Crop Protection

[Hinksy]

What do people use to protect crops from Insects?

Was looking at buying some insect mesh from ebay, I have 5 main veg beds I would like to protect for the spring, ebay pricing is about £20 a bed, someone once said to me though that you can use net curtains as they are near enough the same as insect mesh.

True or false or any other ideas?

Thanks

ja

[Bigmallly]

Yes ja, some folks use net curtain (Ikea has often been mentioned). Some use debris netting or scaffold netting (quite cheap on ebay, even cheaper if you know a scaffolder... ) whilst other use enviromesh or other professional netting. Hopefully more grapes will come along & give you the reasons.

[nerdgas]

I'll be getting scaffold netting as it's so much cheaper than enviromesh.

The one thing that apparently you need to be mindful of is the holes in the netting where it is secured to the scaffold.

These offer a way to insects to get inside so they will probably need sewing up or sealing in some other way.

[sarraceniac]

It will definitely keep a moderate frost off. The only failure I have had in years of using net curtains is this year. (Of course). My first year Echium pininanas (Towers of jewels) which are endemic to the Canary islands failed to make it through this winter's horrors. Having said that, I gave one to a neighbour who moved it in a pot into the covered car port. That was no good either. And another neighbour with fleece (fleece not fleas) lost their's too. I don't think much could have survived this year.

[marathon]

I use scaffold netting I got a 50m roll for £21.00 which I thought was good. It's green so blends in and it's been great just popping into my garage and cutting it to the size the matches the beds.

[grahama]

Hi all,

what is the effect on light transfer through scaffold netting ?? I take it it is worse than Enviromesh which takes about 10% out.

Graham

[Two_Sheds]

Scaffold netting is fine. I've not had any probs with shading, everything grows just fine (even whitefly).

The problem with it is the larger holes, which you really should sew up.

I also have good results with net curtains (but you need VOILE not the lacy curtains). You will need to sew a few together to get the right size, but they are great: endlessly reusable, washable etc

[Alison]

I use enviromesh, it was expensive to buy but it will last me for years. Apparently it doesn't reduce as much light as debris netting but having never use the latter I couldn't swear by that. As it was expensive I look after it well and make sure it is cleared and dried before storing etc etc. Personally I don't like the look of nets but think part of that is as I really can't stand the things for the correct purpose and hate that horrible grey colour they go (I know you can get other colours but it's fixed in my mind). However, if you're splashing out on setting up a plot then it may be worth getting something cheap and cheerful. If it works for you then stick with it, if it doesn't then it will act as a good stop gap while you save up.

[Pies]

For sewing up the holes in scaffold netting i just used 15lb fishing line as it wont break or rot