Today I Hate Squirrels
Today during lunch, I dug through my recently planted Cascade hops, and I had a disconcerting find. One of my rhizomes was missing. At first, I thought I may have missed it, so I dug through the soil again, and couldn’t find it.
At this point, I thought about when I had last checked the rhizomes. It was Saturday evening, and everything was good. With both of the rhizomes, I took a couple of the sprouts and placed them above ground to reach the sun, to hopefully kick-start the growth cycle. Perhaps the birds thought it was a worm and grabbed it out of the ground. Then I remembered the dreaded squirrels liked to dig through my soil, mentioned in my last hops growing article.
I searched the yard, about 10-15 feet from the bed, and found the rhizome. It had been split in half and chewed, most likely by squirrels. I was devastated. I decided to first soak what was left of the rhizome in some water, then buried the halves in the soil. To try and repel the squirrels, I spread black pepper and cayenne pepper over the beds.
So, let’s hope for the best so the rhizome will grow, and today I hate squirrels.
How is the squirrel hot foot going? Have you beaten back the rodents?
Comment by Cliff — April 28, 2010 @ 11:39 PM
Since I found the rhizome on the ground, I did order an additional rhizome from freshops.com to replace the damaged one. I also purchased an organic mix called Squirrel-It-Away. When the new rhizome arrived, I planted it, but forgot to put down the squirrel repellent, and within 2 days they had dug the new rhizome out of the ground. Last night, I replanted it, along with sprinkling some of the Squirrel-It-Away on and around each bed. I’ll let you know how it works…
Comment by Ken Valley — April 29, 2010 @ 9:44 AM