Best choice of netting - Cost, effectiveness

[Gareth the Duck]

Looking to start a building project. I want to make some box frames ready to keep birds and insects off vulnerables

From your experience, can anyone reccomend the best type of netting to use? I try to avoid products directly targeted at gardeners at garden centres as it means you pay more.

Thanks in advance.

[veggiechicken]

Many people use debris netting - the stuff scaffolders use. Sometimes you can pick up odd bits free!
Try this thread for a start.........https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ors_98950.html

[Mr Bones]

I agree with VC, scaffolders treat debris netting as a disposable commodity, it's costed in with the price of the job and needs disposing of afterwards. I contacted a scaffold company, they were pleased for me to take away anything from a great big pile.

[MyWifesBrassicas]

Sorry to hijack your post, I'm looking to create a fruit cage out of an old greenhouse frame, so i'll need to cover the entire greenhouse with a netting
Would the easiest choice be to purchased a large piece of netting and cover it or would you go with the cheaper option of debris netting and attaching them together?

[veggiechicken]

I have 3, 8x6, GH frames joined together, covered in debris netting, up the sides, aross the roof, and down the other side. Because it stretches, 2 widths were enough to cover the 24' length. The joins were laced together.
I've struggled to find an old photo of it from outside but here's an oldie from inside.

[MyWifesBrassicas]

I have 3, 8x6, GH frames joined together, covered in debris netting, up the sides, aross the roof, and down the other side. Because it stretches, 2 widths were enough to cover the 24' length. The joins were laced together.
I've struggled to find an old photo of it from outside but here's an oldie from inside.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]89565[/ATTACH]

thats fantastic!
So you rolled it over the top and joined them up vertically

[veggiechicken]

Yes, MWB.
Here's a distant side photo https://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gr...ml#post1590977
I didn't have to cover the short sides (door and back) and there were enough plastic panels to do those.
Somewhere there's a thread about them being put up.............

[SimpleSimon]

Looking to start a building project. I want to make some box frames ready to keep birds and insects off vulnerables

From your experience, can anyone reccomend the best type of netting to use? I try to avoid products directly targeted at gardeners at garden centres as it means you pay more.

Thanks in advance.

Debris netting is useless against butterflies. If it's just for fruit then it's fine but for brassicas it's worse than useless. If butterflies can get in I'm finding it's better to not have any netting as it just stops me getting in (easily at least) to get them and their caterpillars. I guess if you only used smaller bits that aren't joined or don't have any of the bigger eyelets then it possibly could work? If you can afford it the enviromesh is good stuff but it better be for the cost .

[mcdood]

Debris netting is useless against butterflies.

I use debris netting over brassicas all the time and I find it's fine against cabbage whites so long as the leaves aren't touching the net and the net is secured to the ground with no gaps. (using bricks, wood or pegs on the ground and water pipe hoops to form the structure).

[Logunner]

Debris netting is useless against butterflies. If it's just for fruit then it's fine but for brassicas it's worse than useless. If butterflies can get in I'm finding it's better to not have any netting as it just stops me getting in (easily at least) to get them and their caterpillars. I guess if you only used smaller bits that aren't joined or don't have any of the bigger eyelets then it possibly could work? If you can afford it the enviromesh is good stuff but it better be for the cost .

If butterflies are getting through your debris netting then either the butterflies are tiny or the debris net has unusually large holes.

[Thelma Sanders]

SimpleSimon: Debris netting is useless against butterflies

I find it works very well, you have to make sure that the larger eyelets along the edges or in the middle of the larger widths are sewn or clipped together, or the butterflies can get in there. Also as has been said fixed down at the bottom or buried, with no cabbage leaves touching the netting, or they lay their eggs through the netting.

It's also easy to plant seedlings under netting that already have eggs on the leaves. You have to be so careful, even seedlings need covering..

[SimpleSimon]

I think it must be the eyelets that they get in. The problem was that the brassica bed was 6*6m so really quite difficult to deal with netting so big. It was in 3 pieces so making sure all eyelets and joins were sown up was quite the challenge. I'm gonna rethink it next year.

[Jungle Jane]

Its those diamondback moths that got through my nets so I went without last time but it was a nightmare picking the eggs etc every other day. I bought some net curtain offcuts similar to environmesh but cheaper,moths can’t get in,I tried it on my rocket & water goes through without removing the cover alright,it’s the net in this photo under my cat -

[burnie]

What I want is some netting that is not made of non re-cyclable plastic

[Bren In Pots]

I think it must be the eyelets that they get in. The problem was that the brassica bed was 6*6m so really quite difficult to deal with netting so big. It was in 3 pieces so making sure all eyelets and joins were sown up was quite the challenge. I'm gonna rethink it next year.

I've stitched up the eyelets in my debris netting I've not had a problem since, so to me it was time well spent.