Hops and deer

[TAPPOOL]

I live in Pa. and I am thinking about planting some hops this spring. I have a lot of deer here. Does anyone know if they like hops or the plant itself?

 

[david_42]

In eight years, I've never had any deer damage to my hops, nor do I know anyone around here who has. Might be different back East where hunters don't keep the population down. My business partner in Oakland, CA says the deer eat everything except the eucalyptus.

 

[ArrowheadHops]

I've had issue with deer in the past. Once they clean some young bines off all the leaves and got any new sprouts. I'll also have them dig into some hills, for what I'm not sure. Just make it harder for them and they will go away, their lazy.

 

[JRems]

The deer didn't seem to bother mine once they got big, some kind of critter ate the shoots off when they first popped up though

 

[jessox80]

They are most likely to be eaten when they look like asparagus, early on in growth. A little fencing worked for me, and I've heard that a bag of human hair can discourage deer if you are concerned.

 

[wolverinebrewer]

I also have not had a deer issue but I planted them late last spring and most were already a few feet tall. I have tons of deer activity with runways between the plants but I do not even see any browsing on the leaves. Like you, I was concerned but I took the chance and put in 26 plants. I have 30 more planned for this year.
I do not know about them being eaten as them come through the soil. I guess I will find out this spring.

 

[Flatspin]

Hops and deer. Mmmm, tasty!

 

[TAPPOOL]

What about rabbits? Deer and rabbits are the two troublesome ones I have here.

 

[Greatlakeshops]

If Hops are the first green thing that comes up in your yard, you can bet those crazy rabbits will make lunch out of it

 

[BrewerinBR]

So does dog crap

 

[GVH_Dan]

So does dog crap

+1. Dog crap, dog hair...just walk your dog around the space a get them to pee. It works great. In high school, I had my dog pee on a neighbor's tree stand every day after school. He never saw a single deer. Taught him not to brag about the buck he got the year before.

 

[Yooper]

We have all of our bushes and trees fenced, and our garden too. Those deer will eat every single thing. Except for our hops. They haven't touched them, but if one cucumber leaf pokes through the fence, the deer eat that.

I don't have a problem with rabbits, but I'd be more concerned about them if I did have lots of rabbits. The deer haven't touched our hops in 5 years.

 

[HopHeadGrady]

Take a 4 * 4 sheet of chicken wire. Then take some side cutters and start cutting a some of the wire in the chicken wire and bending them up 90 degrees. Try to keep this uniform. As you get going, you will find a system.

Then once you are done, lay this around the base of the vine with the wires you cut sticking up. Cover lightly. Anything that walks up will get a gentle poke from the wire and take off. I do this around my lettuce and rabbit friendly veggies. Works great.

 

[anonymouslyyours]

I don't know about hops, but deer are so bad in my garden (KY) that i have tried almost everything.... My garden is 25' X 60', and my property backs up to a large wooded area.

-Dog hair, human hair etc, didn't work for me
-Hot pepper, Mix with vingar, dish soap, etc works ok until it rains
-Fencing works but must either be a small area they can't jump into, or 6ft - 8ft tall.
-I tried a scarecrow, tying plastic bags to plants, pie pans etc, and it works for a while, but they get used to it.
-Electric fence - This was my permanent solution. While I don't like the idea of shocking the deer, it ended up being much cheaper than tall fencing, and just as effective. I bought an electric fence kit for around 40 US dollars, and bought 1/4 mile of cable for 15 dollars ( i had some old metal fence stakes laying around that i used to hang the cable- the wire was properly insulated from the post with PVC). The first night i had it up, a brave deer ventured into it, and got shocked and apparently jumped into the fence because it broke some of the cable which was laying on the ground the next day. I repaired the cable, and never had another problem. You can even run a row of the cable lower to the ground to keep rabbits, and groundhogs out.