North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Karen Tillou <arboretum@homeorchardsociety.org>]

does anyone have experience with trap crops as a way of detering  
birds from your desired fruit?  i have aronia, sea buckthorn, autumn  
olive, russian mulberry trees and their berries attract so many birds  
during seasons when my fruit is ripening - the mulberries distract  
birds during cherry harvests, and the fall berries seem to keep the  
bulk of my grapes safe.
what kind of birds are doing the most damage?
karen

oregon city, OR; zone 8a wet


On Nov 20, 2007, at 8:22 AM, William C. Garthright wrote:

> > Where do you buy disposable netting for grapes?  I'd like to get  
> > some, too, as most of my grape crop gets eaten by the critters.
>
>
> Well, I don't know. But I thought I'd do an Internet search for it  
> next
> year, though I don't know if it would be any cheaper.
>
> I bought a case of Nixalite YardTek netting
> (http://www.nixalite.com/YardTekGardenNet.aspx) early this year,  
> since I
> figured I'd need it eventually (most of my fruit trees are too young
> right now). And it worked great to keep the birds away from my three
> grapevines.
>
> However, the birds started pecking at my grapes long before they  
> started
> to ripen, while they were still green and hard, in fact. And no amount
> of scare items (fake owls, strips of foil, etc.) did anything at all.
> The netting worked, but I had to put it up early, and the vines grew
> through it and wrapped tendrils around it, so there was just no way to
> remove it afterwards. Well, maybe I could have left it on until  
> spring,
> then tried to prune the vines and untangle the net later, but that
> didn't sound too appealing.
>
> With shipping, the netting cost me about $8 per vine (it looks cheaper
> than that now - apparently it's on sale). I'd certainly prefer to  
> use it
> more than once, but I don't know if disposable netting is available  
> and
> cheaper. And I don't think I'd get any grapes at all without it. I
> certainly didn't in 2006 (my first year with grapes).
>
> Bill
> Lincoln, NE (zone 5)
>
> --
> We must... stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We
> must insist on an end to the cynical use of pseudostudies known to be
> false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public's  
> ability to
> discern the truth. - "The Assault on Reason" by Al Gore
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