Good job! It's great that you were able to get all of the netting off and released them before they were totally exhausted from the struggling.

I wonder if there's a type of bird netting that's safer for the birds but still protects the berries.

Claire

I wonder if you could make a big cage out of 1/4 or 1/2" hardware cloth? Another possibility is to make some arches with something like PVC tubing and cover them with chicken wire (with the 1" holes) or with the hardware cloth.

These light netting should be banned,..it kills birds, it happened to me, now I use reemay garden blanket and very happy with the result.

Hey Konrad.........so you put the garden blanket over the bushes, when the berries start to ripen? Do they still let the sun and water in? Any problems with birds going up under the bottom of the blanket?

Yes, just at the time when they turn blue and in about two weeks we harvest, plant still get water from rain, no birds ever I've seen tried to get in, still enough light to get in since it's white material, easy to put on and off, no tangling.

{{gwi:67580}}

What kind of berries are those, Konrad? I think I've seen them before in some of my seed catalogs. They look yummy!

These are Haskap or honey berry, higher in antioxidant then blueberries.

Cool! I'm going to look into seeing if I can plant them here in Indiana.
Thanks Konrad.

Keep in mind,.. these are a bit on the sour side, when left on the bush for about 2 weeks when blue then they're pretty good, my wife doesn't like sour, this year it was the first time eating from the bush and loved it,..it's my breakfast cereal fruit.

Thanks Konrad.
Would they be as tart as, say, gooseberries? (if you didn't leave them on the bush for 2 weeks).

Haven't had many gooseberries, the one's I have here called Pixwell are mild when ripe. I would think more like red currant or sour cherries with a light bitter taste, ...but then they don't taste all the same, the sweetest of all are Borealis,.. as they say?
Just put one in two years ago and had some berries on, ..didn't tasted any sweeter, actually more sour, perhaps I needed to let them on longer, all ripen at different times, the one's above, [my favored] are called blue belle, the other is berry blue, later ripening and still on the bush.
You need a different one as a pollinator, my combination works out well.

{{gwi:67578}}

I wonder if tulle would work for this purpose. Well, I KNOW that it would work, but I wonder about the cost comparison.

I wonder if birds might still get their claws caught in the tulle too?

I think I'm just going to build a more permanent cage that is large enough to walk into and use chicken wire. Just have them in a straight row and it would look like a dog run. If I put it up against the fence maybe it won't look that bad to the neighbors.

I've seen some instructions for "fruit cages" that were like you are describing. Unfortunately, I think smaller birds can get into chicken wire. Its more expensive, but I'm thinking 1/2" hardware cloth might be better.

Actually tmc..........I'm wondering if your problem with the netting was because they could get under it? So if you, say, layed some 2x4s around the bottom of your present set-up, maybe they wouldn't get stuck? And make sure its tight if you can. Just wondering............

Look around for the heavy netting used in commercial set up, I might get some down the road, this looks good, birds can see it easily.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bird Netting