[trogg]

Not sure it this should be in 'design and construction' or here 

Anyhow, I am a little confused of what vegetables need netting, if they need netting then when do they need netting and how do you do it.

I know everyone does things differently but I just wanted to know what the general consensus was.

One of the chaps down my allotments doesn't net anything, he says he'll probably loose a third to birds and other creatures, a third to disease and bad weather leaving the rest for himself.
Which is all well and good but he has only himself to feed and I think it is just a hobby to him, I on the other hand have only half a plot and have 4 to feed, although I must admit I am liking it as a bit of a hobby as well 

Another chap has half his plot covered in 6' high netting (like a big cage) some days he just walks through into the 'cage' never to be seen again     

[Nikkithefoot]

I net practically everything at my allotment when its small. I have problems from deer, rabbits, mice and flying rats.

The only things which, in my case, remain netted are the brassicas to stop the flying rats pecking them, and to keep off the dreaded cabbage whites.

I grow fruit at home, and despite feeding wild birds don't seem to suffer from birds eating the fruit.

The netting I use is debris netting and waterpipe hoops. (I have a neighbour who is a plumber so get his offcuts.)

Everyone will net and protect crops in different ways, its what ever suits you really

[Jamie Butterworth]

All brassicas need nettting from birds and butterflys, overwise youll be left with none left.

Fruit like strawberries and rasberries to stop the birds knicking off with them.

Carrots need either a fleece or  enviromesh to keeep out the carrot fly.

Onions need a fleece over them at first to stop the birds uprooting them.
 When peas are first sown use a sort of chicken ire to cover the soil to prevent mice digging them up.

[mumofstig]

I use fleece or enviromesh (or old voile net curtains ) around carrots to stop carrotfly and this year have bought debris netting for my brassicas as the 7mm black netting I used before didn't stop the cabbage whites. Both carrots and cabbages need protection from the moment they germinate I find
I don't net anything else as apart from sparrows pecking the flowers of my runner beans there is not a problem with birds here

[Loubs]

Stuff like raspberries, gooseberries, strawberries etc, I wouldn't net till the fruit starts to set, as you really want the bees to pollinate the blossom first.

[Jonajo]

brassicas, I put posts about 5 foot tall all around the bed and cover with very fine netting all around and use tent pegs at the ground all around with no space for things to get in at ground level either.

carrots: enviromesh with no gaps at all anywhere too.

peas/beans: I cover with fleece once they are taller and before they flower, but typically the peas are being very slow this year. Not that there is any rush.

most other veg that are not too tall, incl fruit such as strawberries: I just use short bamboo canes and push them into the ground till they are about a foot or so above the ground, then cover with normal cheap netting from B and Q or Homebase, and use those plastic ball things on the tops of the canes for the netting to fit on - otherwise the netting slips down! This works a treat, can be put together in minutes and takes only moments to remove when coming to pick things.

[hightide]

Carrots need protecting against fly, I net soon after sowing and leave it on until lifting. I found fleece to be too fragile so have opted for fine enviromesh to cover my carrot and parsnip bed as I also want to get flea beetle free radish this year.
      :happy:
Pea seedlings are gourmet fare for the flying rats, cover the rows with chicken wire until about three inches then drape debris netting over the sticks or posts as they grow.
     
Brassica are loved by everything, they need netting a soon as they are transplanted. If you have a large brassica bed then consider a cage, if it is just for a few plants then alkathene hoops and netting should be fine. Debris netting should be okay against large and medium flying pests, it is no use against aphids, I think it stops the ladybirds and lacewings and hoverflies, which are known aphid predators.
       
I have just ordered 7mm insect netting and having seen what mum has posted I am off to a quiet dark room to cry.
     

[JayG]

My sleek, charming, melodious and inoffensive local blackbirds would KILL to get at my blueberries, which I shall have to net more securely than I did last year!

I find I lose some summer raspberries to the birds but they seem to have moved on to other things come the autumn fruits. 

