how long are you supposed to leave your fleece on to deter the birdys?
i have a pigeon eyeing me brassicas as we speak......... ::)
Take your fleece off if you need it elsewhere and replace with netting. The pigeons will have your brassicas when they are babies, toddlers, teenagers, twentysomethings, and oap's!
the berhoogers.
i suppose a rifle is out of the question? ;D
Oh I dunno..... ;)
blam! ;D
Last year, I very stupidly removed my fleece from my beautiful cauliflowers, only to have them devoured by catipillars :'(! If the birds don't get them, something will! This year, I'm fleecing everything in sight, if it grows, fleece it!! ;D
but for how long up?
foe ever?
aesthetics or veg i spose :(
We have harvested our sprouts but, because we're lazy, left the stalk in the ground. The d**n pidgies have munched them to within an inch of thier life. Do you think if we keep them there they will leave the good stuff alone ?
Pull them out and burn them. Brassica stems are a great hide out for over wintering aphids...!
To those of you having trouble with pigeons. Ask in you local G/Centre for bird scaring tape (thin green plastic tape). Put this between two canes several feet above your brassicas. Tension the tape. As the wind blows the tape "hums/vibrates". This noise is said to resemble a pigeons distress call. I've used this tape for about five years, it protects about four allotments either side of mine. This works for about 360 days a year, failing in the cold, windless, foggy, days of Novenber. Good Luck LesH.
I think you may have been lucky, Les. It's certainly an attractive idea, but I wouldn't bet too heavily on it. And since you have to have fleece or mesh over for the butterflies, why not leave that on?
If you do use tape, I seem to recall that you put it in place at the time of planting?
I use tape from an old video or cassette instead of buying stuff, as long as the two lines of tape are parallel and not twisted it makes a humming noise, I've also used old CDs strung along string to deter birds. :D
Quote from: kitty on April 15, 2005, 18:42:07
but for how long up?
foe ever?
aesthetics or veg i spose :(
Erm, yup, I hear you on that one!
A lot of my stuff is under Enviromesh now. I had caterpillars on my calabrese last year. Although production didn't seem to be affected, I missed one when washing the veg for dinner one night and found it on my plate, lightly steamed and buttered! Regrettably, I am not a fan of "bush-tucker". LOL
Last year I used no fleece and let a few self-seeding annuals grow around the veggies - wild poppies, petunia, also planted some marigolds. It was a lot prettier, but at the end of the day, I prefer to eat the veg without having to worry about caterpillars.
I am planting french marigolds at more or less the same rate that I am growing brassicas in the hope that the smell of the marigolds will confuse butterflies. I am also going to plant some unprotected nasturtians at the opposite end of my plt and when these become infested I will dig them up and do something imaginative - just haven't worked out what yet - they will probably go straight on the compost heep as I use plastic bins.
aaargh!charlotte!
:o...thats it!the fleece stays ON!!!!!!
clanger-i'd be interested to hear if that works......do butterflies have a sense of smell.......i sose they must have or they'd never find a flower would they..never thougth about it before....... :-\
teehee Charlotte. I too have been munching my way through home grown kale only to come across a nicely blanched slug! I am sure we have consumed 1 or 10 as I am not the most careful at washing the veggies (everyone makes note never to accept a dinner invitation from Emma).
:-Xpass the buuuuuuuuuckeeeet!!
*kitty goes for lie down at the thought!* ;D
Quote from: kitty on April 15, 2005, 18:35:58
blam! ;D
Missed..........but you can blame the holes on slugs if it is an airgun. ;D ;D ;D
;D