Topic: Pipe and netting

[sandersj89]

I am mulling over how to do some crop protection using the 25mm MDPE Blue Pipe 25mm you can get at builders merchants for about £15 for 50m.

I am thinking about using it as hoop supports for netting over brasicas, strawberries, fruit bushes and the like.

But I have some questions:

Does anyone use anything like this and does it work ok?

How do you get the hoops to sit firmly in the soil at each end, do you add a spike of any kind?

How do you make the tops of the hoops stable so they don’t move around in high winds?

Is there any easy way to fix the netting to the hoops in such a way that it is easy to move to gain access to under the netting?

Any ideas will be a great help.

Thanks

Jerry

[MikeB]

I read the post and thought, jerry has written something like this for cloches, then I look who it was from. Dah.  The method you are suggesting is in Geoff Hamilton's book the ornamental kitchen garden.  I've got a copy at home, I'll Look when I get back and see what he suggests. I know that he put wooden dowelling in th end of the pipe and poke that into the soil. The dowelling (stake) went down a couple of feet. Will answer tonight when I have the info.

[sandersj89]

Mike

Thanks for that. I may well take pictures and report on progress when I have my plant formated and put into action!

Jerry

[Alan_Y]

Hi I was thinking on the same lines as you regarding the piping. I was going to put wooden pointed doweling in them for spokes and I was going to screw eyelets in to the top of the arch and  join all the hoops together with strong fencing wire. I then was going to put further eyelets at the bottom of each side of the hoop pot fleece over and secure with string over the hoop tying it to both eyelets. If that makes sense.

Good luck

Alan

[MikeB]

Actually I had the wrong book, it's Geoff Hamilton Gardeners' world ' practical gardening course '. He places a nail through the pipe and the dowel such, that the nail lies in the same direction as the cloche/polytunnel then he ties a piece of string over the top from one side to the other.  Exactly as shown in Jerry's article on constructing a cloche ( there is a copy in the wiki under ' making things '), but imagine a nail where the loops are.

PS

He dosn't have anything along the length to steady the construction, each hoop is a stand alone affair, but a bit of rope running along the length and wrapped around each hoop and secured at each end, similar to a guy rope on a tent should work.

[Berty]

Several folks on our plots do the pipe and netting thing. Most of them just poke the pipe into the ground and use tent pegs or assorted stocks/bamboo to hold the netting down. There is a sort of natural height that can be achieved with the pipe before it wants fall over sideways. Our folks have got round that zip tying a bamboo cane to act as "ridge pole".

One chap however, uses planking [mostly floor board] whatever width that he can get hold of, but longer the better and screws the end of each pipe to each plank. What he ends up with is a tunnel with timber edgings. The then cuts two pieces of timber to the width of the tunnel and nails them timber across the end of the tunnel which holds the tunnel in shape. The weight of the timber keeps the tunnel on the ground and the two screws in each pipe end give it some rigidity. The timber also allows him to tuck the netting under the planking. He did toy with the idea of putting small nails in the timber to snag the netting. He tucked the netting under the timber whilst he was thinking about the plan and discovered it worked perfectly well and it make access very easy. His tunnel is about 4m long by 2 wide and 1.2m high in the centre of the arch. He bagged all the bit except the screws from skips. Him and his mate can pick it up easily when it has to be moved.

It sounds a bit laborious to make it but it lasts for years and is easy to use. The "poked in the ground" option always seems to need some maintenance or arrangement once the nett has been moved.

[sandersj89]

Thanks both, a plan is gradually forming with these great ideas.

Jerry

[RSJK]

Jerry, I use the blue piping and what i do is to push it straight into the ground , put the netting over then put another loop over the top of the netting.  This way you can slide the netting back over the inside loop to do your weeding etc. Hope this is useful to you.

[moonbells]

I do the blue alkathene piping too - it's fantastic for netting as no sharp edges to tear the stuff. 

I stuff mine straight in the ground - most of my raised beds are 1.5m (ish) wide and I cut 2.4m lengths which gives me a nice rounded support.  Have two sets of four hoops about 2-2.5 feet apart. Excellent for cabbages! For extra support, I have tied green garden twine between the tops to keep them a fixed distance apart, and left long pieces at the ends which I've pegged down. Simplest solution. Didn't go the dowel route as I saw no point - it's actually more expensive!

Also use it for supporting enviromesh over the carrots.



One chap on site actually used the stuff as the top supports in making a polytunnel!

moonbells

[Lady of the Land]

Last year I used the blue piping and cut short lenghs of copper piping that just fit in the end of blue piping and push easily into ground ( will not rot unlike wood ). I got chating to the guy in the shop who used to have an allotment and he sold it to me at trade price. I put fleece over and peg into ground with pegs I have made from strong garden wire. The pegs have been used for 3 years and show no deterioration as yet. Although not cheap to start with should last for anumber of years.

The fleece I have washed, EJ mentioned this, she put hers in pillow cases in machine which gave me the idea. I actually hand washed mine, measured them and put in bags labelled with size, hoping this will save time when I am frantically rushing ound setting up the cloches in the warmer weather.

[carloso]

i just made an 6ft by 2ft wooden frame made of 2" * 1"   drilled a slightly larger hole that the blue pipe (water) and then you can either push enough through to push into the ground or some times i leave them flush and tent peg them down

the covering ? well to what ever your needs sir

depend what you want relly i have a poly tunnel bout 12 ft by 10ft so the method is very expandable  to your required size !

[fbgrifter]

same principle:

http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,57/topic,17934.msg184661#msg184661

[weedbusta]

theres good instructions in the wiki for a fleece tunnel, same principle though.