solar power electric fence around garden

I want to put an electric fence around the two garden patches.The deer really ate the sweetpotato plants last season. I would like to get the solar powered chargers,Also I have read here on the site that people have kept raccoons out too,with the electric fence. They did a number on my early sweetcorn,so I would like to keep them out too. This is my first research on any fence Ideas,Any thoughts or ideas would be apreciated.///thanks in advance,,,,Larry ////About how much does a solar fence charger cost?

coons need a low wire -- deer need a high wire. You might want to get 6' steel posts so you can put up the high wire for deer.

6 feet would only be high enough if you put a horizontal wire too, to make it wider. At least MN deer can jump right over a 6 foot fence. We went 8 feet high with no electric, made out of savaged woven wire with barb wire on upper 4 feet, with lots of flags so they can see it. Looks ugly, but so far so good, can't see it from the road anyhow!

We were not able to keep deer out with a 7' high fence. Once the deer leaves the ground the Elec fence doesn't do any good.
Scare crows with After shave on them works pretty good. Elec fence will work on coons but have a hot and ground wire, so they touch both. SOMETIMES a radio works.

we use electric fencing around our garden.started out with just several strands, but we all know how high deer can jump! we use 8' steel "T" posts braced at the corners.that leaves about 6 1/2' above ground.put up 7 strands of smooth wire with the bottom 3 spaced for rabbits and coons,remaining ones spaced evenly all the way to the top. as far as fencers go i prefer electric powered ones,solar ones just aren't as 'hot'. i use both for livestock,but only use the solar if i'm too far from electric.buy the hottest one you can afford[or justify].the more important number when comparing them is the number of joules.i would suggest at least 2, but my son is serious about his garden and bought a 6 joule. if you touch that puppy it'll make a grown man cry.the other important thing is to have good grounding for the fencer.you can get more bang for your buck with an electric fencer over a solar one[good ones aren't cheap]

I've had some of those Zareba solar fence chargers, for a top strand on fences for horses and they seem to give an adequate jolt. The fence runs were nowhere near what they were rated for, neither will your gardens. Make sure to use copper clad ground rods and set them deep, if you have rock, make 3 shorter ones and keep that area wet or the fence wire will not have the full charge or none at all.

I think you'll find a lot of ideas about keeping deer and other critters out of your gardens from the internet. Those open patches you have would be decimated the first night around here. I've raised some sweet corn in one open patch here over the years and though it produced well, I planted way more than I'd need knowing the critter tax could be heavy !

What worked well for me is liquid fence. From what you have posted, and the fact that you seem to get to PA often enough, a good application of that does last long enough in dry weather, but you have to re-apply after a rain, and I have also done it before a rain to make sure something is still noticeable to them as best I can. I tend to over apply at times too, just to keep ahead of the deer. It worked well, though any loss is a heartbreak, those deer like corn when its young, then they leave it alone at a certain stage, until the silks are out, then at some point the ears become palatable. Those are the times to apply that liquid fence. You have to use care to not get the over-spray on you, just test the wind accordingly before applying. Also use care to not concentrate it on any of the fruit or what you'll pick, its harmless to us but just applying to leaves or anything close up in the air is a big deterrent. I've witnessed their reaction and see that they will avoid an area that that has been sprayed to form a perimeter. I don't think I'd apply it to lettuce or similar because you eat the leaves. I soak the bark of the nearby fruit trees, low hanging branches, they hate the odor of this stuff, the more that wafts around the better. I have heard of people using it on mesh type electric fence that is flat and a few inches wide, using its surface area to help disperse that odor. I find that the initial application reeks, but I do not notice it the next day, the deer certainly do and will until a heavy rain. My neighbor has a flower bed in front of her home, every summer the deer graze it flat. Last year I applied liquid fence when I cut the grass over there, not one plant was touched the entire season.

I've seen some wildlife fencing at a couple of CSA organic farms I've toured while buying some used implements, the last one looked expensive, it was tall and was something like woven steel like int a top soil screener, but scaled down for fencing. I'd love to have some of that !

