North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Sam Brungardt <samb@pop.isd.net>]

Ginda, the feeding of birds on my fall-bearing raspberries (which 
started to ripen in July this year) is negligible.  The yellowjacket 
wasps, on the other hand are another matter; they feed on the ends of 
the fruits, drinking the juice out of the drupelets.  This low bird 
predation may be due to the fact that my raspberries, blackberries, 
currants and gooseberries are located near many other gardening plots 
in a community garden.  I do notice, however, that the birds seem to 
bother nearby elderberries considerably more, and fellow gardeners 
have pretty well given up trying to grow blueberries without netting. 
I suspect the same would be true for strawberries and possibly 
cherries.  In addition, the birds have access to ripening tomatoes 
and other vegetables in the plots.--Sam in Saint Paul, Minn.

>What's you experience with birds eating raspberries?  Do you use
>netting?  Do you need to?  Do you have enough that you don't mind
>"sharing".
>
>I have a ten foot row of everbearing fall red raspberries.  Until this
>summer, I protected them from birds eating the berries by covering them
>with bird netting draped on a light structure (which I took down each
>winter.)  This summer, they suddenly shot up to 8' tall, outgrowing my
>6' structure.  I had to pull back the netting because it was interfering
>with growth (and obviously wasn't going to do any good, with the
>fruiting ends up beyond it.)
>
>I was all set to invest in a larger (and expensive) structure from which
>to hang the netting, when I was talking to a fellow gardener in central
>Mass. who said she never had trouble with birds in the raspberries.  She
>said they denuded her cherry tree in 8 hours one day, leaving behind not
>even a single pit, but have not bothered the raspberries.  Having little
>space and being greedy, I want to grow as many raspberries for people in
>the 10' row as possible, but I don't want to waste a lot of money and
>time on protection I don't need.
>
>Thanks,
>Ginda Fisher
>eastern Mass., zone 6
>

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