Netting Fruit Trees
It's summer here in Adelaide now, and December 1st is a good time to net your fruit trees.
Our apricots are big, and green. And soon they will start to turn that beautiful orange tinge. Unfortunately the birds seem to know this before we do! So although we don't mind them getting some of the fruit (I don't mind sharing...really), but...it's when we loose half our crop that we are not impressed. So now we net our fruit trees.
You can get nets for fruit trees from hardware stores, or you can use an old lace curtain picked up from a second hand shop! They both do the same job!
Here are a few things that we have learned that may help you if you are new to netting trees -
1) Make sure you secure the net to the base of the tree - and tuck the net under the foliage well. Otherwise the sneaky little birds just fly up underneath, eat and leave.
2) Use a long stick to help get the net over the tree. This will save you having to get on a ladder!
3) Be gentle! Fruit is easily knocked off, so be as gentle as you can.
Here are some photos of us netting our apricot tree. You will notice the last picture is all the ones we knocked off! There are quite a few, but not as many as the birds would have eaten!!
Our apricots are big, and green. And soon they will start to turn that beautiful orange tinge. Unfortunately the birds seem to know this before we do! So although we don't mind them getting some of the fruit (I don't mind sharing...really), but...it's when we loose half our crop that we are not impressed. So now we net our fruit trees.
You can get nets for fruit trees from hardware stores, or you can use an old lace curtain picked up from a second hand shop! They both do the same job!
Here are a few things that we have learned that may help you if you are new to netting trees -
1) Make sure you secure the net to the base of the tree - and tuck the net under the foliage well. Otherwise the sneaky little birds just fly up underneath, eat and leave.
2) Use a long stick to help get the net over the tree. This will save you having to get on a ladder!
3) Be gentle! Fruit is easily knocked off, so be as gentle as you can.
Here are some photos of us netting our apricot tree. You will notice the last picture is all the ones we knocked off! There are quite a few, but not as many as the birds would have eaten!!
Thanks for the tip need to do ours.
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