Over the last few years, my attempts to net our dwarfing cherry have failed dismally, not saving any fruit from the birds and resulting in one starling fatality. This year I looked at fruit cages. £300 or so for one big enough seemed disproportionate, but I found something called a Popadome. A little over £40 got a net with a bendy rod of the sort you get in pop up tents. The net zips and unzips on one side and the bottom end is closed up with a draw string. It took a little over 5 minutes to get on the tree today and it seems to be the sort of neat and simple idea that should have been invented years ago.
Of course it will be a while before I find out if it works as well as I hope, but right now, I see no reason why it shouldn't.
Updates will follow as and when I have anything to report.
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Popadome
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Popadome
tsr2 wrote:
This year I looked at fruit cages. £300 or so for one big enough seemed disproportionate, but I found something called a Popadome.
A little over £40 got a net with a bendy rod of the sort you get in pop up tents. The net zips and unzips on one side and the bottom end is closed up with a draw string. It took a little over 5 minutes to get on the tree today and it seems to be the sort of neat and simple idea that should have been invented years ago.
Link to a picture of a Popadome, which does indeed seem like a simple, great idea -
http://www.greenhousesensation.co.uk/me ... 4-01_5.jpg
Cheers,
Itsallaguess
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Popadome
Thank you for that. I will be buying some of the fruit tree protectors. I intend buying 3 cherry trees on Gisela 5 rootstock this coming winter, I was planning on building a fruit cage myself but I couldn't do so any cheaper than the Popadome tree covers and they would be much more obtrusive.
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- 2 Lemon pips
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Re: Popadome
The aphids are running riot. I'm guessing the net is keeping most of the natural predators off, so I have sprayed with liquid soap.
Most of the immature cherries have fallen off already. I'm guessing that's a combination of the dry spell and the aphid infestation.
Most of the immature cherries have fallen off already. I'm guessing that's a combination of the dry spell and the aphid infestation.
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- 2 Lemon pips
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Final report
I said I'd report back, but there is very little to add.
I have taken the Popadome cover down. My packing skills weren't sufficient to get it back in the bag, although a little more persistence might have helped.
The birds didn't get much fruit, but neither did we. The main thing I learnt for next year is to monitor aphids more carefully as I think the Popadome is keeping off a lot of natural predators.
I hope a more normal summer next year will give us a better harvest and really allow the Popadome to show its value.
I have taken the Popadome cover down. My packing skills weren't sufficient to get it back in the bag, although a little more persistence might have helped.
The birds didn't get much fruit, but neither did we. The main thing I learnt for next year is to monitor aphids more carefully as I think the Popadome is keeping off a lot of natural predators.
I hope a more normal summer next year will give us a better harvest and really allow the Popadome to show its value.
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Popadome
My problem with cherries is that the wood pigeons love them, especially when they are size of a small pea, and green. So I would have to net right from immediately after flowering. I decided it was too much, and the cherry is coming out this winter.
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- 2 Lemon pips
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Re: Popadome
resurrecting this old thread for a long term report, last year I didn't net early enough and got very few cherries.
This year, I got the net up in plenty of time and it did a great job of keeping the pigeons off, but the wasps were easily able to get through. By the time the cherries were ripe 90% of them were damaged and about half were mouldy, so I rescued what I could, but I was disappointed with what I got. Although the tree is on dwarfing rootstock, it is still outgrowing the popadome and the branches are quite twisted where it was pulling them in.
Overall, I can't say it's been much of a success so far.
This year, I got the net up in plenty of time and it did a great job of keeping the pigeons off, but the wasps were easily able to get through. By the time the cherries were ripe 90% of them were damaged and about half were mouldy, so I rescued what I could, but I was disappointed with what I got. Although the tree is on dwarfing rootstock, it is still outgrowing the popadome and the branches are quite twisted where it was pulling them in.
Overall, I can't say it's been much of a success so far.
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Popadome
tsr2 wrote:resurrecting this old thread for a long term report, last year I didn't net early enough and got very few cherries.
This year, I got the net up in plenty of time and it did a great job of keeping the pigeons off, but the wasps were easily able to get through. By the time the cherries were ripe 90% of them were damaged and about half were mouldy, so I rescued what I could, but I was disappointed with what I got. Although the tree is on dwarfing rootstock, it is still outgrowing the popadome and the branches are quite twisted where it was pulling them in.
Overall, I can't say it's been much of a success so far.
Thanks for the update. I will go back to my idea of constructing individual fruit cages for my cherries. I planted them early last year and most are doing well. I didn't expect to get any fruit this year and I was almost right. They flowered well and were fertilised but dropped most of the fruit early. Most of the rest was eaten by birds, we got maybe a dozen fruit in total which we ripened on the window cill.
I was going to construct cages with bird mesh but I will try to do it next year using Enviromesh. I got sidetracked this year when I extended my produce area to grow veg. I just ran out of time.
On a brighter note I have had a massive crop of raspberries so far. From 10 canes oringinally planted I'm now taking 4 litres of berries every couple of days. I thought last year was good but this year is much better. Giant berries and lots of them.
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- Lemon Half
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Re: Popadome
tsr2 wrote:resurrecting this old thread for a long term report, last year I didn't net early enough and got very few cherries.
This year, I got the net up in plenty of time and it did a great job of keeping the pigeons off, but the wasps were easily able to get through. ...
We've never previously netted and let nature takes its course.
This year, in view of the time available, netted one young tree and had a fantastic crop (last year managed to salvage about 5 only). The only trouble with the birds was letting one or two escape. They had found a way in before I used some household bricks around the base. Maybe we picked earlier than you but wasps are only beginning to appear here. Damaged cherries were about 5% of the entirety but I ate the good side of most of those!
Too late to net the plums though. By the time I spotted them, there were about 10 left & the squirrels had them before we transferred the net the next morning.
Next year: But another large net in advance.
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