pepper update, Tuesday 6/21/16

[edenfalling]

the poor mutilated seedling



closeup of the crime



its neighbors, now with protective stakes



the pepper fleet, shifted north



When I looked out my kitchen window this morning, I discovered that the squirrels had been at it again. And this time, it's not reparable: they'd snapped the poor leftmost pepper seedling in half, below all of its leaves (and even below the cotyledons). I do not have high hopes for the stem recovering, though I have watered it on the off chance of a miracle.

I staked the other two peppers that have suffered the most depredations. I have also moved the entire flotilla of pots a couple feet to the north, away from the mulberry tree. This means they will get less shade, but hopefully there will also be fewer fallen berries to tempt squirrels past the barrier of repellent spray.

Fucking squirrels.

(I have to say, though, that this particular spray is pretty shitty. Last year I used an Ortho brand product, which is probably full of poisons but smelled kind of sweetish before fading out of human detection and also worked reasonably well until autumn when the need to bulk up for winter overrode the squirrels' general revulsion. This year I'm stuck with Bonide Repels-All, and not only is it failing to repel squirrels, it reeks to high heaven of garlic and rotten eggs, and the stench lingers so strongly that it's stinking up my entire gardening cupboard. Yecch. Unfortunately Lowes and Agway didn't have any Ortho products, and getting to Home Depot is not logistically feasible without a car. *sigh*)

[[original Tumblr post, for when the embedded images inevitably break]]

Comments

[branchandroot]

Squirrels, the bane of the gardener! I use mothballs, myself, which does make my garden cabinet smell strongly, but /mostly/ dissipates to the human nose. But there's really just no winning this one. Little buggers.

[edenfalling]

Hmm. What is the method for using mothballs as animal deterrents? Would it work on my porch as pictured above?

[branchandroot]

Yeah, I think it would. Basically, you put a mothball or two into each pot, on top of the soil. Repels pretty much any animal, frankly, but as long as you have at least an open-on-one-end porch the smell mostly dissipates before it rises human-nose-high.

[tephra]

I've used mothballs before with reasonable success, but that was a garden and probably woodchucks not squirrels. A friend recommends dusting the plants and the soil around them liberally with cayenne pepper. Obviously it will need reapplication after rain/watering or a windy day but it might be worth a shot if you have a local restaurant supply or wholesale club sort of place you can buy it in larger containers.

[edenfalling]

Hmm. We have an Aldi, which I can either walk or bus to; would they carry bulk spices?

[tephra]

Never heard of Aldi so I don't know, but you could call them and ask before making a trip out of your way. I did that a lot when I was bus dependent. I know Costco/Price Club/BJ's/Sam's Club all carry some bulk spices, and cayenne is common enough they usually have it even if the selection is small. I get all my whole spices and the ground ones I use a lot of from Gordon's Food Supply, the local restaurant supplier. A big container costs about twice as much as one of those little spice bottles in the supermarket and is at least six times as much stuff.