Fruit cage tips

[JR]

Hi Everyone,

I'm planning to build a fruit cage but am a complete DIY duffer! For raspberries, strawberries etc 12 ft by 8 approx.Anybody got any advice on a simple construction? Cheers! :-*

[JR]

[manicscousers]

Hiya, JR, welcome to a4a  ;D
my oh built a friut cage, against a wall,about 20' x 8' he used 8' long timber covered with chicken wire and a door in the middle, if you look at our gallery, you can see what it looks like with the extension  ;D

[jennym]

You might find that you don't need a very high cage to protect  strawberries. With strawberries, I sometimes just drape enviromesh or debris netting (any fine netting will do) over them at ground level, just pulling it back when picking. Raspberries vary in height according to type and variety, so they need a bit of height.
Some folks build very permanent cages with stout 4" square posts set in metposts, some use smaller sized posts set in concrete, some just push posts or canes into the soil, some put in short posts and use blue water piping or similar to form hoops over which net can be draped. You can even buy fruit cages if you have the cash. Manicscousers use of a wall is great if you have one, similarly, I have a grapevine at the back of my shed and use that to attach mesh which is pulled down over the vine when the grapes are ripening.

[Robert_Brenchley]

What fruit gets raided by birds on your site? It varies from place to place. On my site, currants and strawberries have to be protected, but raspberries and gooseberries are OK. On your site, you might need to protect everything, or you might not.

[Mike J]

I managed to get a (used) 24' by 12' steel/alloy cage with netting through local small ads for £50 - retail for the brand seems to be about £250. Going to enclose summer raspberries, strawberries and various currents and gooseberries, all of which suffer from foraging by birds on our allotment site. Yet to put it up, should I concrete in any posts as recent gales blew over one or two similar metal poled cages? Until now, I just drape net over at the last minute propped up on an assortment of canes, sticks, plasting tubing.