How to Use Woven netting to Protect Your Fruits from Birds and Other Pests

Are you noticing birds, rodents and mammals hovering around your plants, waiting to eat the fruits before you reap a fine harvest from your investment? This is not surprising since your garden is probably located in a convenient place, is largely unprotected, and the sweet aroma from the garden is irresistible for your wild friends. You are probably also noticing the curious eyes of you neighbors foraging your orchard. One of the ways that you can use to protect your crop before they have reached the perfect size for harvest is to cover them with woven netting attached to a trellis.

woven net used for protect crops
With the woven net your protect your crops against the any external attack as the bird.

Many home gardeners try anything they can to scare away birds and pests with little or no success, including flashy tape, avian control, cannons, bird noises, old spray suits, plastic owls, snakes and other scary eyed animals. Mixing, matching and rotating several techniques can be helpful. But the best way to ensure that birds don’t acclimate is to use bird netting for ensuring protection of your crop from birds.

The only problem with bird netting is that it can be very labor intensive and expensive. Ensure that the potential net for purchase is cost effective before you decide to invest in it. Knowing the true value of your crop and the cost yield estimate for every harvest is essential in making such decisions as the type of woven netting that you will purchase for your garden. You should also understand the specifics of your garden well enough; for example, know the type of pressure every year so that you are better able to determine the damage potential for your crop.

plant protected against cold weather with woven net
The woven netting can help to your crops helping it to get a best growth.

Characteristics of a Good Woven Netting for Birds

  • Timely

It’s necessary that you erect your woven netting before birds start showing serious interest for your crop. Bird netting should not only be timely, but it should be of good quality so that it can protect the crop till the harvest season.

  • Reusable

The quality and measure of care that you give to your woven netting will largely determine its shelf life and if it can be reused or not. If you’re using the trellis netting in your personal garden, you must train yourself to remove it when conditions are unsuitable and when the plants are not in any danger of attack by plants. This way, you will be able to re-use your bird netting for many years without the need to purchase a replacement.

  • Durable

The durability of your woven netting will go hand in hand with its reusable characteristics. There are majorly 3 types of bird netting whose durability depends on the material used.

Black bird nets are mostly made using extruded polypropylene. Although this is the cheapest option, it is also the least durable. There are also the green trellis netting pieces made of HDPE. Although they tangle easily with debris and bushes, they are more durable compared to the latter. Finally, there is the white woven netting HDPE net. These are the strongest, most flexible and the top preference for bird netting by a lot of farmers.

  • Closure

Closure highly determines the level of success that can be achieved with any type of woven netting. Full closure to ensure there is no space at all for critters requires excellent cessation along every seam (the meeting point for two pieces of netting), and around the entire periphery where the netting goes to the ground or other ‘terminal’ surface.

woven net used in garden for crops protection
Using the woven netting you can protect your crops against the insects.

You can find a way of stitching the seams together for net-to-net ‘seams.’ You can either use a system of solid objects, like plastic clips or sewers, twist ties or an actual weave of twine. You should consult your netting source for the best woven netting system to invest in.

Types of Bird Netting Strategies That Can Provide Protection from Varmints

  • Multi Row Drape-Over (Complete enclosure)

The best option for most vine crops is a complete enclosure. You can think about this method as building a new room around a part of your field. This requires framing so that you can cover multiple rows of bushes.

Ensure that the woven netting that you install is high enough for your plants but not for you, your harvester, sprayer, trimmer or other tools you may apply to the crop during the season. Easy access is important since you will do this repeatedly.

It’s also important to ensure that the anchor for your trellis netting is secure enough so that there is no containment failure, even temporarily during the season. You can run 12-gauge wire to hold draped netting together between your anchored posts. This will act as a temporary support whenever you require it. Inspect your net enclosures regularly to check for any failures or inadequacies.

  • Single Row Drape-Over

This strategy is not ideal for crop or plants with varied bush heights. You can, however, use this on trellised grapes since the trellis can also be used as a frame for the netting. Be prepared if you decide to use it in this way as it can be extremely labor intensive.

woven net used for provide protection to plants
An advantage of the woven netting is that the net is reusable and durable.

If you are having a home or commercial garden cultivars, you may want to harvest in stages. If you do, you can remove the netting prior to harvest and reapply it until the crop is ready for the next harvest.

Can Woven Netting Stop All Pests?

There are some pests that cannot be controlled by any type of net, be it woven or non-woven netting. Some of these pests include snails and slugs. For these, you can use biological control methods, such as nemaslug nematodes which are safe and effective ways of killing pests.