I’ve had great results with Rot-Stop/Calcium chloride foliar sprays, especially during droughts. Just apply it when it’s cooler, never mid day if it’s sunny and hot; it can burn foliage then. By bypassing the slower uptake of roots, the foliar spray works quickly. Do not mix it with other fertilizers. Follow label directions.
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Aji Amarillo sizing up. I finally let the three/four year old plant go. Thank you again for the seeds @bogman ! They are still viable. I am growing two new plants this year.
I am determined to taste this first ripe fig. Hopefully the varmints haven’t learned to untie the bag…yet.
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It’s surprising how long pepper seeds can keep if dry and cold in storage. I had some Black Prince pepper seeds, harvested in 1994 germinate well in 2023, 29 year-old seeds.
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Solanum/Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium, the Currant tomatoes, have very different, dissected leaves. Silvery Fir tree is another one with very different foliage. There are also variegated tomatoes.
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I hope those stinkers don’t untie your bag, too. I have pine squirrels that chew up my prayer flags, despite stringing them along with nylon cord. It’s the cotton, they’re after.
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I had good luck with a packet of Padron pepper seeds for years.
Some critter was eating our strawberries! Hundreds of them. Red ones were destroyed, and we found mounds and mounds of green ones hidden away under the leaves at one end of the bed. We assumed it was a squirrel, and after all other measures failed, purchased a small live trap.
Well, this morning we caught a little possum, the rascal!
We took him down to a nearby county park and let him go, where he will have plently of other possums to keep him company.
It will be interesting to see if the thievery stops.
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I invested in so many critter preventers this year. I will post a photo of some of them.
Plastic plant hats off Amazon, white cloth to keep flea beetles and cabbage moths off brassica and mustard family greens, plant cages to keep voles and rabbits out.
The gardens are already fenced to keep deer and other large critters out.
The squirrels still climb over, and some birds eat seeds before they can grow.
Metal cloches to protect some plants and my Gerbera Daisies.
White cloth lined metal cloches for the arugula. Otherwise, the insects perforate it.
Cloth bags with a draw string over some larger plants including my Hollyhock. The cloth bag did not work on my rose.
Plastic chicken wire to protect some beans
Some netting over my black currants.
Upside down garden pots over bean plants because I ran out of plastic plant hats.
The slugs still get into the plastic plant hats, so I’ve been watering my greens with coffee ground water.
Previous to this summer, I only used the white cloth, tomato cages and plastic chicken wire!
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This looks like our place! We’ll try any and everything for passive prevention, but this strawberry business was beyond our range of tolerance. I don’t think relocating the possum will hurt it, but I’m pretty sure he/she didn’t enjoy the night spent in captivity and subsequent car ride. 
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They’re survivors.
I am about to give up on strawberries. If I protect them, they end up cat-faced. Even without the nets up, and no covering, most are cat-faced, so the pollinators aren’t reaching them. I might move them to another location next year.
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In California, it’s illegal to transport and release trapped animals anywhere other than on the same property where they were trapped, unless you have a specific license to do so. It’s a good way to spread diseases between populations. I didn’t know that until I had relocated three or four raccoons and a couple of possums.
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Thank you for the advice! Good to know.
You’re welcome. Unfortunately it doesn’t help much if you have a problem critter that has developed a taste for your veggies or chickens. A friend in animal control, however, says you usually have the right to kill an animal that is threatening you, or damaging your property. Seems kinda harsh, though.
It does.
Hopefully your possum wants to stay with the friends at his new home, and doesn’t invite 5 new found friends to this great garden he likes hanging out in… 
I actually repurposed the frame of a small greenhouse to protect my blueberry plants so that it wasn’t getting chewed down to the nubs, or the leaves weren’t constantly being eaten clean by hungry bunnies or some other critter. The good compromise I found was using something like chicken wire that they couldn’t jump over, but had holes large enough for bugs to get through and pollinate. Netting meant no pollination, and netting with bigger holes I worried would result in birds and critters getting stuck and killed. I’ve resigned that birds will probably eat most of any berries that are produced, but I at least want to keep the plants alive.
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Just got in from my nightly task of tying individual organza bags over my dinner plate dahlia blooms. I just got the bags, and they’re doing a good job of keeping the earwigs off the buds and flowers. It’s annoying, though. And they still chew the leaves.
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i was just at a florist supply store and became hypnotized by the organza bags. I’ve been looking for some way to collect seeds from my bolting plants. Where do you get yours?
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Possums eat ticks, and I hate ticks, so I like possums.
I bought these bags on Amazon.
They’re quite big.
https://www.amazon.ca/Evoio-Protection-Drawstring-3-5Ftx2-3Ft-Protective/dp/B08CZ17MVH/ref=asc_df_B08CZ17MVH/
Oh, no, those are much too big. I just need something to put on a seed stalk, not a whole bush.
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