Good video. Something that's worked fantastic for me is RED Christmas balls. The hard kind. Put them up when your tomatoes are still green. The birds will peck the red balls, figure out there's no use and when your tomatoes ripen, usually leave them alone. I leave them up all season and make it the easiest for the bird to get to. ;)
works... pretty much anything bright red and round. One year I used 1/2 filled water balloons, hung with paperclips. Worked well, but had to keep replacing the balloons every couple of days. :P
After many years of birds eating my tomatoes... I tried it all and finally did what I should have done to start with. I made a framed wood structure 16 feet long, 14 feet wide and 6 feet tall. Then ordered a 30' x 30'section of bird netting from American Nettings and draped it over the wooden frame .Their stuff is good and the" holes" of the netting are 3/4 inch I installed a door 30 inches wide and 68 inches tall also. I placed 16x16 inch paving stones around the outside and a walkway between the beds to keep weeds at bay. Inside I have 2 raised beds 14 feet long by 4 feet wide. In the fall I can drape plastic over it to double as a greenhouse if wanted. So I guess the birds can watch us work inside the "Net House", but they cant come in! DONE!
I tried the “old CD “trick. It kept the birds off my tomatoes for about two days. After that they cottoned on to my game and the cds no longer bothered them. They went right back to eating the tomatoes even while they were hanging there next to the plant
you're lucky you just have birds. We have stink bugs that eat the tomatoes. I used my wife's old pantyhose. cut them up about 2 " pieces, I tied a knot in one end and put them on my big boy tomatoes. I used a bread tie on the other end to close it. That worked like a champ.
In my neck of the woods the problem is groundhogs eating my tomatoes. The neighbor lady has discovered that she enjoys attracting these little tomato thieves. But the netting works very well to safeguard my strawberries from the birds.
Rubber snakes work well also, as long as you move them every 5 days. Spray pepper and vinegar juice that has sit in the sun a while around your plants. Hot peppers
netting is the easiest and most effective method over all... but can make getting to the tomatoes yourself annoying. Also, without an additional framework, the vines tend to grow through the netting, which can be an additional pain to deal with. I've also had luck with 'fake' tomatoes and wrapping. With fake tomatoes, anything red and round attracts the birds. They then peck at the ringer and get discouraged when they can't eat it. I've used old christmas ornaments and one season, even water balloons part filled with water. The balloons only last a couple days so need to be replaced every so often. Finally wrapping... if the bird doesn't see the ripening tomato they don't peck it. So when each tomato or group of tomatoes starts to color, wrap them with a 6"x6", 8"x8", or whatever sized square of old cloth. If you do it right, you don't even need anything to hold the wrap in place, as it often ends up pinned against the vine or other tomatoes. I used a set of old sheets and wash them at the end of the season.
It sounds like you live deep in the country. We had deer problems like that where I lived when I was a child. We had scarecrows everywhere and my father even put a radio in the garden that played sports and music. Gardening is much easier in an urban area ;). At least the hornworms come to the tops of the tomato plants in the evening and early morning so they are easier to find. Good luck to you ; ).
Well I don't have any trouble with birds... but EVERYTHING else in Georgia seems to want to hasten my tomatoes demise. The hornworms just won't take a day off. I've hung CD's from the 'arms' of the scarecrow before also. One of our scarecrows is built on a movable target stand, so we can switch him around from place to place to, like you say, confuse the birds or deer or whatever a bit and keep them at bay.
I got 20 foot plant so netting is out of question, i doubt the CD trick works, i just tried to wrap my tomato fruit with alluminium , let see whst happen.
I have 3 cats. Lol Plant plenty of catnip in your garden. Problem solved. Plus I just leave the pecked tomato on the plant. They will eat the 1 single tomato which gives me time to pick all the others. I've never had more than 1 pecked tomato on a plant. Knock on wood....
If you found a hole when it was orange then it sounds like you have a worm. Birds will wait until it is red. To answer you question, yes, you can pick it when green and they will ripen. If you are trying to ripen during the summer you can place them on a window ceil. If it is at the end of the season you can place the tomato in a bag with an apple, the ethylene gas from the apple will help it ripen.
Um... I'm a BIG green thumb from St Louis MO... I now live in Tampa FL... FL has big time 'different rules' bascially. You MUST have a TIGHT KNIT screen to protect your mators or ANY type of fruit!!! Its gotta be very small holes, or it will NOT work! Mockingbirds LOVE LOVE LOVE tomatoes and berries...
I have used the cd's before, but still had the birds eating some. The netting looks like the best. Have you ever had a bird get caught in the netting? My wife would be scared to death if there was. But it seems like the best idea.
Technically you are saving the birds from your tomatoes. Tomato plants are from the Nightshade family. The leaves, stems, unripe fruit, and any other green part of the plant is toxic to small animals and even humans in some cases. For birds even if they only eat a ripe tomato the acidic content alone could cause digestive and kidney issues.
I understand, they are so much better when they vine ripen. Even when they are picked a day early, they are still better than the non organic found in the stores.
