To Cage or not to Cage

[1Bee]

Originally I'd planned to get a fruit cage for a redcurrant and a blackcurrant bush or two. But I can't help but notice that no-one else on our small, rough and ready, site nets or cages their fruit, but there are plenty of fruit growers...

A cage is starting to feel like overkill on our dinky half-plot. Hmmm.

Plus I can easily imagine the netting going slack and a bird from the neighbouring hedge getting tangled. And I'd hate that.

Thoughts?

[Jay-ell]

So others may not feel the need to cage but how much of their crop do they manage to ripen and harvest?

How many bushes do they have? They may over compensate and have more than they need.

[Scarlet]

I have 3 very large redcurrants bushes and ive yet to manage a bowl full. The blackbird strips the lot! Fortunately I have about 8 blackcurrant bushes, they are huge and the birds don't seem to like those just as much so I do get to share some.
If you can make a cage I would do it.

[1Bee]

No-one nets their Brassicas, either...

[1Bee]

I can't make toffee...

But I was thinking of this one..Steel Fruit Cage - Suttons Seeds and Plants

[roitelet]

The problem with fruit cages is that the fruit bushes out grow the cage. It has to be high enough for you to get in and pick the fruit and wide enough so that the plants are clear of the sides. I find that old net curtains are best as they don't cent tangled in the bush like fruit nets.

[mrswadders]

I think I must be very lucky as i've had huge crops of redcurrants for the last few years and looking at the bushes it looks like it's going to be another one this year. We have loads of birds in the garden but we do feed them,I wonder if they just prefer the 'gourmet' food we put out for them!

[muddled]

I find that you can sometimes go for years without net or cage then one summer a little birdie notices them.....

Ten minutes later the bush is stripped bare!

If I were you, I wouldn't invest in a cage from the outset.
See how things go and keep an eye out in the charity shops for some old net curtains (which tend not to catch birds)
If you start to see losses, just drape the nets over.
If no losses, you've lost nowt!

(and I was exaggerating....it takes a couple of days before they nick the lot! )

[Scarlet]

Birds have eaten most of my plum blossom this year too

[Jay-ell]

If you happen to have a frame to a blowaway greenhouse available that could make a taller fruit cage when covered with appropriate netting and staked down.

It might be worth keeping a lookout in the September clearances for chap frames for next year.

[veggiechicken]

It might be worth keeping a lookout in the September clearances for chap frames for next year.

The mind boggles
Birds seem to prefer red/white currants to black ones. I don't net mine but I have quite a few!

[Muddy_Boots]

The mind boggles
Birds seem to prefer red/white currants to black ones. I don't net mine but I have quite a few!

On our plots ALL fruit is either netted or caged, even the Strawberries will be stripped if you don't net them. Was told by my neighbour that its ok to leave them until the fruit starts going red then the birds spot them and its curtains for the fruit if its not netted.

The pigeons sit in the trees with bibs on and a knife and fork in their wings waiting for some newbie to plant brassicas and not net them. I was warned by the same neighbour, my new plotter opposite wasn't and he had a dozen stumps where his cabbages had been next morning. He thought they had been pinched until he noticed the winged rats with bulging crops in the trees burping and sleeping off their feast.

[Bigmallly]

its curtains for the fruit if its not netted.

Ike4 sell good cheap net curtains.................

[arch01]

If you don't have a large area to net and don't want to invest in a frame, you might consider using bamboo canes for the frame. I use them for my gooseberries. The plants are still somewhat small a bit under a meter tall and wide and I find the bamboo canes to be a good and cheap way of going about it. When the plants get too big, I might get a proper frame and can reuse the bamboo (if it is still intact) for other things.

[1Bee]

Thanks guys. I think I'll try the watch and wait and collect net curtains.