[fizz]

Picked up lots of debris netting cheap off eBay, and I wanted to make some hoops out of blue water pipe to throw the net over my veggies on my allotment, to keep the birds off.

Advice from anyone who has made these would be welcome.

The pipe seems to come in several thicknesses is the 25mm strong enough?
How do I keep the ends in the ground?

Thanks

[dugless]

Any diameter is strong enough, as for fixing just get some Dowling the same as the internal diameter, cut long enough for 10cm up the pipe and 40cm in the ground this is according to soil condition.

[mumofstig]

I use 25mm and use any old bits of wood/cane poked into the soil to keep the ends in place.
The thing that I think you need is something to stabilise the top of the hoops, like this

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/design-and-construction/10/blue-water-pipe-design-change/59123/msg691492#msg691492

[Kristen]

The pipe seems to come in several thicknesses is the 25mm strong enough?
How do I keep the ends in the ground?

That's what I use.  Cut to length matching width of debris netting (less a bit to leave some netting footing to anchor down).

I push old knackered broken-off bamboo canes into the soil and the pipe pushed onto the sticky-out bit of cane.  If the canes break off inside the pipe, during the year or on rotating around the plot next Spring!, I whack the pipe vertically against the ground (like flagellating/threshing corn) such that the centrifugal force dislodges the cane.  Point the arc the pipe flies through in a direction where a flying dart, the cane remnant inside the pipe, won't kill someone!

Some pictures on my blog

[sunshineband]

Ahh... now I understand how to get those broken bits of cane out. Thanks Kristen.

I can see me having a good ole bash around next week 

[Bigrich]

If you've got raised beds just screw 'em to the sides of the bed 

[Kristen]

If you've got raised beds just screw 'em to the sides of the bed 

My hoops rotate with the crops, so would be a faff to have to unscrew / rescrew them. Although they might stay upright better?

[Bigrich]

If you've got raised beds just screw 'em to the sides of the bed 

My hoops rotate with the crops, so would be a faff to have to unscrew / rescrew them. Although they might stay upright better?

They don't move an inch - which is good.

I did see some pictures of some clever bod who attached 32mm waste pipe to his raised beds, then slotted the 25mm water pipe into the 32mm pipe - which would mean you could move them round a bit more easily

[Kristen]

I did see some pictures of some clever bod who attached 32mm waste pipe to his raised beds, then slotted the 25mm water pipe into the 32mm pipe - which would mean you could move them round a bit more easily

Ah, hadn't thought of that. I though of rods, sticking up (Rebar or similar) onto which the hoops could be mounted - but the "spikes" would then be a death trap when not in use

32mm "socket pipes" would be much better, thanks for that.

My only other thought was that, currently, my hoops are "inside" my raised beds, and its easy to tuck the debris netting in between Hoop and Bed Boards - which is a snug fit and keeps the netting in place.  I'd have to do something different if the hoops were attached directly to the Bed Boards - either to inside, (which I think I would prefer) or to outside (where I think the "sockets" are more likely to get knocked, and the netting will drape down getting in the way of the mower, and making it easy for Butterfly to creep up the gap)

[Elm street]

Hi Fizz,
Look at my diary pages
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/gardeners-diaries/37/elm-streets-diary/115530/

I have used the 25mm blue pipe for my crop protection.
The hoops are 24" longer than the width of the netting and I just push the pipe in the ground 12" either side.
When I remove the hoops at the end of the season I just bash them on the ground to get the soil out of the ends!!

Regards,
Mel

[beesrus]

I use the 25mm blue alkathene/polyethelene for brassica nets etc. Mind you, I quite like using the bamboo and tin can thing as well, far cheaper and I find those aesthetics strangely appealing in some peasant way. My hoops give the plot a sort of unwanted industrial feel. Pushing the pipe direct into the soil has never failed me, but it's more difficult to get the pipe hoops uniform if that sort of thing irks you.
If I were going to construct something of the size of a poly tunnel, I would use the 32mm pipe, braced appropriately.

[cadalot]

On the 2.4 x 1.2m beds I use 4 No 25mm pipe, I form the holes for the ends with a bit of re-bar and then push the pipe in the ground, I now lace at the crown of the arch and down the sides and the braces are pre drilled so I can cable tie to the pipe. The additional support is because the foxes like to climb up and bounce up and down on the structures, or sit there looking over the allotment. I cable tie timber or plastic beading along the netting along the 2.4m and use tent pegs to hold it down 

For the smaller 1.2 x 1.2m hoops I use a timber frame at the bottom and have use 20mm and 25mm dia pipe, as I managed to get some of freecycle

Left - Framework with hoops pushed in the ground
Middle - with netting and strips along the long edge
Right - 1.2x1.2m Portable Hoop Frame before netting or plastic applied, The one in the background only has support for the netting at the crown and the netting sags a little when wet so the frame in front is the MK II version, with slightly larger timber to help resist wind, fox nose movement

 

[cadalot]

A 2.4m x 1.2m fox and bird protection portable Chicken Wire version used here over my strawberries 

Laying on a bed are the 4  x high hoops for my sprouts that are reinforced to keep shape.

[TheWhiteRabbit]

I don't tend to bother with the belts and braces approach - I just push a bamboo cane into the ground and put the blue tubing over that and push it into the soil a bit.

I don't do additional supports and mine only ever move with gale force winds (and then it's the debris netting that tends to go squiffy).

[beesrus]

I used to use freshly cut 2nd year bamboo growth from the garden for hoops. Worked fine structurally, but unfortunately the leaf nodes tend to rip the netting over a season. Not such a good idea if you want to preserve your netting material.