Deer ate the top of my mortgage lifter start last night after I just planted it yesterday! This is the tomato plant I had been most looking forward to. Can it be saved?
by anthemwarcross
5 Comments
North-Star2443
If it’s still alive then it can be kept alive, whether it will give you much fruit you won’t know until it grows. Can you cover it with netting? All you can do is try. Are you able to sew extras just in case?
Ajiconfusion
I would sow some extra (if you have time) or buy a start or two. Not seeing any growth points in this pic
justalittlelupy
It will grow from where those two leaf branches attach to the stem, as long as you didn’t pick the new growth off already. If you prune all “suckers”, then it’s likely gonna struggle. Maybe it’ll produce a new leader, maybe not. But if you haven’t pruned anything, it should produce two new leaders.
It will take a little bit, maybe set you back a couple weeks, but in the end it’ll probably be a wash compared to starting over now.
NPKzone8a
Too bad! Sorry for your loss.
feldoneq2wire
It has no growing tip so it’s not going to produce. Your bigger problem is you need to find a solution to completely exclude deer from your garden or there’s no point in even planting anything. So many people I know spend all this time and money on a garden and lose 90% to deer because they won’t put a fence and other exclusion stuff.
5 Comments
If it’s still alive then it can be kept alive, whether it will give you much fruit you won’t know until it grows. Can you cover it with netting? All you can do is try. Are you able to sew extras just in case?
I would sow some extra (if you have time) or buy a start or two. Not seeing any growth points in this pic
It will grow from where those two leaf branches attach to the stem, as long as you didn’t pick the new growth off already. If you prune all “suckers”, then it’s likely gonna struggle. Maybe it’ll produce a new leader, maybe not. But if you haven’t pruned anything, it should produce two new leaders.
It will take a little bit, maybe set you back a couple weeks, but in the end it’ll probably be a wash compared to starting over now.
Too bad! Sorry for your loss.
It has no growing tip so it’s not going to produce. Your bigger problem is you need to find a solution to completely exclude deer from your garden or there’s no point in even planting anything. So many people I know spend all this time and money on a garden and lose 90% to deer because they won’t put a fence and other exclusion stuff.