Dang Vermin! Stole all the plums! Grrr....

[CalG]

Two days ago I went out and had a look at the Japanese Yellow Plum tree. The laden tree just needed a day or two for the fruit to ripen...enough.

Yesterday we had a substantial rain, over an inch, so didn't pick the fruit.

Today, the wife and I went out to gather in the plums.

There were less than a dozen fruits on the tree! And most of those are small and un-ripe!

All I can see are a couple of pits and a scat or two that I can't say what dropped it due to the rain.

The red plum next to it ... will it be stripped like the last.?????

Dis appointment!

Gonna need to buy a game cam.

eta I have been brutal on the tree rats with the air gun. at least 15 confirmed kills. I'm thinking SKUNK!

 

[DarkBlack]

Never seen a tree climbing skunk before.

 

[CalG]

Never seen a climbing skunk before.

yup!

 

[ponytug]

@CalG Sorry that you missed out on your plums!

Raccoons have stripped our plum in a single night.

Between the jays, tree rats, and raccoons, we have had to go netting surrounded by electric net fencing.

All the best,

Peter

 

[DarkBlack]

Ok, but I’d suspect other animals climbing your trees taking plums before I’d blame a skunk.
I’ve got 6 plum trees dropping ripe fruit right now. Deer have been hitting my orchard pretty bad at night. Mostly taking peaches, apples and pears. My plums have been getting attacked mostly by bald faced hornets.

 

[oosik]

At one time - in the distant past - we had apples, peaches, apricots and cherries. Everything was just great until the trees began bearing fruit.

The deer got the low fruit - the racoons got the remainder. The deer would stand up on their hind legs to reach as high as possible.

A funny sight. The adult coons sending their young out the small branches to knock down the fruit.

The skunks never climbed a tree. They didn't have to. Just pick up all the fruit laying on the ground that the others had missed.

 

[Jstpssng]

I have 2 grape vines but never got anything from them as the wildlife got them first.
Then I built my henhouse, with an enclosed pen about 10 feet from the trellis. For some reason nothing has bothered the grapes since. Now the chickens are gone and the trellis collapsed. I'm not sure if I'll get grapes or not this year.

 

[oosik]

My wife thought it was fun to watch the raccoons and deer in the fruit trees. It was - "Annie get your gun" - when she saw the chipmunks in her strawberries. Man - I dare not even crack a smile.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

Racoons are plum crazy, as in eating all our plums too! pun intended.
5 of them can strip a row of about 30 cobs in an hour.

 

[oosik]

The coons never got in our corn. Too busy eating all our fruit. For some ukn reason - one time the blackbirds ravaged the corn. Made me so mad - I picked all the corn - cut off the area where they had pecked. Cut the good stuff off the cob - blanched and froze it all.

The blackbirds came back the following day. HA - there was nothing for them to peck.

 

[Hughman]

Had squirrels strip our peach tree clean in one night.

 

[CalG]

We are at 150 pounds of peaches and another tree ripening atm.

 

[Jstpssng]

tree ripening atm

I had to think about this. For a minute I thought your tree was producing so many plums it was like an ATM... not a bad analogy, really.

 

[JSanders10]

Had the same problem here with the 'coons and plums. I bought a 3' section of cheap single wall stove pipe to place around the trunk, zip tied it on and saved the fruit.

Now, last week I'm mowing grass and notice a coyote under my pear trees. Minutes later the coyote is jumping several feet in the air to the lower branches grabbing the pears off. Only a rifle can fix that.

 

[DarkBlack]

Was just outside picking some castleton, and superior variety plums.
Where I’m at in NH , unless you spray often at the right times, brown rot is the biggest obstacle to growing plums. I tried cutting back a bit this year. I’ve probably lost 30% of the castletons to brown rot. The bald face hornets, and other insects boring holes in them, only make it worse.
Mammals are a much lesser issue for me.

Peaches, apples, and pears are another story though

 

[Jstpssng]

The skunks never climbed a tree. They didn't have to. Just pick up all the fruit laying on the ground that the others had missed.

This sounds like a case of extortion on the skunks part to me... give me fruit or I'll spray you out of that tree.

 

[CalG]

The skunk must have been extracting their dues around the place last night.

Powerful odor wafting in the upstairs bedroom window.

Last time I went out to check on such matters, the pew kitten was less than 6 feet from the door. I'm not doing THAT again. ;-)

 

[Deere Dude]

I have about 20+ apple, peach and pear trees. 3 years ago I got about 28 6 gallon buckets of apples and they had just started producing a year or so before that. A year after that there were thousands of fruits started and the squirrels began their reign of terror. Kill them and more take their place. That year we got maybe 2 1/2 buckets of apples. Quite a drop.

I then bought about 30 Duke-100 traps and that really started weeding them out. This year the crop was down substancially I think because of the dry weather even though there are only a couple squirrels roaming around. It seems to be a constant struggle with squirrels and birds. There are to many houses around that I can't break out the artillery.

 

[Topzide]

There are to many houses around that I can't break out the artillery.

Time to get a nice air rifle! Got my .22 dialed in at 25yds! Sure put a hurting on the tree rats! Dog gets excited when I reach for it! He knows there will be something to fetch or chase.

 

[JethroB]

I swear raccoons knock down pears for fun, long before they are ripe enough to eat so dozens rot on the ground. Deer won’t eat very green pears either. I was kind the first year by blistering Mama coon and her babies with a paintball gun from directly underneath. After a few spotted evenings they left. The next year when Mama returned I had swapped the paintballs for a .410. Destructive little varmits.