I'm growing in a spot in a little clearing on a hill. I know for a fact that there are a large number of deer in this area, and possibly other pests. I want to install chicken wire to protect my plants but should I do it around each individual plant or the entire patch?
Each plant is probably easier and you can use a combination of a natural barrier or sticks to enclose the top of chicken wire, deer fencing could be a bit noticable @ >6ft or so tall. I used to burn my wire, it would get the nice shiny look off of it and stay that way, blends in perfect.
The best defense for pests is a healthy specimen. Good water and minerals will absolutely help defenses.
I have a ton of deer around me and stopped using wire about 3 seasons ago. I plant multiple plots each year and have had nary a deer bite. Really it is partially luck, but I started scouting my sites where only wet spots or actual surface water collects. I often plant in full view of deer turds and prints and todays scouting probably uncovered bear scat?....don't know what else it could be....bigger and blacker than a human turd.....
Deer will eat cannabis if they are hungry, most of the time they don't search it out if their regular food source is plentiful and readily available. This can be a trick of wet spots and such, more chances for riparian and mixed use vegetation that deer often love to eat and water even groundwater will be areas of minerals you can use to plant in, which is also rich because of a diversity of plant life attracted to wet spots
[they die and make soil][grass means lacking nitrogen usually]
Brambles are okay, deer will get out them eventually if their is drought. So that is your enemy, the less water it consumes, more chances for it to be less healthy and have a potential of pest invaders. Then on top, maybe the food source of deer and other critters is in low supply in the last 2 months of flowering, now you might have a crisis.
Watering and identifying plants for mineral sources already in the ground, learn these and you have the game beat. Watering spots can be found all year even in drought in some cases.
Took me a few spots to figure out, but I plant and leave, no water, no ferts. I get good 4-5 foot tall plants in some cases, not all, but it is a learning process..
