Q: Will squirrels eat strawberries?
A: We love strawberries, many birds love strawberries, slugs and snails love strawberries and apparently squirrels do, too. As if robbing us of pecans, apples, tomatoes and birdseed were not enough.
You may want to try netting supported with hoops like a row cover or with a similar apparatus to protect your berries from Squirrel Nutkin and his kin. A dog can help scare the squirrels away. If you don’t have one, perhaps friends will bring theirs over when they come for a visit or you can dog-sit for them during strawberry season. Although you may feel like you are giving aid and comfort to the enemy, you can try to lure the squirrels to another part of your property by offering ears of dried corn or cheap birdseed. Your county Cooperative Extension agent may have other suggestions specific to your situation.
Q: I was told to set out my tomato and cucumber plants on a cloudy day. Why?
A: Some people like to do this if possible because it gives the tomato plants a little more time to become acclimated to harsher outdoor conditions such as a full day of wind and burning sun. Moving a plant that has spent its entire life in the windless, humid atmosphere of a greenhouse to the outdoors can quickly lead to windburn, sunburn and even death.
Some nurseries will harden off tomatoes and some other vegetable plants by gradually exposing them to outdoor conditions before they are sold. These hardened-off plants will be better adapted for the move into the garden. However, because they are not usually as green and lush as their hothouse counterparts, some people pass them by even though they are more likely to thrive.
Whenever you have the opportunity to set them out, you should shade tender vegetable plants with branches of shrubs and trees (properly pruned of course), newspapers or commercial hotcaps until the plants are acclimated to the wind and sun. You should also water your tomato plants thoroughly when you set them out and monitor them every day until they become established.
About Redden Custom Netting
In 1958, John Redden started Redden Net Co. Ltd to supply commercial fishing gear to the fishing communities of the Pacific Northwest. Now, more than fifty years later, we have an in-house net loft staffed by professional, experienced net builders – and our executive team has more than 100 combined years of experience in every facet of industrial netting. So no matter what industry you’re in, if you need a net, we can build it.
Over the last fifty years, our technology, applications, and materials have become more complex, but our business philosophy remains simple. Treat employees and customers – right. We do. And we’ll do it for you.
Contact:
Phone: 1.800.667.9455 (Toll Free)
Email: info@redden-net.com
Web: http://redden-net.com