enviro mesh or clear polythene

Hi i intend to cover most of  my vegetables to protect from carot fly and onion fly and butterfly . what would you experts suggest i do polythene or enviromesh polythene would be cheaper but am prepred to use enviromesh at little extra cost as last year caterpilers ate what cabbage and sprouts we tried to grow .

I'm with penance; polythene doesn't breathe and will simply cook your carrots when the warmer weather arrives. Enviromesh breathes AND allows water to come through.

Good morning fine people , thanks SP for tip but do you also know if the colour makes a difference as i think scaffold net is either green or blue would this cause to much shade !! and enviromesh is white or does the colour not make any difference, i think im going to cover as much as poss to keep those pesky little critters of the best i can to avoid spraying.

I use green. Not sure about the other colours but i've had no problems. I've found that scaffold net lets enough light and water through and its fine enough to stop most things. I had to start covering mine as i've never seen so many caterpillars that were around last year. I was still finding them in november

Looking forward to the pics. Have just seen that you come from swindon. Hows it going with the honda plant, worrying times for everyone, hope it picks up soon.

Hi STEVE P thankfully i have never had to work in Honda but some of my friends do and its not looking to promising for some of them its hard times for everyone . i hope to get some pics on later today .

Hi  Trying to rack my brains back to college.  The colour does make a difference to plant growth but I can't remember which colour did what.  He mentioned red, blue and green poly being used on tunnels with different effects.    Will find the info and report back.

Did you ever figure out which was best birmancats?

Thanks for advice Salmo.   

I do something similar with a cheap cloche bought from Lidls last year... plastic hoops covered with polythene (with loads of inch round ventialtion holes), soil on one side and a couple of planks on the other. Using this for lettuce at the moment....quite easy to get into and weed / water.

My carrots do get a touch of surface carrot fly but the carrots are usually quite a size by the time it hits so can stand it. I grow around 4 or 5 rows and they last through to March in the ground.

I'm more worried about protecting brassicas from flying pests.......not just the flocks of pigeons but small ones..... cabbage-whites come in swarms on our site!