RR (Resident Rabbit) is eating our tomato plants! I put out some extra cherry tomatoes and he ate the leaves and even nipped off about half the main stem. I thought tomato leaves were toxic, but apparently not because he was hopping about the barn lot this morning, fit and fine. I replaced the tomato plants with some extras I had, and put them in cages. Now it looks as if the tomato plants have been bad and are in jail, and RR is running free. Sometimes there just ain't no justice . . . .
I always thought tomato leaves were toxic too, but they seem to be a deer favorite here. The things we have to do for tomatoes!
I have never had the rabbits go after my tomato plants, lucky I guess. I haven't heard that about tomato leaves but I have for rhubarb leaves..... good luck and hopefully that pesky rabbit will find some place else to eat.
"And what are you reading?" inquired my wife as I scanned the computer screen. "I'm reading about Hippocrates"....."Oh," she replied. "Hippocrates was the first to document the medical attributes of crushed wild carrot seeds" I volunteered. The conversation had quickly gravitated to something resembling gardening. "What do they do?" "Rabbits are not suppose to eat them." "Carrots?" Raised eyebrows followed the inquiry. "Wild ones." The nightly extended news program was about to come on our local PBS station and my opportunity to explain wild carrots was fading with each moment. "I was googling what rabbits could and could not eat and along with wild carrots they are not suppose to eat tomato leaves and Jane's rabbit was eating her tomato plant leaves." "Don't rabbits have enough sense not to eat poisonous plants?" as interest faded "Apparently not." I replied as the news sponsors were being announced. "She has put cages around her tomato plants." I got in before the announcer finished. "So the rabbit is safe?" "Well, yes, I suppose." The news started. "That's good." As her attention shifted to the news. Jerry
Pretty funny Jerry! I swear by dried blood to deal with rabbits. Unfortunately you have to keep spreading it after every rain. BTW, how do you know it is the rabbit and not a deer?
Cayuga, if I spread dried blood around, the coyotes would trample my garden! I know its not deer because they all hang around the tree line down by Sandy Creek, which is a mile or so from here. Also, RR left rabbit tracks around the tomato plants. Why couldn't he pick on the lettuce that is bolting? Jerry, I suspect RR is the scared and confused baby bunny my husband picked up and cuddled before returning it to its rabbit hole last fall. Not only is there no justice, there is no gratitude either! :-x
Yup fences even a foot high will keep rabbits out. They are afraid to jump over them. I to am glad we have very few coyotes. I use Shake-away made out of coyote or fox urine to keep the critters at bay. Works super. Once the ground gets more saturated with it. You only need to reapply it every month. Rain doesn't wash it away only down into the soil and the smell is still left that the critters can smell.
If I can find some Shake-Away that is fox urine I'll use it. I tried a coyote urine repellent and guess what it attracted? Coyotes like to visit with each other, especially during mating season, and it seems they thought I was running a dating service and the Shake-Away was a form of advertising.
We tried a fox urine product in the attic to repel squirrels, boy they sure liked that stuff...so much so that before long there was a brood of baby squirrels living up there too.
Glad you warned me, Toni. We don't have squirrels, but a rabbit is just a short-tailed squirrel in my opinion! The last thing RR needs is an aphrodesiac.
