Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?

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Casey76

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Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« on: April 08, 2016, 13:22 »
In previous years I've used arcs and netting, but I can never get the tension "just right".  This year I was thinking about making semi permanent panels, that could be clipped or cable-tied together.

I've sourced the canes I had planned to use (eek - another cost!), and I have lots of netting already at home, but I'm at a bit of a loss as to how best join  the panels together.

If I was making 1x1m square panels (easier for me to store than the 2x1m I had used for the chickens) I think cable ties would be OK to join upright to upright, but I still can't quite envisage how to join the corners without lots of faffing (had LOTS of faffing when I made chicken panels - would prefer not to repeat!)

OR...

I have loads of weldmesh left over from the chicken days... I could make permanent panels again with this, but would prefer not to have the faff I did previously.

Anyway, any ideas gratefully received!

TIA

:)

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Beekissed

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2016, 14:21 »
I use cattle panels and T posts for permanent trellis for tomatoes, cukes, beans, peas, pumpkins, etc.  Those are held onto the stakes with zip ties or what you refer to as cable ties, I do believe.   They last for years upon years without replacing, are easy to take down when you want, strong enough to support many heavy bearing vines without a wobble. 




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Snoop

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2016, 16:15 »
That looks like a brilliant arrangement, Beekissed. I shall ponder on your solution for myself this year.

Thanks for posting the query, Casey76. I hope you're managing to keep bankruptcy at bay!  :)

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Beekissed

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #3 on: April 08, 2016, 16:27 »
The real beauty of this type of trellis, I found, was no tying of tomatoes...they do perfectly well if you just weave them in and out of the squares as they grow.  I put the panels a foot taller by moving them up the T posts before fastening them...this works well for my cukes and indeterminate tomatoes, though they still manage to grow taller than that still, I can just string them along the top or even clip them off when I feel they've gotten too tall. 

Come winter, I'll be using this trellis to support some plastic to make for some field houses for winter crops. 

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Trikidiki

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #4 on: April 09, 2016, 00:08 »
I made a panel cage to go on my beds (2.4m x 1.2m), each panel was 600mm high. The panels were made from roof battens and joined at the corners with 150mm triangles of plywood. To erect it, I put a small post halfway up the long side which when hammered into the ground came to the top of the long panel. I tie the long panels to the posts with twine then tie the panels together at the corners with twine. This holds everything tight for the growing season. The 'roof' is plastic mesh stretched taught over the top of the frames.

I also have shorter frames 1.2m x 1.2m x 300mm which are permanently joined to each other with 50mm posts in each corner. I use two of these frames on my strawberry bed. The roof on these are 1.2m x 1.2m batten frames covered in mesh.

I have a 2.4m x 1.2m x 300mm frame and a 1.2m2 x 300mm frame permanently covered in enviromesh for the carrot and parsnip beds. These can also double as roofs.

All my beds are based on multiples of 600mm so I can interchange panels and roofs. If I need a tall cage I can put two 1.2m2 x 300mm cages on top of the 2.4 x 1.2 x 600mm cage or stack multiple 300mm high cages.

Early in the season I can use two long 2.4m x 600mm frames laid flat as bird/cat cover on a 2.4 x 1.2 seed bed or cover the strawberry bed frames with polythene as temporary cloches.

I was originally going to extend the scheme onto the soft fruit beds but instead constructed a  8m x 3m walk-in cage. This was constructed from fence posts as the main uprights with smaller intermediary posts and roofing battens joining it all together. The whole thing was covered with nylon netting. I am now in the process of extending it to 10m x 6m.

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snow white

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #5 on: April 09, 2016, 13:51 »
Do you have any photos Tridiki?

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Trikidiki

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #6 on: April 09, 2016, 18:23 »
I'll try and take some tomorrow if I can get to the plot, I think SHMBO has some chores for me tomorrow. Is it the small frames or the fruit cage your interested in, or both?



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Trikidiki

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #7 on: April 09, 2016, 18:58 »
Actually found a few pictures of the original frames from a few years ago. The bed layout on the plot is completely different now but it may give you an idea.

DSCN0950  shows the large frame that fits onto my 2.4m x 1.2m beds. You can see the plywood corner braces and the post hammered into the soil halfway down the far long edge. It is all tied together with just six pieces of twine (your idea of tie wraps would be fine). The panels are covered in small gauge chicken wire then some have added 1/4" nylon butterfly mesh if they are destined for brassica beds. The roof is more butterfly mesh just stretched across and hooked over the corners of the plywood triangles.

