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San Diego

Plants are growing well this season, but now there's a new problem I've never had before. Critters (I think rabbits) are eating every male flower I can grow. I spread some Animal B Gone on the ground today but I'm skeptical it will work. I may just need more fencing, but, can I pull male flowers from the plant before they open and put them in a vase to blossom indoors? Or, pull them off the plant before they open and extract the pollen? Is the pollen ready in the flowers before they open? And will pollen keep in a container as long as it's kept dry? Thanks!

6/16/2015 12:33:06 AM

Mission Viejo, CA

You can harvest the male flowers the night before pollination and bring them in the house.

And shoot the rabbits. Just kidding. Not kidding.

6/16/2015 1:21:11 AM

New England

milorganite (sp ?) fertilizer keeps any animal away from any plant. just a sprinkle around your plants. the only fencing I have is silt fence and my plants are left alone in a hay field. never had a problem

6/16/2015 8:01:21 AM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

Fox or coyote urine works to repel rabbits in my patch. We are overrun by critters, being surrounded by woods and next to a state park. Electric fence keeps the bigger animals like deer, coon, and groundhog out, but rabbits are so fast they get through between electric pulses.

6/16/2015 8:04:35 AM

Anamosa, IA BPIowegian@aol.com

My former boss had coons get into his shed, tear open bags of Milorganite, and eat it. But it might work on other critters.

6/16/2015 8:08:54 AM

JACKSON, WISCONSIN. ; )

Milorganite has chlorine in it.. They make it in Milwaukee wi... Sewage treatment plant stuff... I will never use it. It has an odor that you will never forget.

6/16/2015 9:01:37 AM

South Hero, VT

I have cats(feral?)wandering around my property. That helps, but you have to trap them/shoot them to stop the problem.

You could also try putting out feed to distract them from the pumpkin plants.

6/16/2015 10:20:14 AM

JACKSON, WISCONSIN. ; )

we trench in silt fence and use a quarter sheet of ply wood over our main walk way entrance.. like a door.. jumpers will get in however we have a hawk that watches the patch. I also add another fence above at home patch no hawk there. 4 ft is pretty high to jump for verman

6/16/2015 2:33:52 PM

East Jordan, MI

a plastic owl on a post is pretty effective

a radio on a talk show works pretty good too

blood meal, coyote or fox urine are effective

trapping is always an option

but having an outside dog to keep the varmints away and a fence to keep the dog out of the patch Is the best option.

6/16/2015 8:38:31 PM

East Jordan, MI

and I forgot a rubber snake works pretty good too.

6/16/2015 8:39:26 PM

Eastern Pennsylvania

Definitely you can pull the males the night before and put them by a window in water. This is good practice to completely avoid cross pollination errors in the males as well. All of the above suggestions are good. Hair/ fur from any carnivore will help. My best suggestion is to get an outdoor cat. Careful though, you might get attached and the cat might end up being a not so outdoor cat.

6/17/2015 8:52:14 AM

Princeton Kentucky

What about putting some of those loud annoying motion detected Holloween devices that scream and carry on when something moves by it. Get the skeleton one that screams laughs and sits up real fast or the hand in the bowl that jumps up and screams real loud. Promise me if you do this have a trail cam on it and I get half the money that ebay pays you for all the veiws,lol. That should run 'em off,lol.

6/17/2015 10:15:05 AM

Princeton Kentucky

Meant to say that, "youtube" pays you Chris,lol. Sorry

6/17/2015 10:17:49 AM