Keeping critters off of corn

smithywife 3/11/2011, 12:28 pm

I just read SFG and am really excited to get started on it. I had a question about corn I was hoping could get answered here. I can't seem to visualize Mel's recommendation on how to keep squirrels and raccoons off the corn. He talks about putting posts on the corners and using chicken wire. Does anyone maybe have a picture or diagram or something visual you can post so I can get a better idea of what he's talking about? Or maybe you have some other ideas that work? Thanks

Mikesgardn 3/11/2011, 3:55 pm

I don't have a picture, but the idea is to build a chicken wire fence around your corn plot, about 3-feet high. After planting the corn, you place chicken wire over the fence, forming a flat roof. The corn stalk will grow up through the chicken wire roof, but the corn cobs will form below it. So the chicken wire roof protects the cobs while giving support to the stalks. I did it on a 3-foot wide plot, and it did work. The problem is that corn plots really should be wider than 3-feet to get adequate plollination, and that just makes the chicken wire roof difficult to handle.

Squat_Johnson 3/11/2011, 4:42 pm

I had a roll of 5' wire that i used on a 4x4 of corn. When the corn was about 3' tall I weeded it, and closed it in... put a "roof" over it. I got a little bit of corn from it.

The next year I didn't put the roof on it, and the racoons climbed in and had some dinner. I gave up on corn. I can buy sweet corn from several places near here and it's very good and inexpensive. It's about the only thing I don't grow in my garden these days.

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Keeping critters off of corn

Keeping critters off of corn

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