DSCN1148 shows the smaller 1.2. x 1.2m frames. These were originally held together with ply triangles all around, unfortunately the scraps of ply I used were not waterproof and they disintegrated so I added 50mm x 50mm posts on the internal corners. The roof on the one in the bottom of the picture is a removable frame with just chicken wire so the bees can get in to pollinate the strawberries. The far end frame is just covered temporarily with some bits of wire/weldmesh I had to hand.

DSCN1156 shows a complete 2.4m x 1.2m  frame covered in enviromesh, this doesn't collapse into panels. Behind to the left is a similar one but only 1.2m x 1.2m,

DSCN1159 shows an end on view of a long frame, shows the posts halfway along the long sides. No it isn't weeds, I under-sowed the cabbages with phacelia.

I'll add another reply with a couple more pictures.
DSCN0950.jpg
DSCN1148.jpg
DSCN1156.jpg
DSCN1159.jpg

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Trikidiki

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #8 on: April 09, 2016, 19:20 »
DSCN0946  shows two 1.2m x 1.2m frames covered with polythene, a post was pushed into the centre of the bed standing just taller than the frame so the water doesn't puddle in the top of the frame. It did on Mk1 and the polythene ripped off the frame.

DSCN1151  shows the old prototype frames which had pegs attached at the ends which worked ok until I put timber frames on the beds. In this picture they are stood on end to give a bit of height for my four brussel sprouts that I grow each year. If all the frames are multiples of 600mm you can switch them around and do things like this.

DSCN1701  A few different frames in use and a polythene roof in the background. The two prototype frames on the strawberry bed frame near the centre of the picture didn't follow the 600mm rule and so don't fit properly.

20160111_123333 is last years fruit cage. This is in the process of increasing to double the width and slightly longer. The netting was 50mm x 50mm which the blackbirds managed to get through so is being replaced with 19mm netting.
DSCN0946.jpg
DSCN1151.jpg
DSCN1701.jpg
20160111_123333.jpg
« Last Edit: April 09, 2016, 20:08 by Trikidiki »

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Beekissed

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #9 on: April 09, 2016, 19:45 »
Cages!!!!  <face palm>  I was thinking of what folks call tomato cages around here, which is just a roll of wire they stick over the plant to give it support.  Didn't realize you were talking about cages, as in to keep birds off your fruits and veggies!   :nowink:

Just another one of those language/cultural differences I'm still in a learning curve over....we don't have much problem with birds eating our crops here in the country as the birds are too wary by far to enter into the garden space.  They are not used to being fed by humans nor living in close proximity with humans, so they don't really choose to dine nearby.   ;)

Sorry!!!  I was thinking a totally different thing....   :lol:

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sunshineband

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #10 on: April 10, 2016, 09:20 »
I was wondering how your cattle mesh kept small birds off the fruit, Beekissed lol. They were useful constructions to see though.

Trikidiki, we made some similar cages a few years ago and although they did stop butterflies from laying eggs on the brassicas etc I found them too heavy and cumbersome to be able to weed/harvest when I was at the pot my myself, which was a shame.

I now use a very straightforward construction made of canes, tightly cable tied together into a rectangle to cover a bed (1.2m x 3.6m), whith an extra "leg" on each long side to stop it sagging, and then throw a net over the whole thing. It is easy to lift the side to get in (it is 1.3m tall), and weighting down the edges with planks keeps everything out. It sound flimsy but amazingly has stood up to our frequent gale force winds for the whole season.

I did have a similar one for thr fruit cage but it was not talle enough so am rehtinkinh that for this year
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snowdrops

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #11 on: April 10, 2016, 20:35 »
This year I will be using an old gazebo frame & a tent frame that I have been given. For the brassicas I use canes with a length of yellow gas pipe hooped over to the next cane,then debris netting thrown over & tent pegged down. I use a lower version for the parsnips & carrots but use enviromesh to keep out the carrot fly. This will be extended this year to include the leeks as the thrips got to them again last year
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Aunt Sally

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #12 on: April 10, 2016, 20:51 »
I usually build a frame out of chestnut poles and water piping but an old gazebo frame is a great idea, Snowy.

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sunshineband

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Re: Home made fruit/veg cages - how do you do it?
« Reply #13 on: April 10, 2016, 21:20 »
I gleaned a few of those tent poles that are in short sections joined by elastic last year after the Festival was over .... maybe I could use some of them to make a frame ......



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