Question What's eating my produce/plants?

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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...