Fruit Cage

[killjoy]

Has any got any recommendations for cheap, or at least not overly expensive fruit cages, in the past i've made do with a few posts and some loose netting but that only gets tangles with the bushes.

[newbieveggie]

Hi there.
Well Ive just spent the weekend at our local recycling yard and have come home with some lovely scaffold poles for nowt. I already have two trellis panels that will act as doors and the netting I have bought off ebay 2m x 60m for £6.00. All that is left is for hubbie and I to make it. It will take a bit of cobbling together and perhaps several coffee and biccie breaks but it beats forking out several hundred on a shop bought one and should stand the test of time.

[Sue]

Killjoy
Hi, I've been in desp need of fruit cages for two years after struggling with loose netting etc. The cost when I worked it out was £500+ - all those aluminium poles at £3-5 each.
But I found in the Ferndale catalogue a new product like build-a-balls called Flexiballs which work with canes. Three cages have gone up so far and all seem stable.
I used new 8ft long canes sawn down for the cage supports, 20p each from the allotment shop and with the purchase of ground pegs and 100 metres of netting from Harrod Horticultural and netting clips from Two Wests, reckon the cost has come to around the £250 mark for everything.

The netting is that more rigid black fruit cage netting which is less likely to get birds caught as does that trailing softer netting.

best wishes
Sue

[Stacey Steve]

Keep an eye out in the papers or EBay for a market stall, I use 2 of these as part of my fruit cage.