Thread: Raccoons
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Old 08-07-2007, 07:45 PM posted to rec.gardens
David E. Ross David E. Ross is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
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Default Raccoons

On 7/7/2007 6:52 PM, Billy Rose wrote:
In article ,
"David E. Ross" wrote:

My yard is completely fenced and walled. Raccoons still steal my entire
grape crop (two vines).


An idea how many pounds of table grapes that is? If it was wine grapes,
it would be about 80 pounds (.1 barrels).


One vine was 'Perlette', which had about 20 bunches around 5 pounds
each. That's about 100 pounds. The other was 'Black Monukka', about 15
bunches around 3 pounds each. That's another 75 pounds.

The interesting thing about this is that every little stem remained on
the vines. When I eat grapes and pick them off the bunch, I often get
the little stem attached to the grape, which I then have to remove. The
raccoons very cleanly removed each grape without the little stems.

This year, the raccoons (and I) will go hungry. The hill where my grape
vines grew is being repaired. It slipped in the heavy rains of January
2005. All vegitation on the hill had to be removed. My garden is a
mess and will require major work to fix the damage, not from the hill
sliding but from the construction work.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/