I bought a 250' roll of field fence with the smaller mesh spacing on the bottom, I think its 60" in height. I then bought 10' t posts, and planned to space them to carry a high hot wire or something to deter deer from jumping,(will be interesting to see how that works). I would then use shorter t-posts to support the remainder of the fence, as I think the 10's would go on the corners and I allowed for 2 in between each run for the high wire or a band of chicken wire etc.. The tighter pattern on the bottom should keep woodchucks out, they hate being in the open, so if the perimeter is kept trimmed, seems they won't waste a lot of time, they really like cover and their den to by nearby with an escape route. That may help, but they can climb too. They certainly dig but around here they seem to skip digging if they will be in the open for any length of time, that's why the hole are always under something, a shed, steps, porch or an embankment with trees shading over it. I've had no trouble with raccoons as of yet, but if you are I would try and trap some of them or something to see how it helps, they can be numerous and a real pain.

The fencing is not something I like, but for peace of mind knowing that just a 60" field fence worked in the past, I'll try to get it done this year as that patch was plowed and I will be putting in onions and potatoes on time this season. Its got some nice soil so I'd like to make my upper fenced in small patch less crowded, and use the large one below, its just the critters that have kept me from doing so. Deer are relentless here, but manageable and they do provide most of my red meat just the same.

Best of luck with this as I know how much you enjoy those beautiful gardens, I enjoy seeing them every season, along with the potato picking and all the rest.
TSC

Liquid Fence

You needf the ribbon wire hugh enough for them to see it does stop them as for the coons two wires close to the ground i also use a radio and lite dont know which is best but no varmits. But the ribbon does work with the deer they have to see it as the smooth wire they just dont see. Around here ribbon is used for pit silos.

Good luck keeping the coons out with electric fence. I put up 4 strands last year--hot, hot, ground then another hot with spacing about 4 inches apart--over 7000 volts and the coons just laughed at it.. Will try something different this year--something that has been said on here but postings goes poof real quick.

Get a real fencer.

For coon run one wire not quite a foot off the ground.
For deer the line I get from the DNR when they don't want to hand out permits is to run a wire about waist high and put peanut butter on it. The deer will try to get the peanut butter, receive a shock and run away never to bother your garden again....

Madison, Wisconsin area- local commercial gardener -Tokay- used to collect lion and tiger scat from zoo to spread around the side of garden patchs, old video of family of deer approaching garden and viewer can see grass blow opposite direction- deer now down wind of garden instead of approaching side wind- and they obviously smell ancient predator of deer, high tail it in reverse fast. 'Scent' fencing does help a lot at times. RN

We built an 8' high wire fence around the garden here in 2007 and have not had a deer in there since. The fence is over 600' long so it was a bit of a job but it was worth it in the end. Nothing else we tried worked for long.
Zach

If you can anyway get close enough to use a regular 110 volt charger, I would go that route. I first bought a solar charger, and it stopped nothing, and others told me the same. Purchased a 110 volt medium sized charger, and it turned about everything back as long as the fence was fairly clean. Biggest issue I had was keeping grass down around the lower wires, but I had fairly good success spraying with a generic roundup type product. The solar charger I had was a fairly large one, but livestock walked right through it.

We used regular chicken wire for ours small round electric fence post with about 4 insulators on each post. Kept everything out, thought we were so smart until the turkeys just flew in and destroyed a lot of it.

STAFIX fence chargers. Expensive, but puts out ten thousand volts. They have a web site. What we use to keep cows and bulls in. Don't touch the wire when the fence is hot.

I have a 15 mile Za bar???? AC charger. 3 hot wires never kept the deer out. Two batches of sweet corn never got but one mess. Neighbor kept them out with two, two wire electric fences. The top wire was just 2 ft or so and the fences were just far enough apart to get his 0 turn mower down. Bottom wire was just 4 in or so. He said the deer would hop right into the second fence. Tore it down a time or two. But they never got his garden. I am going to try two fences this year. But maybe 3 nylon tapes on each.

One I have heard of is go to local dog groomer or barber and spread the hair around.

Ours is not solar. We have 3 strands around it (hard to see in the pict.). The first is just above the grass, second is at 1' and the third is +- 18". Occasionally a deer will stumble through it, other wise it keeps everything out. The last couple of years, we started tying surveyor ribbons to the top wire and it has stopped the occasional deer.