend my property and possessions. Well, they can try, and it'd be unconstitutional, and I will challenge it.
An unconstitutional law is unconstitutional for all time, not only after a judge decides that it is (this was a Supreme Court decision). Thus, you can "break" them with impunity -- of course, a man with a gun might think differently and try to stop you, so it's also good to be armed on your property.
Almost every creature can adapt to its new surroundings, so I do not feel like I've sentenced this creature to death (it already had been, come to think of it, but not by me; by all of our Creator).
Ahem, off soap box: your idea about chicken wire is great, I have 150' of it to cover the hen pen which we'll put in service next year, so was considering putting it down on the ground so they'd have to walk over it to get to the succulent tomatoes; might still do that. Already have 2' of chicken wire at the base of the fence, so whatever is doing the damage to the sweet potatoes today (after woodchuck went with wilderness) might be getting through that, or, climbing over like the woodchuck did.
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They can go right around the chicken wire unless you secure it with staples. I set up a trail cam to figure what they were doing and then iterated on it. Good luck with them. The pics are interesting to see.
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Thanks for the input :)
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Thanks @j4y! Yeah I have one trail camera, and don't really want to buy another but I suppose I can if there are more. The chicken wire at the base of our fence is secured with twist-ties (metal-core ones), so it's not coming off. And the fence it's attached to is 5', one foot of which is buried in the ground. Have walked the perimeter many times and haven't seen any evidence of diggers, fortunately.
We have staples, used them for the shade cloth, so if I do lay out the chicken wire for them to walk across, I'll use them.
Next step is electric fencing though. :)
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Ah good riddance, and i love you captured it alive!
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Let's play a little
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LOL four flips in a row!
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So pretty thank you so much :)
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Daily Learn some new from your post. Love to read it.
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You say that a lot: https://steemit.com/@asif4745/comments
Are you a bot?
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