North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com>]

For my blueberries and gooseberries, I have completely abandoned netting.  Even keeping the birds out does not help protect against predatory insects.  It may even make it worse by keeping the insectivorous birds away.  I got tired of being wiped out.

Instead, I moved to a semi-permanent row of 1/2" pvc hoops covered by fiberglass window screen.  Screen is held in place by clips.  The fiberglass screen lasts a long time and is kept rolled up on the hoops except for when the fruit begins to ripen.  The PVC and scree are cheap.  The clips are more expensive but seem to last forever so far.

Last year was my best fruit harvest ever, and I did not spray anything at all.  No setup or take down except for rolling up the screen for winter (snow weight makes the hoops fall over otherwise).  Only problem so far was the very unhappy robins (winged rats) which brought a smile to my face!

John



--- On Wed, 6/9/10, Sherlock Terry <sherlocksmith@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Sherlock Terry <sherlocksmith@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] netting
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Wednesday, June 9, 2010, 8:26 AM

I've been wondering about netting this season too. I have an 80 foot
row of old highbush blueberries that I rescued from the weeds when I
bought my house a few years ago. They definitely aren't the half high
varieties, because even with attentive pruning the bushes are about
6-7' wide and 5-6' high.The birds weren't a problem initially but last
year I got cleaned out. I've read that the netting doesn't work well
draped and needs to be supported. Is this true in everyone's
experience? What do folks with large scale PYO operations do? I
imagine I'd be looking at at least a few hundred dollars in raw
materials to build a structure. Is that the only way to go? Does
anyone use row cover? It's pretty reasonably priced. Here's a link to
the lightweight row cover I am considering trying.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/p-5456-agribon-ag-15-insect-barrier-118-x-250.aspx

-Sherlock
z4 VT Frost warning last night but no frost.

On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 12:32 AM, John S <swim_at_svc@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Jerry,
>
> How tall are the blueberries your are growing in that row?
>
> John
>
>
>
>
> --- On Tue, 6/8/10, jerrydana5@aol.com <jerrydana5@aol.com> wrote:
>
> From: jerrydana5@aol.com <jerrydana5@aol.com>
> Subject: [NAFEX] netting
> To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Tuesday, June 8, 2010, 9:41 PM
>
> Does anybody know of some good, cheap, able-to-be-handled netting?  I have a number of blueberry bushes and the birds, of course, wipe me out unless I net them. The popular deer netting is extremely difficult to  handle.  I have the bushes in a row about 50 feet long and have wires stretched the whole way over them higher than the bushes, so I can just drape netting over the wires and that will cover the blueberries.  But I cannot find any netting that is reasonable in price which can be easily draped over wires, and then removed and re-used the next year.  Any advice?  jerry in southern Indiana
>
>
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