Will deer eat pumpkins?

We got this crazy notion to plant some across the back of the hayfield but there are some deer that like to hang back there and I am worrying that, even if I protect the young plants, they might come along and nibble the ripe pumpkins before I get them out to the road to sell. How exactly does one plant pumpkin seed? Should I head to the auctions and buy some rusty old planter (preferred) or walk up and down with a poker and drop seed in the holes :-( ?

My personal experience is that deer will purposely destroy anything you plant, prune or look at.

Deer are pure black evil in a bambi suit.

Deer will have a pumpkin mash as soon as they are ripe and the deer find them.

They'll take 1 or 2 bites out of virtually every pumpkin here. I wouldn't care if they'd select a few and eat them, but they ruin them all just in case the next one tastes better than the last. I get predation permits and usually if I kill 3 or 4 the others will leave them alone long enough to get some harvest. I use an old Holland 1 row transplanter with the pocket chain removed to plant. The rider counts to 3 and drops 3 seeds, repeat, repeat......

i planted pumpkin the last couple years along my creek, just walk along, scoop the plug of grass out of the hole, loosen it up and drop a couple seeds in each hole. i have a lot of deer around, so far they havent bothered the pumpkins. when they flower, i keep them sprayed with liguid sevin insecticide to keep the bugs from eating them.

If you have any number of deer they willo destroy the crop. They like to chew at the young plants and when the plants start to make runners the deer will keep nipping of the ends of the vines which are nice and tender. Then, if you get any softball size pumpkins to start forming they will dine on those and wipe them out.
In my experience they don't eat as much on the orange pumpkins untill very late in the season; I think they prefer the young tender ones. But of course if they are hungry...

A lot depends on what else they have to eat in the area; nice clover or alfalfa will distract them. The favorite of deer are the giant pumpkins like Big Max, Atlantic Giant and Prizewinner. Even if you get a few to grow to size deer will kick them with their hooves and then it's no sale.

If you are serious about trying you might want to use a temporary electric fence around the patch. Three strands about 4-5ft high will deter them as long as they have something else to eat nearby and you don't block off all their favorite deer trails.

As far as planting an old plate planter will work. What will space them even better is if you can remove the plate and have someone walk alongside and drop 2 seeds every couple of steps. If the planter has fertilizer that is even better. Good luck.

I agree, Rats with antlers

I put electric fence around the pumpkin field. That is about the only thing that keeps the deer out.

I agree with the rest ,deer are very fond of pumpkins. They will eat alot of them when they are young and green. When they ripen they cant eat them as well, but still will try to chew on them and leave marks, which often lead to rot. I gave up growing them due to the deer .

If I could, I would buy machine guns and kill every last deer in my neighborhood.

Amen on the machine guns. I would like to see about 500 of them dropped around our neighborhood. They are good for nothing destructive sob"s.

Destroyed my pumpin and squash crop behind the barn last year. and that"s NOT at the far end of the field - right close to the buildings.

I've been raising pumpkins for over 5years and haven't had a problem with deer yet, and there are quite a few of them around.

I have more problem with some sort of bug eating the inside of the seeds and leaving the hull. I have to spray with tempo where I plant the seeds.

I just plant them by hand and cover them with a hoe full of soil. We plant about a 1/2 acre. If you use a planter you need a special seed plate for pumpkins and sunflower seeds. I have used my small push planter and taped up 3 out of the 4 seed cells to space out the planting and it works good.

Also grow pumpkins for market and the deer don't bother nor harm them...

usedta plant acres & acres of punkins! marked rows and dropped fertilizer with a 4 row planter (no seed) seeded every 3rd row by taking 2 paces, making divot with heel, dropping 4 seeds in divot and covering divot with toe! YES, deer will bother pumpkins!! woodchucks too!!!