field corn

[Argee]

<font color="blue"> planting about 5,000 sq ft corn patch </font color>

With that size patch you could probably get by with a portable electric fence. Run two hot wires, one 6" off the ground and one 12" off the ground. That'll take care of the coon from messing with it and probably help in detering the deer, when they mosey up and sniff it for the first time. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] Electric fences are more of a mental barrier than a physical one with animals once they've tasted the tingle.

[Pat]

Deer can jump high (easily clear an 8 ft fence) and they can jump wide B U T they can't jump high and wide at the same time. Good deer fence depends on that. a few strands (at least 3 in my estimation) of electric wire will deter most everything but deer. Horizontal outriggers on your posts with a wire stretched at the extreme ends with strips of high vis (old white sheets work) cloth on them every 5 ft or so. The cloth is so the resident deer populaltion sees it before they get tangled in it. Also put cloth on the top wire on the fence posts. This shows the width that would have to be jumped. If it is high AND wide enough the deer will not jump it. Their explorations around the new fence (electric) will teach them to not try to climb through.

A single solar charger (about $100) will do a good job. Try to camoflage the charger as for some reason folks with no use for one will steal it because it is there.

Pat

[Robert_in_NY]

Not all deer can jump a 8' high fence. Even the ones that can will not unless put in a situation where they have no other choice. All of our fences range between 8' and 9' and we have never had a deer jump out of a pen. Even when put in a situation the deer will jump about 6' high into the fence and try to bust thru instead of jumping over it.

As for a garden, a 6' high fence would work since a deer will not risk injury unless there is no other food in the area. 8' high game fence runs between $300- $400 a roll depending on your area. Each roll is 330 feet long. A 5000 sq ft patch would only require part of one roll and you can set your post at 20' apart except for the corners which should be 8'-12' and braced accordingly. All in all you might be looking at $500 to fence in that small of a area with 8' high fence. I do not know the pricing on 6' high fence but it will be cheaper still. You can also put a strand of electric wire around the base of the 8' fence to keep out the rabbits and other small critters.

Take care.