After deciding that putting socks over a lot of corn ears to deter squirrels was not practical and too worky for me, I now have three bags of socks sitting in the shed. Some are old socks but a lot of them are brand new having come in the mail from some organization looking for donations. Most of those are way too small to use, probably kid size. I need to sort out the new from the old and donate the new to a shelter.

In the meantime, I am experimenting with putting some on tomatoes that are almost ripe to keep birds and squirrels off. There are three Bella Rosa tomatoes out there, all the same degree of ripeness. One now sports a cozy sock protector. I just want to see if it works or if the tomato will rot while being covered. Time will tell.



BTW, Bella Rosas are round tomatoes but last year there were a few heart shaped ones as well. I saved the seed from those and grew this plant from that seed. So far most of the tomatoes are round but with a few hearties as well. I think I'll save the seed from them again this year for growing next year.

Those tomatoes look ripe enough to pick & finish ripening inside no? I dare not risk leaving them like that in my garden if in the open. For a couple of years I thought I'd fooled the critters by planting non-red tomatoes, they left them alone for the most part. But this year, they've eaten even the bright green\blue ones that were still rock hard. I figured I could leave that outside my secured greenhouse cages but I was wrong
Yes I have plenty of old socks lying around I think I'll give it a try why not?

I put some of my larger blossom bags on low hanging tomatoes and it seemed to deter the turkeys and cranes. Frankly I’d pick them now but you could try.

i need kevlar
regular mesh bag just adds flavor for mice and rats

They won't rot and will still get ripe.

Socks?
Darn
squirrels.

I love this experiment and i want to know the results! but i feel it needs a signifficantly bigger sample size.

Moth1992 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 10:48 pm I love this experiment and i want to know the results! but i feel it needs a signifficantly bigger sample size.

I've been putting socks on tomato for some time now.
It's where the socks on corn idea came from.

The two ripe ones were picked yesterday to finish in the house and I checked the socked one. It's still really nice with no sign of any problem. There's also an Eva Purple Ball with a sock on it.

It's interesting that after last year's ravaging of the tomatoes by the squirrels there's not much damage at all. Reasons? Some possibilities:

- Maybe a lot of last year's raiders died before passing the habit on to the new crew.
- Maybe they were more interested in the corn this year. However they got a lot less of it this year due to the netting fence.
- Maybe it's because last year Pickles took down the bird feeders during the summer. This year they're back up.

I think that last one about the feeders has a lot to do with it. But I've also noticed that there are fewer squirrels out there this year. Go figure. Like everything else it goes in cycles.

No deer no squirrels no worms and no stink bugs.
I've even hung up smelly underwear to keep the deer out and it works.
It kept the devels out of our garden growing up.

I'm going with organza bags instead of socks. For now.

worth1 wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 4:40 am

Moth1992 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 17, 2023 10:48 pm I love this experiment and i want to know the results! but i feel it needs a signifficantly bigger sample size.

I've been putting socks on tomato for some time now.
It's where the socks on corn idea came from.

And you get less critter damage?
Honestly im more concerned about human children at my community garden...

Too worky! LOL
If it continues to work on corn, a lot less WORRY for a little more WORKY. Of course I already hand pollinate; worky is all relative.

Now tomatoes, I would be worried about knocking them off, and most of the socks won't fit around the tomatoes. Have to big soft socks I guess.

JRinPA wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 10:57 pm Too worky! LOL
If it continues to work on corn, a lot less WORRY for a little more WORKY. Of course I already hand pollinate; worky is all relative.

Now tomatoes, I would be worried about knocking them off, and most of the socks won't fit around the tomatoes. Have to big soft socks I guess.

LOL! It's also a time factor. I just don't have the time to put socks on 72' of corn and then periodically removing and replacing them to check readiness.

Those small socks do have some elastic tops which makes putting them over tomatoes something that has to be done carefully but they work. And because of the tops they kind of snug together and perhaps excluding anything from getting down into the tomato. We'll see.

Find this kind of fun as well as practical! New decor in garden ornaments! Think of all the colors and patterns available! Might look for some with tomatoes on them! I also have organza bags for saving seeds but find I am really good at knocking the blossoms off I am trying to cover Covering the ripening tomato seems to be a good way to use them as well. But I think the socks are a great idea. They look so cute as well!

GoDawgs wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 7:34 am

JRinPA wrote: ↑Tue Jul 18, 2023 10:57 pm Too worky! LOL
If it continues to work on corn, a lot less WORRY for a little more WORKY. Of course I already hand pollinate; worky is all relative.

Now tomatoes, I would be worried about knocking them off, and most of the socks won't fit around the tomatoes. Have to big soft socks I guess.

LOL! It's also a time factor. I just don't have the time to put socks on 72' of corn and then periodically removing and replacing them to check readiness.

Those small socks do have some elastic tops which makes putting them over tomatoes something that has to be done carefully but they work. And because of the tops they kind of snug together and perhaps excluding anything from getting down into the tomato. We'll see.

I never need to check corn for readiness. It's always 21 days after silking. And, the raccoons always steal the ears on the 20th day.

Unlike your coon food du jour, I have a lot of variation in the timing by the cob, I assume because of the hand pollination and being transplants. I definitely think I get more cobs this way from the small plots with heavy ferts. This round I had no late pollen so, no late hand pollination. A lot of the laggard stalks and the side shoots were practically unpollinated.

Tomato sock though, we'll see, they are going to get messy? And there are way more tomatoes than cobs of corn!? At least for me.

JRinPA wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 9:37 am Unlike your coon food du jour, I have a lot of variation in the timing by the cob, I assume because of the hand pollination and being transplants. I definitely think I get more cobs this way from the small plots with heavy ferts. This round I had no late pollen so, no late hand pollination. A lot of the laggard stalks and the side shoots were practically unpollinated.

Tomato sock though, we'll see, they are going to get messy? And there are way more tomatoes than cobs of corn!? At least for me.

If I get early tassels and no silks at the time, I freeze the pollen. When the silks finally show, its thawing the pollen, then opening the pollen container, and finally hand pollinating. I hear that the frozen pollen is good for at least 40 days. I have no idea if it's still good in longer storage. Only once have I had silks show up 30 days late.

I tried to that this year, it just didn't happen. I had three tassels paper bagged and got two good bags which I used immediately, then the third ended up with little pollen so I used that up and would make sure to freeze some the next day. But it rained overnight and I never got good pollen collection again. So yeah I did remember that but didn't execute it. But I have 3 more blocks coming plus a block I helped my brother put in, to get that right.

Could probably come up with a color code system for the socks and keep track that way, how many days on each corn or tomato. Heck bread twisters work that way right? I forget the system code but it is a different color for the 6 days they bake. Could at least cover the fruit with black, gray, or white meaning 1-2 days, 3-4 days, and 5-6 days.

I picked 4 for lunch, still no further damage to the corn so yeah it should work for tomatoes. Without socks I probably would have lost 2 doz by now. Definite peace of mind, too. One row has onions down the middle, the other has potatoes, so there is plenty of cover for squirrels to hide in and ravage at their leisure.


I'm just not seeing how a big tomato would fit in a sock.

JRinPA wrote: ↑Wed Jul 19, 2023 1:59 pm I'm just not seeing how a big tomato would fit in a sock.

8 x 12 bags from Amazon. Just sayin'. Of course I'm just trying to keep the birds from pecking, not sure if this will work for anything else (not even sure about the birds yet, since the pecking usually seems to be transitory phenomenon).