[hermon]

what is the difference? i need protection from the smallest fea beetle to cabbage whites. :?

[Trillium]

Enviromesh is the heavier stuff that's used for temporary greenhouses (if white) and small cloches, and for road work to hold back soil. It's not what you want over the veggies as it doesn't let through much water and if it's black, it won't let any light through. The fleece is what you want to let water through and keep the pests out. It can be draped over top of the crop or propped above them with stakes or whatever.

[philmay]

Enviromesh is great for covering your veg, but it costs to much! go with the fleece.
Trillium don't think the stuff you call enviromesh is the same as we get, you can water through it and it lets in enough light. The allotment holder next to me grows all his carrots under it to protect them from carrot fly.

[GrannieAnnie]

I thought fleece was more to keep stuff warm when its frosty, is it okay to cover things like carrots all the time to keep the carrot fly off or brassics to keep whitefly off?

I covered my brassicas last year in a black mesh from Wilko's, which was all I could afford.  It kept 99.9% of the cabbage white's off, but I had terrible whitefly on everything

[philmay]

grannieannie, a lot of people on this site leave their carrots covered by fleece all the time, only moving it to weed.  I also recall reading Muntjack suggesting to someone to cover their peas with it and leave it on. There is another thread just below this one talking about fleece. But unfortunately I'm not clever enough to link to it. :oops:

[corndolly]

Fleece is great for keeping the cold nights and north winds at bay , but it is not that strong and we have had problems with it blowing off the crops unless it is held down securely , which makes for a lot of unfastening when the veg needs a weeding or just checking on progress.

This year we are trying environmesh over the carrots and brassicas ,we are making tunnels using blue plastic water pipe and dowels as support,we will be able to compare the two at end of season. Looking for something that lets in water and light, this environmesh  we've got should do. Also strong enough to be used again for 5 years at least , fleece  does nt last that long .

[ytyynycefn]

I'm doing something similar myself - tunnel made from blue water pipe covered with viromesh.  My 3-99 polytunnel from Lidl has now had the plastic replaced with fleece to hopefully make a carrot fly proof zone!

[flowerlady]

Where is the best place to buy enviromesh ... price wise??

Presume mail order is the cheapest way ?? even with postage ??  :?

[slow_worm]

What did we used to do before we invented these materials ?

[Annie]

The main reason I think is price.You can buy lots of fleece cheaply and virimesh is relativly expensive especialy if you want wide stuff but will last for years.We have enought mesh for 2 6x12 beds and fleece to keep off frost/flea beetle but now we have the later find we don`t use it much.

[Anton]

I've just draped some fleece over my carrot seedlings as advised in one of these columns. I poured a bit of water over it to see what happens and notice it just kind of lingers on the top. When we actually get some rain (hasn't rained for weeks and weeks here) won't it tend to crush the plants underneath (I have some parnsip seedlings and lettuce covered as well)?

Anton

[purplebat]

there was a post elsewheer about this; the reply to it was that when it rains it doesn't hit the fleece as hard as water from a watering can, so it goes through, it's only because of the quantity of water in one go from a can that it sites on top, so no, when (IF) it rains your plants will be fine  

[Anton]

Thanks, Purplebat,

That's put my mind at rest.

Anton