Christina Reed, a Texas A&M agrilleff gardening agent, says she has been using red ornaments on tomato plants for more than a decade.
HOSTON – Our VERIFY team looks at a Facebook post that caught the attention of many gardeners. He says that birds can stay away from tomato plants by hanging red Christmas ornaments on them.
The photo shows red ornaments hanging from a tomato plant. The person who created the post said, “My tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes. Now is the time to make red jewelry. The birds are attracted to the red balls, go inside to examine them and realize that they bring nothing. So when the tomatoes ripen, the birds are not worried. ”
One post has been shared more than 50,000 times on Facebook.
Barbara asked us to verify the truth.
Our source is Christina Reed, Agrillif Extension Horticulture Agent in Lubbock, Texas.
Reed is currently producing 300 fruit varieties and is caring for 2,000 tomato plants. She explained that ripe tomatoes are high in sugar and water, so birds feed on vegetables that are a burden to gardeners.
After years of trial and error, Reed discovered a drug that could be found online: round red Christmas tree ornaments.
Reed tells the Vari group, “Once I started flowering, I put them on my tomato plant – before I came to ripe tomatoes – and I saw my neighbors laughing and the birds coming down into my garden. The birds, often trembling, continued to come each day to inspect the red ornaments, but they left the plants alone. I noticed that I did not see birds regularly in my garden and did not smoke any tomatoes piled up in the summer! These birds think they are really red ball Christmas decorations tomatoes! ”
Ten years later, Reed says she is still planting red tomatoes and decorating them with red Christmas balls, and she has not lost a single tomato yet.
Therefore, we can verify that the claim is true.
According to Reed, tomatoes do not grow normally when the temperature rises above 90 degrees. However, she said, if you have tomato plants that do not survive the summer heat, you can replant them in the next three weeks and still harvest in the fall.