Need a cheap but quality fruit cage

kissmekate_2

Hi

Im fed up with feeding my fruit to our 2 resident pidgeons, grrrr! So I am needing a large fruit cage about 6ftx6ft to protect the raspb, strawbs, blueberries and goosegogs.

Ive looked at Two west and elliots which cost about £80 for standard frame, netting and door. Is this a good price?? whats the quality like??

can anyone recommend a comparison or cheaper?
Many Thanks
Kissmekate

A._Badger

You might want to consider building your own. I looked at the Two Wests one and while I thought it seemed OK, it was pretty expensive (back then, ISTR the Harrods Horticultural one was even more costly, but my memory may be faulty).

In the end, I bought some chestnut poles and a ginormous roll of netting, which I got direct from an agricultural supplier at a more sensible price than garden centres and the like tend to charge.

They're really not hard to build, you can save quite a bit of money doing it and they look a lot nicer than metal poles.

Hope that helps.

Sally_A

I managed to salvage a gazebo frame from a friend, it's one of those metal push it up from the middle type ones 6x6ft or 8x8ft. It's still in the shed, and might become a brassica frame or a fruit cage. A lot of these get slung out, usually because a leg has bent after being caught by a gust when the canvas cover is on - but they are brilliant for covering in netting, when the wind should not affect them.

The white pole framed gazebos are also brilliant for structures, especially with the couplings they come with, and as they are so cheap compared to fruit cages, are definitely worth saving from mates that are going to bin them. You just need the framework, not the canvas cover, even if a few poles are damaged, you can soon make a construction that will suit plant protection.

conradmum

This isn't actually a good quality fruit cage but I thought I would post this tip for those who can't afford even a proper cage.

What you can do, as a temporary or poverty-enforced solution, is to buy your fruit cage netting (Edwin Tuckers do a good version by the metre) and use canes to support it. You push in 8 foot canes around the perimeter of the area you want to cover and some in the middle if necessary, put jam jars on the top and put the netting over it all. the edges are held down with bricks, making sure there are no gaps of course or loose parts of netting for birds to catch their feet in.

It's important to use jam jars on the tops of the canes so that the netting can slide smoothly over them.

This is what I've been doing for the last ten years as I never quite got around to building the fruit cage.

kissmekate_2

thanks for the all the help!

I especially like the gazebo idea.
thanks again
kissmekate

fdavid_2

Check freecycle for an old greenhouse going free of charge. Use netting instead of glass on it