Raccoon’s may become nighttime regulars to your Heirloom / Open Pollinated Vegetable Garden. There are many old-time tricks to keep raccoon’s out of your Heirloom / Open Pollinated Corn patch, but once raccoon’s get a taste of your sweet corn, it will be almost impossible to keep them out.

If you are growing extra-early sweet corn, get ready to protect it. The local raccoon’s will sniff it out because it will be the only sweet and delicious corn around. We find that once the farmers next to us have corn in their fields that’s ready to eat, the raccoon’s don’t bother our crops as much.

One method is to build an electric fence. Put the wires 6″ off the ground and 6″ apart going up two feet. For the fence charger, get one that is used for livestock and follow the directions for hooking it up. You will need a couple of ground rods too.

You can also try spreading moth crystals between corn rows at each edge of the Heirloom / Open Pollinated Vegetable Garden. Raccoon’s hate the taste of moth crystals on their paws. Try putting out the moth crystals at dusk, when raccoon’s will hunt for food as soon as it gets a little dark. We never had to use them down the entire row, working the edges did just fine. If it rains, you’ll have to put down more crystals. If you are a careful observer, you may find paths through tall grass that raccoon’s take to the garden. If so, sprinkle a little creosote along the path. Raccoon’s don’t like getting this on them either, and it may discourage them.

Raccoon’s aren’t as much of a problem at our place as turkeys are. Turkeys will totally destroy our crop if we let them go unchecked.