I'm using shredded paper instead of straw to keep my strawberries off the ground. That seems to be stopping the slugs, but now the bloody birds are eating my ripe strawberries. I need to net the strawberry patch now to stop the blighters getting in. Any experience on netting strawberry patches?
12 comments:
Yes, we did ours a couple of weeks back when we noticed they were being munched.
We just draped netting over them, not really held above the plants but seems to work OK. We did need to put more pegs in to hold it down properly (the birds would sneal in from the side if not) and I have found one dead bird where it presumably got caught somehow.
N
Hi Mel
Slugs are the least of your worries regarding strawberries! Blackbirds love them even more than we do and a net is the only way to keep them out!
We grew some in pots on the patio last year and covered them in a net. Even this wasn't enough as the net wasn't far enough away from the fruit to keep them from pecking through!
I highly recommend "Build-A-Balls" and some bamboo canes to build a quick and easy cage for little cost which is what we have done this year. It works a treat!
Congrats on a very successful year one!
Chris
No experience of netting, but loads of experience of not getting around to netting (that was hard to type!)and losing fruit to birds.
I need one of those round tuit things...
Oh, my 11 year old daughter has been nursing along several pots of strawberries and is just beside herself chasing the squirrels and blue jays from her treasure! We even planted some ground plants near the bird brush pile hoping to lure the beasts away from her prize pots! LOL! Just this weekend we began shopping netting!
Build-a-balls are fine, purchased hoops are fine (but expensive) and of course you can just cobble some bamboo together with string, Lost-style. Let us know what you do!
would old net curtain from a charity shop let enought light in? Just trying to think of a cheap & eco option rather than buying new netting. If you have any chicken wire left you could bend it into humps I suppose, or make a wood & chickenwire frame to cover the bed with.
We thought the local kids were messing with our redcurrants in our front garden as they were strewn across the path, til we realised it was the blackbird who'd nested in the ivy. Anyone know a good recipe for blackbird pie? Maybe with a tangy redcurrant sauce?(waste not, want not)
I netted a couple of weeks ago - so the slugs got them...
I used small canes and friendly bacteria pots to stop the net falling down. Then clothes pegs around the canes hold the netting taut. I have had no bird damage. The snails are a problem as they keep getting caught in the net! They die there because they are stuck fast!
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