Question What's eating my produce/plants?

AndrewB

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We need to find easier ways to net trees...

General Netting works ok but it's not ideal by any stretch. I see places around here with frames that look like tents covering the whole tree with a mesh door for easy access - seems great but it's not practical for all situations and certainly hard to do if you have several trees to cover.

The orchard I had many years ago had 4-6 steel pipes hammered into the ground as pegs around each tree, then poly pipe stuck on that & looped over the trees. Once fruiting started I tied a weight onto one edge of the bird netting & threw it over the top. Was pretty easy to set up each tree even by myself.

When the season was done, the bird netting slid off easily & the tree could be pruned back to make sure it stayed within the loops for next year.

For the grass hoppers, butterflies & moths I've been using a mosquito net over a garden bed for the last few months. Seems to be holding up just fine so far, even with these 40+ days. Will be interesting to see how long it lasts though. Only good for things that don't require pollination, but perfect for leafy greens.
 

Ash

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I have 6 apple trees, 4 orange, 1 mandarin, 3 nectarine/plum, 2 lemon and 1 peach tree, and apart from the mandarin and orange trees, all need protecting from birds, possums, fruit fly and worms.

I can't think of a solution that will take care of all of these pesky pests, but I've found that pesticides and netting are insufficient. I'd love a steel mesh enclosure with a door for each of the trees, but that is not only costly, it will be hard to find appropriate ones commercially. I will find it hard to get the time to make them up myself, which I am bound to not get right anyway.

I'll give it some thought through this winter, but thanks again for the advice and I will look at the domes you listed about ClissAT. Thanks again, you're a wealth of knowledge and experience.
 

Ash

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For the grass hoppers, butterflies & moths I've been using a mosquito net over a garden bed for the last few months. Seems to be holding up just fine so far, even with these 40+ days. Will be interesting to see how long it lasts though. Only good for things that don't require pollination, but perfect for leafy greens.

True that. I'd like to try broccoli again next season (they too were hammered by critters big and small), and try netting them. I have capsicums that have just shrivelled under the stress of the heat and grasshoppers chomping at them often, so they are going to be harder to manage given they need some pollination. I'll see how to approach it when the time comes.
 

Mark

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The orchard I had many years ago had 4-6 steel pipes hammered into the ground as pegs around each tree, then poly pipe stuck on that & looped over the trees.
I have (and still do) use this method and it seems like the only way.

Draping insect netting over a tree is ok for short periods too - I had great success with apples. But trying to protect larger trees gets much harder.

I have used good quality mosquito mesh cut into squares and wrapped mangoes individually with good results also but this is time-consuming.
 

Daniel.Mav

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I had the same thing with my watermelons. Seems like a possum or hare for me as well. I wrapped an old shirt around one and it ripened without any issues...until my great big Lab came and tried to play with the shirt...
 
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Just be mindful that chooks like seclusion & that long grass & the pumpkin vine overhead is just what they need to feel safe.
Also it will protect them from the cold winds in winter & create a microclimate inside their coup that is much warmer than the outside air.
There are pro's & con's for everything.

When weighing up things to make a decision I often decide to put a little more onus on me to be more mindful & in the moment as I walk to the chook pen or into the garden so the animals & plants have what they need rather than me having it all & them none or very little.

Today for example, the electrician came to give a quote to put power onto my new shed. I was so busy talking to him on the walk back to the house, I missed seeing an olive tree snake laying on the track in a spot of early morning sun. Had I been more mindful of where I was walking, I would have seen the snake & not frightened the crap out of it, me & the tradie!

However I know if a carpet snake gets into your chooks, they & their eggs are toast! But you do have that fine mesh. Maybe it would be better to fill in the vacant spaces with more fine mesh to secure the coup.

Of course I am tainted in my thinking right now & rather tunnel visioned about clearing away growth due to recently getting new neighbours. They have a 'clear it at all costs' mentality in the vain hope of worshiping the lawn gods.

They have bulldozed the whole riparian zone across the back of their 6ac block with all the hundreds of mature native trees that were planted 20yrs ago that protected the creek banks from erosion. The new owner got the excavator driver to flatten the creek banks where the pardalotes made nests in the banks so he can mow & have lawn. The wildlife has all moved onto my place being the only property with any wild zones in this whole area now, the birds (including eastern & western butcher birds being one such example that don't co-exist) are fighting like crazy to establish new territory. It has all been very sad. Also hard to watch are these new neighbours clearing mature gardens around their house plus the understory plants under the tall gum trees between their house & mine that provided fantastic privacy to both of us.

Understory plants are very important when it come to predatory insects for your garden.

But he must mow!


I thought we had laws against cuttting down trees
 
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