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Pete Tallman Blueberry Net Cage (Detail) |
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The cage support is constructed of ¾-inch galvanized electrical conduit. Each 10-foot section of conduit is bent to an “L” shape and joined at the top with a like section of bent conduit using a standard conduit connector. An extra, shorter straight section of conduit is added as needed with the top connection to lengthen the span between the legs. Two or three upright legs at each post are bundled using stainless-steel screw clamps (from the plumbing department), and another two clamps are used to tie the bundles of pipes to each post. The permanent wood posts and mid-point horizontal rope ribbing are necessary to counteract the heavy winds that are common in the summer.
The netting is ¾-inch-mesh nylon golf netting from Gourock. Some small birds get through the mesh occasionally, but these small birds rarely do any significant damage to the berry crop. For personal aesthetic reasons, the square mesh net pattern was used rather than the slightly less expensive diamond mesh net pattern. Lee Valley recently introduced some lighter, less expensive ½-inch-mesh nylon netting that would probably also serve the purpose. (Lightweight black-plastic single-strand mesh bird netting sold at garden centers doesn’t work well. The plastic breaks down in the sunlight after a few seasons, and birds and squirrels chew through the netting to get to the fruit.)
Ahead of the blueberry ripening season, this conduit cage and net are used for protecting the ripening cherries (sweet and tart), which have been carefully trained on a trellis into a similarly shaped growing area that can be covered with the same structure. Reka blueberries start ripening before the cherries are done with the netting, so Reka is protected by a temporary net at the beginning of the season until the main net is available. . |