[Beetroot queen]

I have and will continue to net more this year than last, we ate spring cabage today that has been netted from the start and it was so nice not having a kitchen full of white fly and a saucepan full of boiled caterpillars 

I have my kale netted, peas, carrots, beetroot

Only thing not netted is runner beans

[trogg]

Very interesting replies, looks like my 10 metres of debris netting isn't going to get me far     ... and I thought bringing up children was hard work 

I think the next time I go down the allotments I'll have a proper walk around and see how everyone else is doing it, but I fear another couple of rolls of debris netting is going to be the answer.

[essjay1976]

i found this thread very interesting so thankyou i am a new allotment person and have had my brussles eaten no right down so will they grow back? also i appreciate  whats being said basically if its green net it ha ha but when do you know when to switch from poly plastic covering to netting, sorry to  sound so thick?

[DD.]

They will gow back only if the central growing tip is intact.

If we're talking brassicas here, they don't need covering in plastic at all. They are tough old things and netting is all that is needed.

[Livinhope]

On our site we have the most weird and wonderful but, ingenious constructions.  We have just netted an unused gazebo frame with fine black netting which is really hard to see so not intrusive.  Blue water pipe makes great hoops for netting young cabbage seedlings.  We also use cheap corrugated plastic roofing as cloches with a pane of glass from an old greenhouse at each end which lets in a little fresh air.  One chap uses old secondary double glazing windows for his tomatoes and carrots.  Plastic milk bottles full of water hold down netting, plastic etc.

Before you throw anything away have a good look at it and see if you can find a gardening use for it, and look at other plots to see what they contain.

[Zippy]

Brassicas – open to attack by birds and Cabbage White butterfly, so I stick 4ft bamboo canes in all around the edges leaving 3ft out, small drinks bottles on the tops to stop netting slipping down and drape insect gauge netting over the entire bed; pegging down with stout wire pegs I make from fence post wire, wire coathangers, etc, etc. Plastic bottles come from picking up every one I see while walking my dog through the year.  Locals think I’m an eccentric.

Carrots – open to attack by the dreaded Carrot fly. I understand Carrot fly can glide in from higher places – fences etc so I make a perimeter fence out of bamboo and woven plastic postal sacks, about 3 x 4 feet and 3 feet high; just low enough to sow, plant in and water if need.

Peas – young shoots and pods prone to being eaten by birds. Tall 6 foot A frame with bird netting draped completely all around with no openings for birds to get trapped inside. The pea plants generally don’t reach 6 feet but this is so that the plant tends to stay inside the cage and not poke through and out. Any stems that do make it through I consider ok for the birds to take.

Dwarf Beans – I think these are open to being eaten by birds so I make a cage out of bamboo and some aluminium legs from a couple of old picnic chairs and drape over bird netting, pegging with wire at the bottoms.  I have also planted some open among the sweetcorn this year to see if they really are considered bird food; I may be netting unnecessarily here, I don’t know.

Strawberries – once in fruit I drape bird netting over bamboo canes and bottles just high enough to clear the plants.

A few things to watch when netting:

Any Brassica leaf that brushes against the netting from the inside is accessible to the Cabbage White butterfly to lay its eggs. That is how you get Cabbage White caterpillars on your cabbages etc even if you net from the seedling stage. Plant far enough in to allow for leaf spread and keep an eye out for caterpillars regardless of netting.

Birds – there is nothing more sad than to see that a bird got into your netted beds but panicked because it couldn’t find its way out and is now dead or worse – dying – because it has got itself wrapped in your netting. There is no crop worth the death of a song bird.  I always make sure the netted areas are completely closed, pegged down at regular intervals and I also put in taller bamboo canes which poke through the netting and tie a piece of plastic bag to the top end like a flag near the netting, which I hope and fancy gives an early warning that there is a fine net there so don’t fly too close. This one is unproven, but I would rather do it and be wrong than not do it and have to dispatch an injured bird.

Storage – because I always put out the same netted stations every year as I rotate around the plot, when it comes to close of the year I tie my nets into skeins with a note at the long end (so I know which way round to drape them) to say which station it was for. Saves guessing which size net is for which job next year. I do the same with the canes – bundle and label which job they are to do. Wire pegs go in a terracotta plant pot in the shed for next year.

There’s my two penneth. I hope some of it helps.

[Livinhope]

Oh, I wish I was that organised.  Good on ya!