Getting primed for this spring and the landlord asked me to plant some raspberries. My question is, do whitetail deer like them, just to know before I get started. Might have to get a remedy prepared. Thanks...

Hi Toad,
We have a 9 acre woods that is full of deer and wild raspberries. From my experience, yes they do eat them. Whenever we go back there in the summer, the only berries that are ever on the canes are the un-ripe ones, which makes me think they are the ones nibbling at the ripe berries. I suppose it could be birds, but my guess is it's the deer eating them up. I don't know how they go about it - the darn canes are so pokey I wouldn't think any animal would mess with the berries, but they do. I've never seen any damage to the canes themselves though. Of course I think alot depends on how dry of a year we have, what other food sources are available, etc. I would think that raspberries would be more of a last resort food if there are fields of green soybeans or corn nearby to munch on. Hope you have good luck with your raspberries!

Hi Toad,

Can't remember ever seeing signs of deer in the raspberries but the black bears up in our mountains love them and will gorge themselves silly on them.

You might get a remedy for bears prepared. I've been to Northern Wyoming and know there is a bear or two in your neck of the woods.

Wayne

Thanks for the info, I've had antelope, elk and the deer, but no bears, YET!! They would be interesting to have around!

Deer would most likely eat the leaves, not the berries. THe culprit in berries missing is BIRDS! I use netting over mine when it's time to get ripe. That's the only way I can have any berries because those birds are sitting in the trees just waiting for them to get ripe. It's the same problem, be it wild raspberries or wild blackberries. (I'm so glad we don't have ordinances against my brambles!! )

So as to your question, it has not been my experience that the deer really bother the berry plants or the berries. So I would plant away, but get some netting to keep the birds out.

I'm not sure about deer, but rabbits will decimate a fairly large stand of canes in the winter. They cut the canes and eat the buds. I suspect where there are deer there are also rabbits!

There are a 'couple' of cottontails around! And where there are two, there will most likely be a bunch more come spring!!!

Try the golden raspberries. The birds leave them because they think that they are not ripe yet! I have both kinds( actually I have black raspberries too, in the front yard but you need to keep those away from the others) so maybe that's why they are completely fooled here. They never go for the gold.

Are the gold ones as tasty as the others? That gives me more ideas. I know when I raised the thornless blackberries, those berries were harder to get to come off of the stem, so the birds didn't bother them. Probably because if they had to sit long enough to get the berry off, my cats would have got them! Nice kitties!

Kitties are very useful. Mine sits by the strawberries when they are ripening and also by the fruit trees when the plums are ripening.

I do like the gold berries, though I had a red variety, Josephine, that I liked better. I think that one has died off though now. It is a southern berry I think and maybe didn't like some weather we got. The gold berries I have are fall bearing which doesn't work everywhere either, but here works well.

This area of the world is tough because sometimes the weather acts like a more southern state and sometimes like a more northern state. One never knows what one will get year to year and usually it depends on what side of I-95(highway) you live on (really) or if you live north or south of the James river. I can have five or six inches of snow here and then get to work and they had only rain! Or we can get rain only, but school is canceled anyway because there is snow and ice in the northern half of the county. Sorry for the weather ramble, I'm done now.

Deer will eat about anything, depending on how hungry they are and Raspberries can be part of their diet. The have not touched mine in 30 some years, but there is plenty of other stuff for them to eat and unless they are caged roses are a favorite, which indicates that thorns are not a deterent. Make some cages to keep the deer, and rabbits, away from the raspberries just in case.