Many gardeners often face the same problem related to deer, and they commonly ask this question “Do deer eat sunflowers?” If the answer is yes, how do you prevent them from attacking sunflowers and ruining your flower field?
Do not worry, as we are here to help you solve the issue above. More specifically, this post will provide you some useful ways to get deer away out of your garden. Let’s read it now!
Do Deer Eat Sunflowers?
Do deer eat sunflowers? The sad news is that sunflowers are deer’s favorite food. They love this flower, especially sunflowers with juicy leaves. But why do deer adore sunflowers that much? To explain this question, we would like to start with deer characteristics.
First of all, deer are herbivores and foragers. They always feel hungry and have big diets, so they always seek various plants, vegetables, grasses, or even several kinds of flowers.
More interesting is deer are aware that sunflowers are beneficial to them. In particular, sunflower seeds are rich in fiber and contain some of the same beneficial nutrients as other nuts in nature.
Moreover, sunflowers are very rich and high in nutrition. This type of flower will provide various nutrients for deer in daily diets such as thiamin, biotin, choline, vitamin-E, and zinc, especially protein and healthy addition.
Similarly, young sunflower trees and growing seeds contain a lot of fat and oil elements, which will provide heat and protein to the deer’s body in the sleeping time in the winter.
Hence, deer always try to reach sunflowers at any cost regardless of how tall the tree’s height is.
Do deer eat sunflowers? Yes, they are really into sunflowers, especially all parts of this kind of flower leaves, seeds, stems, or flowers. If you tend to grow sunflowers in your garden, you should be aware of this issue about deer and flower plants.
How To Prevent Deer From Eating Sunflowers?
Now you have known the reply to the query of “Do deer eat sunflowers?”. Therefore, we will show and guide you with helpful tips to prevent and protect your gorgeous sunflower garden from the deer.
Deer Antler Spray
There are various deer deterrent sprays on the market like rotten eggs, water, soap spray, or pepper spray. However, you should choose the most organic type so as not to harm deer and your plants.
Plant Flowers As Taste-Based Repellents
Deer always use their sense of smell, especially before eating something. Therefore, deer love eating sunflowers as sunflowers release a good and attractive fragrance. Otherwise, they won’t eat food that lacks a nutty odor.
Based on this characteristic, some growers come up with a brilliant idea. They plant some deer repellent plants in their sunflower garden, such as chives, garlic, mint, or lavender. In this way, the deer will stay away from their backyard.
Protective Barriers
The final solution is to build fences in your garden; this is the easiest way to apply. Keep in mind the most critical thing: Build your contour higher than the deer’s height so that they cannot attack your sunflower trees.
In detail, a fence should be more than 8 feet tall, partially underground, and surround your entire garden. You might want to decorate some obstacles on the wall, such as angled netting or tree branches.
Strong automatic water jets
To recognize the appearance of deer, many people make ropes that attach objects that make a noise. However, this does not work very well with deer as they are intelligent animals. They will not be afraid of such noises in the next time.
Therefore, to replace the old method, many farmers have used automatic sprinklers. When the deer arrive, these fountains automatically create water currents strong enough to frighten deer and make them leave the garden immediately.
Now you’ve learned the right ways to combat your headache issue of “Do deer eat sunflowers?”.The content below will provide you with additional information related to deer and flower plants.
What Other Flowers Can Deer Eat Besides Sunflowers?
Besides sunflowers, deer can also eat some other flowers such as roses, marigolds, begonias, rhododendrons, azaleas, etc. Regardless of thorns, deer still can eat to the very root of the bush.
These plants all have some standard features: They possess attractive smell, rich nutrients, and softness. Therefore, they are also a preferred food source for the deer.
To keep deer away from these plants, you can apply the same methods in this post. We assure you that these techniques are beneficial and practical to chase deer away from your garden.
Wrapping Up
Do deer eat sunflowers? As we explained above, deer love eating almost all parts of sunflowers, including stem, leaf, or seed. Thus, it is essential to understand how to keep the deer away from your garden effectively.
As a reminder and summary of this post, you can use deer deterrent sprays, plant some deer-repellent trees, or build fences in order to prevent them from attacking your sunflowers. We assure you that they will work well for your charming sunflower fields! Thanks for spending your time reading this post.