Sweet Potato Disaster - We lost our crop to VOLES

This has to be one of our biggest garden disappointments EVER! We dug up our sweet potatoes last Saturday and found that we had lost 70% of our crop to voles! We are heartbroken!
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[wipeoutxl]

this year I dug up and redid 100ft of raised beds and added galvanized 1/4 inch mesh cloth to the bottom. Zero damage from voles. In previous years I would lose 50% or more.

[RobinsTinyHomestead]

Get about three outside cats. I had a vole problem until our outside cat family started growing. Hope this helps.

[r.m.burthom-paranormalwrit]

I know how heartbreaking it is to lose almost a whole crop to critters. Sorry this happened to you. I found this online: Protect plantings from voles with a fence that's buried 3 to 6 inches below the soil surface and bent outwards into an L-shape. Above ground, the fence should be from 4 to 12 inches tall. Use non-rusting, one-quarter-inch mesh. Hardware cloth works well. Not sure if it will work but there are some other ideas online as well.

[nancyshipes]

You could try a cat. Decades ago, my cat Sam was the terror of the voles on a island in the Adirondacks.

[vallamon]

I had problems last year. Read somewhere that sticking pinwheels in the ground will deter them due to the vibrations. Bought a bunch at the dollar store and stuck them in. Amazingly it seems to have worked. Got some round aluminum pie plates that I'm going to try and make some more over the winter. No poisons and inexpensive. Don't know if it'll work for you, but could be worth a try.

[WesleyHiggins-jloh]

This is why I have raised beds with wire underneath to keep the little monsters from eating everything up

[waylandsmalleycomeonletsplant]

2 years ago we had the same thing. The granulated castor oil does help a lot but still some loss this year. I am going to add some barriers for next year. Small mesh in the bottoms of cattle feed tubs buried in the ground so still part of the garden but not accessible to the critters, worms will still be able to move through. Then I will have to figure how to keep the ground hog from eating all the leaves in the late summer. You have been an inspiration to my channel and I wish you good gardening.

[noraalvarado]

It's very upsetting when you work so hard to grow food and the critters destroy it. Im in N.Y and this is my 4th year growing sweet potatoes. This year was my biggest harvest. I had only a few like that. My biggest problem this year was a woodchuck that got into my winter squash. He dug under my fence and when he couldn't no more he climbed over my 4ft chicken wire fence because it bends. Next year i have to buy different fence and partially bury it into the ground. Every year is a challenge with something. But the success is what keeps us motivated. And so we keep growing.

[kada]

The same thing happened to us last year. We lost about 40% of our sweet potatoes. This year we grew in a large raised metal bed with wire mesh underneath. Not a single potato was lost!

[melissabroberg]

Our male cat was our WIN!! He took care of them!

[HadassahHaman]

Thank you so much sir for the video. Your YT viewers, we need these lessons, thank you for sharing. I'm heartbroken for you and realize the depth of my blessings.
We harvested earlier this week and have close to 70 lbs! I'll get DE because of the pock marks in some of the potatoes because of bugs in soil, otherwise all came out well!
I snipped 8 inches off about 20 vines in September, they've rooted and now im growing another batch in 3 bins...trying to keep the party going!😂😅😂
My heart goes out to you...just start again. Right now! Indoors!!!

[galinamazuryk]

I had the same issue last year. From what I planted, I was able to harvest only two small potatoes with some damage. The rest - only skins. I had more luck with regular potato. This year, I planted in a plastic tub, and my sweet potatoes grew undisturbed.

[overjoy]

Last year I put all the sweet potatoes in plastic pots. The biggest ones I could find. Only to find that they chewed holes in the bottom of the pot and they got in anyway. This year, I found a lady giving away old roofed tiles. I put the tiles downand I put the pots on top of the tiles. I haven’t harvested yet, but I can let you know what happened.

[mantis]

Same here last year. Now we grow them in strawbales on our old basketball court. So easy to harvest and the voles can't tunnel through to them.

[johnzink]

thx, i had the same thing happen to my potatoes. lost 75%. i bought a raised bed to plant them in for next year. i'll see if that helps.

[debbiebolman]

I've had limited success spreading pepper flakes and chili powder around their runs but I've noticed when the voles have a good year the following year is good for the predators like foxes and owls

[ceepark]

I deal with moles and voles most of the year. I finally went to raised beds for my veggies. I still have mole damage on my lawn, on going.

[marycochran-mmhy]

I only had one sweet Potatoe vine it only produce about a pound so when I hardened them off they were wimpy so I cooked them up and they tasted fine, but I knew they would not keep.

[ausfoodgarden]

Wow! What a shame. We don't have voles here in Australia, but sometimes rats dig in and chew them.
We grow some sacrificial brassicas and chard around the edge of the garden for them to chew on and haven't had a problem since. 🤞
Good luck!

[ColoradoTodd]

If you don't want to rebuild your bed with hardware cloth, you might try planting a barrier crop like wild garlic. The dense, "smelly" roots are said to deter voles. I haven't had a vole problem here (yet), but we just bought a house adjacent to open space (in norther CO), so I'd be surprised if I don't get visits from lots of critters in the coming years. I was actually considering planting some sort of barrier crop along the back fence, so wild garlic may be my choice.