[Chaz1985]

I'm after some advice when best to put the covers of the fruit cages on the plot.

The netting is debris netting so I don't want to put the covers over too soon but clearly I don't want to leave it too late that the birds get all of the fruit before I do.




I have three beds. The first is the Blackcurrant bed which has Big Ben and Ben Lomond bushes most are still in flower.

The second bed is a mix between Chuckleberries, Josataberries and Gooseberries. The Gooseberries and Jostaberry have small fruit on, the Chuckleberries are in flower.

The third bed is Redcurrants, Whitecurrants and Gooseberries. A few varieties of the currants have small green fruit the rest are trying to flower.

Any advice would be great

[Nikkithefoot]

You can keep the netting off until they start to turn colour. The birds don't usually bother with them until they are ripening.

[JohnB47]

I'd better not give advice because I usually put the covers on a week after I should have.

[surbie100]

If it's not too daft a question, why debris netting and not bird netting so the bees could still get in?

[Chaz1985]

Cost tbh. Debris netting was by far the much cheaper option. If the system doesn't work this year I will change to anti-bird netting and use the debris netting on the veg plot

[GrannieAnnie]

I neeted my blackcurrants today as the fruits are starting to form.

I use the black pond netting from Wilko,  £4 for 4m x 2m.  I needed 2 to cover the two bushes, but my last lot lasted several years until OH pinched them to put over the hen run, then he chucked it away without telling me! 

[sunshineband]

Our fruit cage did not survive the winter, and so I am looking for a way of covering the bushes esp the currants to keep birds off. The netting itself is not the problem, it is how to support it so it is not lying on the bushes, as then new growth shoots up through the net and I cannot get the net off.

I can see Chaz has used blue pipes, but my josta berry is about 1.5m tall ...... any thoughts please?

[surbie100]

Could you make a structure like bazial's ones, but taller?

People on our site also use this stuff to build cages.

[JayG]

Our fruit cage did not survive the winter, and so I am looking for a way of covering the bushes esp the currants to keep birds off. The netting itself is not the problem, it is how to support it so it is not lying on the bushes, as then new growth shoots up through the net and I cannot get the net off.

I can see Chaz has used blue pipes, but my josta berry is about 1.5m tall ...... any thoughts please?

A few weeks before my blueberries ripen I stick canes of suitable length around them, put small mixer-cans over the tops, and drape ordinary garden netting over - it's secured with netting pegs all round the bottom edges, although I do try to create a 'flap' of netting just held down with a couple of bricks for ease of access for picking. Plastic clothes pegs are an alternative to plastic-coated wire if you need to 'join' pieces of netting, and also for holding up the flap whilst picking.
Double-check your handiwork - the blackbirds round here would KILL to get at them when ripe! 

[Beetroot Queen]

We dont net fruit at all never netted.