Sweetcorn protection

[lfcjohn]

Hi everyone, some plot holders at my site have been putting old plastic lemonade bottles with the bottom and tops cut off around thier corn forming a large collar to keep mice from climbing up and eating the corn when it is forming. Was wondering if anyone had tried this and if it had the desired effect.
John

[kernowyon]

i would love to know if this works too. been having a running battle with the furry little b*****ds eating absolutely everything. (cauliflowers this morning) will have to start looking for a stray cat to come live on my plot soon.

[WiZeR]

we don't have mice on our site because the Foxes eat them. Sadly the foxes also love sweetcorn. We have to put up a net barrier to stop the foxes chewing the ends of the corns.

[devon-surfer]

Ive dont that on mine in my garden, they work as a mini greenhouse when they are only seedlings, and kept them in untill it filled up the bottle. :-)

[Kimbo]

i would love to know if this works too. been having a running battle with the furry little b*****ds eating absolutely everything. (cauliflowers this morning) will have to start looking for a stray cat to come live on my plot soon.

I could loan you my cat Molly fantastic mouser - very reasonable rates

[Snadger]

we don't have mice on our site because the Foxes eat them. Sadly the foxes also love sweetcorn. We have to put up a net barrier to stop the foxes chewing the ends of the corns.

It's a war zone out there innit!!

[Vegmonkey]

Hi, i've just lost about 30 sweetcorn seedlings, one day they were there, the next the not. Have planted some more seeds and hopefully they will come up again.

On the subject of protection, i'll be posting a blog entry tomorrow on how i use plastic bottles to protect seedlings. It works great guns, and is a great method of recycling...

[Uncle Albert]

The bottle tops/bottoms is exactly what I'm doing this year - every one that was unprotected was eaten, but the ones that have been collared are all fine.

I've successionally sown them, which means I don't need too many bottles, and once the plants are about 4 - 6 inches high, they seem to be surviving without protection.

If you want to try it, don't worry about making the mini cloches too big - the top 3" of a plastic bottle is fine. Water the soil well and that allows the collar to be inserted easily, and if you're using the top of a bottle, position the opening over the seed, and it will gro out of the top!

[Sue]

I was in despair there till I read your post Uncle Albert about them getting to 6", phew made it, just need to wait for the other threat on this thread, mice and squirrels eating the corn cobs.
Sue

[CandJ]

Twas the badgers that had my Corn two years ago. They waited until the night before I was going to pick them too. And they ate every one. I was not happy, though I do still rather like Badgers really.

[rustylady]

Didn't get to eat much of my sweetcorn last year, 3 cobs and then my youngest grandson was born with a few problems. Mum and baby were in hospital for 4 weeks, and I was looking after the other two so the lottie went to pot. The sweetcorn dried up, and this year's isn't even germinating properly.