portable flexible net protection for growing brassica transplants

[strawberry1]

I made a simple net covering for old troughs, just butterfly net and a long piece of elastic and that is working fine so far but I need to do my second potting on and the plants are almost touching the net. I have a brick inside at each end to give some more height but I need to think ahead again.

Has anyone got any good simple innovative ideas on protection from cabbage whites? I will be keeping the plants in pots as long as possible because I had a cutworm problem on the allotment last year. I am thinking perhaps something like a food protection cover but it needs to be stable and moveable. Cloche type I suppose but net

[strawberry1]

[Digeroo]

I use net curtains draped over, the plants just push them upwards.   I weigh the edges down with bottles of water to stop the wind blowing them off. 

It is quick and inexpensive but after a while the nets begin to rot and the voles nibble them.  Ikea ones are good but charity shops sometimes have them as well.

[artichoke]

I have become a fan of veggiemesh. More expensive but longer lasting "net curtains" effect. As already said, light enough for the brassicas to push them upwards, easy to weigh down, birds can't peck through it, it does not snag annoyingly on everything it touches, butterflies and other insects can't get in. Have not quite got the energy to make the wonderful moveable structures others have.

[strawberry1]

I set to this morning and wrapped a root trainer stand in enviromesh and the brassicas are now on the middle tier on wooden slats, the top tier is way above them and meshed all over. I was a little bit slapdash last year and the cabbage whites laid eggs through the butterfly mesh onto leaves touching, so no chances taken this year

Tbh the troughs worked very well for the first two stages ie sowing and pricking out. Now they are taller the root trainer stand is good. I will just have to be methodical next year and label everything I put away, I was lucky to have found the right size of mesh in a bag in the garage

For the allotment I have some excellent pop up cages, I can anchor them in the soil. It is the poxy cutworm, I found one a few weeks ago, like a coiled caterpillar below the soil surface. I bet there are more lurking. Several of my brassicas just keeled over last year, severed from their roots

[Amazingrotavator(Derby)]

Debri netting and some 2x1/

[juju]

I bought 50 meters of debris netting and use it on all my brassicas. This netting is not very expensive and it lasts a very long time. Most of our plot members have made all sorts of frames and draped this netting over them. Keeps the pigeons and white butterfly off your veggies.

[squeezyjohn]

I use debris netting over a rough tunnel formed by four 3m lengths of electrical conduit kept in place by a bamboo cane at each end - the net is simply weighted down with bricks or bits of wood.

I find it takes about 10 minutes to put up and take down - and has easy access for hoeing/weeding/feeding etc.  The difference it makes to the success of brassicas is devastatingly good.  The only problem is that my purple sprouting wanted to go higher last year and ended up touching the nets.

[ancellsfarmer]

I was given a roll of this:
http://www.scaffolding-direct.co.uk/debris-netting-2m-x-50m-green.aspx
and built a simple wooden goalpost type frame 2 uprights, 1 crossbar x 3 
With balertwine guyropes and wooden tentpegs covering about 4mx10m. The netting is 2metres wide and has laceholes continuosly along each edge and through the centre. A boring task to lace the lengths  with polypropylene string to create a net  to cover, but with 5ft headroom A unexpected problem was the chafing of the net upon the woodwork as it moves in the wind, however it creates a microclimate that my calabrese definately approved of. Effectiveness to eliminate  butterlies ? 98%, where the plant touched the mesh, at least one b...... laid through the mesh.