Will Deer Eat Tomato Plants?

Deer Diets

• According to Oregon State University Extension Service, in addition to tomatoes, deer dine on over 500 different plants. Their food choices are not just limited to the fruit or vegetable yields from a plant, but also its leaves and twigs. Examples of popular deer food include tomatoes, hostas, acorns, lettuce, pumpkins, tulips, lilies, berries, grapes and corn. You may never see them chomping on your plants as they tend to dine at dawn or late evening. A sign that deer have eaten your plants, as opposed to other creatures, is a serrated cut on twigs and stems rather than smooth bite markings. Your tomatoes and other plants are most prone to fatalities from deer from late autumn to early spring.

Barriers

• The most effective way to keep deer away from your tomato plants is to install a fence around your yard or at least your vegetable garden. The fence should be higher than 6 feet, as deer can jump over anything shorter. If you do not have the means or the time to construct a fence, installing wire or mesh around each tomato plant may suffice as a barrier.

Confuse Their Sense of Smell

• As deer rely on their sense of smell to find food sources, you can confuse them and surround your tomato plants with distracting odors. Human-scented items tend to work, such as wads of hair strung on surrounding trees or smelly shirts strung to bordering stakes. Scented soaps are also used as a deer repellent. Keep the wrapping on the bars of soap, drill a hole through each, string them and hang them around your tomato garden. University of Connecticut's Integrated Pest Management recommends applying a mixture of 12 eggs and 5 gallons of water around the tomato plot with a pressure sprayer. Although the deer will smell the rotten odor, humans do not.

Deer-Resistant Plants

• Plant vegetation that deer tend not to favor around your tomato and other vulnerable plants. Although deer tend to resist certain ground-cover plants, shrubs and tall perennials may be more effective at masking the tomato plants. Examples of deer-resistant shrubs are butterfly bush, Japanese boxwood, mountain laurel, evergreen sumac and firebush. Examples of perennials that deer generally do not eat are purple coneflower, hummingbird bush, blue plumbago and cape honeysuckle. This is not a sure fix, however, as deer may surprise you and eat plants they normally dislike if they are hungry enough.