repellex

[poppi]

Does anyone have experience with Repellex systemic and deer? I'd be interested to hear your opinion

[Chris_W]

I looked it up and it should work as it has garlic, pepper, and dried blood. We use Liquid Fence here (garlic and rotten eggs) but also alternate with a dusting of blood meal. The Liquid Fence gets applied only to the perimeter here, while we dust the gardens and plants with blood meal.

Years ago I bought a fertilizer and iron supplement for plants and found that the active ingredient was dried blood. You were supposed to mix it up and spray it on, but it turned everything rust red so the plants really did not look good for a while. This isn't that big of a deal on most ornamentals, but I didn't use it again on hostas due to the temporary staining of the leaves.

[Tigger]

I think Poppi means the new(ish) tablets that you bury in the plant's route system, and the tablet releases a mix of DMSO (solvent) and capsaicin (hot pepper) (I think) which is taken up into the plant. There's some discussion of it in the latest DVHS newsletter, with references to Bridgewood Gardens, who sells it.

I bought some last year on the recommendation of a landscaper who had just found out about it. It lasts—in theory—two years for woody plants but only one year for herbaceous perennials (like hosta), so I devoted most of what I bought to protecting rhododendron cultivars. We had very little browsing this winter, so maybe it was effective (or maybe we just had fewer deer). I think I put some with one or two of the hostas, but can't remember which so I don't have any good experimental data. (says the sheepish scientist)

It's not cheap, but certainly avoids the visual and olefactory downsides to using sprays. If I really, really wanted to win leaf competitions at hosta shows, it could be a good investment to that end.

I wonder if the systemic capsaicin repels slugs as well?

David

[Chris_W]

Hmm, I hadn't hear of this new product then. My feelings about hot pepper, though, is that the animals have to eat the plants first to be repelled by it, which in a way defeats the purpose. Sure, after a while they may be conditioned to remember that your particular plants are bad tasting, but I think you would have to really treat a ton of plants to get overall control. Perhaps it is best for what David is doing - just use it on particularly susceptible ornamentals. Maybe this is how I can finally keep the deer off my arborvitae?

[cat]

I've been looking at this product as an over all backup; and perhaps a training aid for the deer.

If you forget to spray, and the deer come back and browse they will likely not do much damage.

[ThisIsMelissa]

This product is extremely expensive.

You have to add a plant's height plus width (in feet) and use that many tablets per plant.

So, if you have a Blue Angel that's 2 feet tall by 5 feet wide, that's 7 tablets!
And a bottle of 50 tabs is $20 in a retail store. So, that's 40 cents each. You can, however, find 150 tabs for $50, bringing the price to 33 cents each.

If you have a large garden, this is super expensive.

However, it's supposed to last longer than a season.
I am going to consider using them on non-hosta. Bunnies eat my lilies and coneflower. I can control them on hostas using Liquid Fence and/or fox urine granules.

[poppi]

Thanks everyone. i think I'll place some tablets near some trees that are getting eaten then at the beginning of the growing, put some by the plants in the more vulnerable areas. I'll let you know how it works for me. I wish it wasn't so expensive but it could help alot.

poppi