Help! are my Sugar Babies done for yet??

flintlock28 6/15/2010, 9:12 pm

Hello everyone...

Today I came home from work today, and found that just about all of the leaves of my Sugar Baby Watermelons, had been eaten off. I think it's either the many Squirrels (which there are a lot of) or the occasional Rabbit. Everything else in the garden is covered by chicken wire enclosures, but since the Watermelons are on a trellis, they are exposed. There are just two leaves left, on each plant........ my questions is: Do you think that the plant will recover??

The plants are both about two feet in diameter, and they had just started to put tendrils on the nylon trellis squares...when this happens. The two leaves left on both plants are the very lowest leaves. Do you think they will recover, or are they done with?

Thanx
Help! are my Sugar Babies done for yet?? Icon_eek

jenjehle 6/15/2010, 11:03 pm

Would it be possible for you to post a picture of your plant so we can see how it looks? This may help anyone who has some experience with this sort of thing give you their two cents about it's future.

Just a thought Smile

ander217 6/16/2010, 9:42 am

Those wascally wabbits! (Or squirrelly squirrels.)

My guess is if they still have some leaves they will recover. Make sure they get plenty of water and protection from further marauding. My experience with rabbits is that once they find a tasty lunch they will return for seconds.

If they die it shouldn't be too late to plant again. In fact, you might try planting a couple of seeds now near your plants, so if they don't recover you've already got more started. If you don't need them, you can always just snip them.

flintlock28 6/16/2010, 12:02 pm

Thanks for the replies..... I will try and get a photo posted, when the wife returns home; I'm not sure as to what digital camera we are currently using.

As far as Rabbits go, does anybody have any practical way to cover a trellis? As I stated earlier, I have a chicken wire cover for the rest of the plants, so maybe I could rig up more chicken wire (I'd rather not go that route) but I'm open to suggestion.

By the way, has anybody ever used Fox Urine to put around the Square box? I'm wondering if the use of Fox urine may scare away Rabbit, and Squirrels.

thanx

jenjehle 6/16/2010, 3:13 pm

I have used bird netting and it seems to work pretty well. But it's still early in the season Smile

As of now, I've removed all my netting except on the strawberries. They are still producing and I know there are many critters that would like to get to them before I do!

Could you drape a really large piece of netting over the top of the plants and the trellis?

Just a thought. Guess you could try it. Best of luck!

martha 6/16/2010, 8:03 pm

I have used fox urine, in the form of Shake Away. It worked last year - we'll see this year!

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Help! are my Sugar Babies done for yet??

Help! are my Sugar Babies done for yet??

Picture?

eaten leaves

Re: Help! are my Sugar Babies done for yet??

Bird Netting...

Re: Help! are my Sugar Babies done for yet??

Re: Help! are my Sugar Babies done for yet??


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