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| I just noticed a gopher or gophers have taken up residence in my garden. Do you think the tunnels would help aerate the soil and allow water to soak in? How much damage do they do to plants? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by borderbarb San Diego county (My Page) on Fri, Feb 25, 11 at 21:16
| How much harm do gophers do to plants? You mean, besides eating their roots and killing them? A better question is what harm they do to the gardener when they kill a valued plant. [BTW, they have an evil genius to choose the most expensive plant to kill][favorite rose, young apricot tree, tomatoes just ready to start producing aaargh! ] As for their tunnels helping to aerate the soil ... plant roots do a much better job [see cover crops] The link below shows how wide/deep plant roots extend. BTW ... use whatever means are available/suitable to get rid of those gophers. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Root Development of Vegetable Crops
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| Besides eating every plant in your garden there are other hazards to having gophers around: ~You might step in a gopher hole and break a leg. That's one of the main hazards for horses and cattle on farms and ranches. ~As a warm blooded animal they could be rabid and attack you or your pets. Many farm kids and farmers practice their firearms skills on gophers as they are considered noxious pests. Poisons are not the answer as they have far-reaching effects. You might make your garden unattractive with a radio playing 24/7 or perhaps tilling the area or a nearby area. |
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| Do you have a pocket gopher or Richardson's ground squirrles? I suspect the former. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Pocket gopher
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| Gophers, moles, etc. can do a very good job of aerating soils, at a price. While high volumes of water may flow through those tunnels better that same water will not do much for your plants since the clay soil tends to lock up both moisture and nutrients. Get rid of your gophers, if possible, and add organci matter to your clay soil to improve both the drainage and availability of moisture and nutrients to plants. |
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