[shokkyy]

Why is it that everybody makes a frame for holding enviromesh or similar netting, yet every supplier/manufacturer of that type of netting says that you only need to drape the netting over the plants, without a frame, and size their precut packs accordingly? I know there's a theory that if the plant touches the net a butterfly could lay eggs through it, but is that actually likely to happen given that they seem to always lay on the underside of leaves?

[mumofstig]

I know there's a theory that if the plant touches the net a butterfly could lay eggs through it, but is that actually likely to happen given that they seem to always lay on the underside of leaves?

Yes they can, I've seen them do it, through butterfly netting....whether they could do the same thing through enviromesh - I don't know.

[shokkyy]

It just made me wonder when I was looking round for some mesh to buy. On the websites for Enviromesh, Veggiemesh and Wondermesh, they all recommend you lay it down flat over the seedlings/plants and peg down. The only mention I could find of supports at all was purely to protect fragile seedlings. And farmers that use Wondermesh/Enviromesh on field crops certainly don't give the netting any support.

[Yana]

I've draped fine mesh netting over plants and built frames to support the netting. Both seem to work ok except that the netting on a frame seems to deter the foxes more that the draped version. I've had netting torn and ripped in an attempt to get to what is below when draped.