Those Wascally Wabbits

[friedgreen51]

I planted my Choppee Okra about 2 weeks ago and then we had 5.5 inches of rain. Fortunately my row are hilled up and the okra did fine. I had probably 80 percent germination. It was so good I was going to have to thin in some areas.
Much to my dismay today most of it has been wipe out by a rabbit(s). Nothing left but stems. Fortunately I had about 18 back up plants already started and about 4 inches tall as my backups in case the seed did not germinate well. I planted the back-ups and then did some reading.

I found a recipe for a homemade rabbit deterrent. It was 20 ounces of warm water, 2 TBs. of garlic powder, 2 TBS. of cayenne pepper and a splash of Dawn dish detergent. Supposedly rabbits hate the smell of garlic and the cayenne pepper burns their whiskers and nose/mouth. You mix this up well in a jar and let it sit in the sun for the day. At dusk you spray the plants you are trying to protect from rabbits. Not wanting to squander all of my 18 back ups plants, I sprayed half of them and put buckets over the rest.

Anyone have any suggestions? My 2 rows are about 30 feet long each so covering every plant is not an option.

Thanks!

[bower]

I'll be interested to hear how the spray works out!
Nothing works as rabbit protection here except for row cover, especially for starts.

[karstopography]

They make a 7’ x100’ netting, very easy to roll out. I put stakes up every so many feet to keep the net off the plants or use stakes to build a perimeter barrier with the net.

[Nan6b]

Chicken wire fence.

[MissS]

It depends on how wascally your rabbits are if this spray will work or not. I have used dried blood, rotten eggs, garlic, cayenne pepper, spoiled milk, fox scent, human urine and mixtures of all above. Barriers are your only sure fire protection IMHO

[karstopography]

My wild cottontail rabbits, actually swamp cottontails, ate my Fresno peppers, red ones, the aren’t supposed to eat hot peppers, but I guess they missed that day in what is appropriate behavior for rabbits school. That pepper pilfering and other nibblings got me on the netting. Netting does work. Pretty inexpensive and not too much trouble to work with.

[EdieJ]

We put that plastic netting fence around our garden too. Worked against adult rabbits but somehow a couple of babies got through the bottom part of the "gate" and boy did they do some awful damage. We actually caught them in the act. We chased them out and made sure to put a second chain at the bottom of the gate. We now have a couple of feral cats hanging around so I don't think we'll have to worry about babies this year.

[friedgreen51]

Thanks everyone for their responses. Does anyone have a picture or a link to the cover they use for rabbits.

I checked this morning and the plants I sprayed were not touched. I don't know if this is because they are about 4 inches tall or because they were sprayed. I will continue to use the spray until I can check out the covers.

Thank!

[bower]

There are a lot of different products on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=floating+row ... _sb_noss_1
Agribon is the stuff we use in Canada, IDK what brands are good for the US, and of course freeze protection is more than a bonus for us but you might prefer a netting. You don't need hoops for most things, plants don't mind pushing it up as they grow (although hoops are a nice look). You do need to weight it down around the edges or tie it on, so the wind doesn't take it.
This netting looks great, and recommended for squirrels as well as insect pests:

[karstopography]

2C801143-2C34-4C12-AB7A-2868E75FA448.jpeg

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Sta-Green-Actu ... g/50119481

I either build a perimeter netting fence using the bamboo stakes or drape the netting over vulnerable vegetables. I think if I had baby okra plants being eaten in a long row, I’d put a short stake at intervals in between the okra and roll out netting over them. Stakes would keep okra from getting tangled in the net. Some vegetables will grow into the netting and that causes problems for the vegetables.

Once the okra gains some height, maybe they won’t be so attractive to rabbits, then the netting can be rolled back up and reused next season.

Netting can be secured to the soil with large u shaped metal wire pins if needed. Often, I lay the netting on the ground if there’s enough of an excess and only pin it down if it is at the end or the edge. Rabbits won’t push through a pile of netting, but they might if it is a thin unsecured piece.

[bower]

I forgot that things can grow through netting - this is not an issue with row cover, and there should be some very lightweight products designed for pest control in warmer places. It's available in many sizes and lengths - we use 50 or 100 foot x 4 foot at the farm, and just roll it out over the row/roll it back up again for storage. Lasts a few years at least before getting torn - but I am using the farm discards here that were going in the trash, as a few tears don't matter for my purpose.
I've never grown okra so I don't know how delicate the seedlings are. At the farm we use some low hoops to keep the cover off some things (squash), but I haven't seen any plant that was bothered by the cover weight . Even peas have no trouble pushing up a foot or more without any supports.

[bower]

I should mention that I got some cheap stuff at the dollar store for $2 per 4X10 piece, fairly heavy weight. I wouldn't recommend it though, because it did not hold up to outdoor conditions, and soon disintegrated into little pieces - maybe no UV resistance or just not made to stand up to the weather. The professional product has the non-woven fibers spreading out through the textile, in a way that seems designed for it to hold together better. So much stronger than the other stuff.

[friedgreen51]

Thanks everyone for the pictures and ideas on the netting. My neighbor gave me some heavy plastic netting that she used to put over her fish pond to keep the leaves out in the winter. It is about 4 ft. wide and about 50 feet long. I am going to try putting some of it over the okra tonight. I was thinking of making some hoops out of old pvc pipe.

[GoDawgs]

I use 1/2" black irrigation pipe for the hoops and it fits right into lengths of 3/4" pvc that act as anchors. You can just stick the ends of the hoops into the ground but I found it's more stable when they're slipped into the 3/4" pipe pounded into the ground. There's netting covering these hoops but I use row cover too.

[bower]

GoDawgs, I really like your trick of slipping the tube into a bigger tube. They stay upright like that? It's pretty awesome!
I have some irrigation tube pex hoops like that, and they seem to hold up really well after years of abuse (think winter with a lotta snow!). Very cost effective for something that lasts forever (wishful thinking?). After 5 years or more they are still very flexible and can be set up at different width/height for different purposes. But I couldn't get them to stand up reliably just slipping them over rebar or using a tent peg for little bit of traction.

[GoDawgs]

I get the 10' lengths of pvc pipe and cut them to 17" long. That way I get exactly 7 anchors from each pipe. No waste. 17" sounds long but by the time you pound them in halfway you have enough below ground to be solid and enough above ground that you can shove the hoops in a long way for a lower hoop or insert them in just a few inches for higher hoops.

Forgot to mention that after I pound in the anchors I firm up the soil around each just by pressing soil down good with my fingers. It makes the anchors pretty solid.

[friedgreen51]

Thanks for the pic and idea GoDawgs! Great idea

[stone]

Shot a rabbit this morning with a 22 revolver...
fed it to the cats...

My deer fence is like big enough to go around 3 or 4 acres... when I fix it so that the rabbits can't go under... the armadillo tear holes through the wire.
put a trap in front of the armadillo holes... maybe catch a rabbit... maybe a raccoon, or a possum, or armadillo...
Don't need any of them inside the wire!

Was reading one of my cookbooks yesterday... saw a recipe for possum n taters...

I'd rather not...

anyway... after the rabbits are inside the wire... not a lot of good options... Except... cat food.

If you are only interested in protecting a small number of plants... crack an egg in a watering can... stir with fork, add water, stir some more... sprinkle affected plants... rabbits are vegetarian... they don't want chicken embryo in their greens.

[worth1]

I used chicken wire to keep out critters where I used to live.
Rolled it up at the end of the season.
One season someone stole my chicken wire.
Thus one of the reasons I don't live there anymore.
Too many trashy thieves.

[stone]

Got another rabbit this morning...

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