[cawdor2001]

Looking at getting hold of some netting/cover to protect plants from pests ie butterflies laying eggs, and flies eg cabbage root etc.  But want light and water to get through.  

What have you used successfully in the past for this and what has not worked and do you just throw over and weight down at the edges or build a frame eg hoops or wood to keep the cover off the crop. Also how long do you cover your crops for, it could end up being an allotment where you cannot see the crops for cover.

quite a few questions in there i know

Thanks

Cawdor

[SkipRat]

Would imagine garden fleece would do the above jobs. As this is very light a few bricks/planks of wood here and there would suffice in keeping it down.

[DD.]

Never used it myself, but a lot of folk on here have used 'Enviromesh' with good results.

You'll also find plenty of planks on this forum to help hold it down!

[Rob the rake]

You'll also find plenty of planks on this forum to help hold it down!

     

[gobs]

Netting will keep birds away and some butterflies, etc. if want to go for sure enviromesh and fleece are more effective but also more money.

A frame can work better than just thrown over but because of crop rotation you might not want to spend too much time, money and effort on this.

[love-my-plot]

Your Granny's old net curtains do a great job
too ... and a lot more moneysaving  

[Rob the rake]

Your Granny's old net curtains do a great job
too ... and a lot more moneysaving  

Has anyone else noticed that weird smell peculiar to net curtains?

[love-my-plot]

 

[ditchdigger]

Your Granny's old net curtains do a great job
too ... and a lot more moneysaving  

Has anyone else noticed that weird smell peculiar to net curtains?

      No, but i've noticed a smell peculiar to old grannys.

[DD.]

Your Granny's old net curtains do a great job
too ... and a lot more moneysaving  

My granny didn't have net curtains 32' long!

[brucesgirl]

This year I bought viromesh and virofleece, and the squirrels have eaten their way through both!! So in future the cheaper the better for me.

I am buying 7mm netting this year to keep out the cabbage whites.

We use different methods on different crops. Some are under water pipe suspended tunnels (peas) and some are individually netted supported by two by twos cut from pallets.

We are constructing a veg cage, similar to a fruit cage, for one of the brassica beds from alumnium tubing and ball connectors, which will be tall enough for us to be able to work inside it.

Still wondering how to protect the walking stick cabbage though!

[beansticks]

Bamboo canes pushed firmly into the ground with an empty coke bottle or similar on top of the cane will give you an easy to erect frame.Use enviromesh or debris netting to protect plants.

[cawdor2001]

That's a good tip Beansticks i might try that one, assume you use a hot tool (no comments please) and make holes in the plastic bottle to put the bamboo sticks through.  Probably going to get some debris netting as i reckon that will keep just about everything out, except water and light hopefully  

Cawdor

[DD.]

That's a good tip Beansticks i might try that one, assume you use a hot tool (no comments please) and make holes in the plastic bottle to put the bamboo sticks through.  Probably going to get some debris netting as i reckon that will keep just about everything out, except water and light hopefully  

Cawdor

Don't think so, the bottle surely is just put upside down on top of the cane. This will then stop the netting sliding down the cane.

[mushroom]

Don't think so, the bottle surely is just put upside down on top of the cane. This will then stop the netting sliding down the cane.

Brilliant! I was wondering just how to do this (my PSB cage/net is looking a bit sorry for itself in the winds, because the net keeps sliding over it). Nobody on my site uses this method - I can visualise how it'd work though.

Seriously, thanks for the tip.