I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries every year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat them all. I erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there any reliable l ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

CherryTree wrote:

I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries every
year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat them all. I
erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there any reliable l
ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/garden/p...44&cat=2,51555

On 4/29/13 2:57 PM, CherryTree wrote:
I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries every
year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat them all. I
erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there any reliable l
ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

To protect my fruit from birds, I hang unwanted compact discs (CDs). I
drill a small hole very near the edge of a disc and hang it kite twine
from the tree or from nearby trees.

Eventually, the birds will become used to the sunlight flashing from the
discs. Thus, I do not hang them until about two weeks before the fruit
is ripe.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean, see
http://www.rossde.com/garden/climate.html
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary

CherryTree wrote:
I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries
every year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat them
all. I erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there any
reliable l ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

Cover with netting.

D

On Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:16:51 -0700, "David E. Ross"
wrote:

On 4/29/13 2:57 PM, CherryTree wrote:
I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries every
year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat them all. I
erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there any reliable l
ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

To protect my fruit from birds, I hang unwanted compact discs (CDs). I
drill a small hole very near the edge of a disc and hang it kite twine
from the tree or from nearby trees.

That will accomplish exactly zero... the larger birds that will eat
cherries, like crow/jays, will pay CDs no mind. I hang CDs in my
windows to deter birds from trying to fly through but it's only about
50% effective. To protect fruit from birds only netting works fairly
well... larger birds will still snatch fruit through the netting.

CherryTree writes:

I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries every
year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat them all. I
erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there any reliable l
ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

Other posters recommend netting.
Seems to me you'd end up with a lot of birds caught in the netting.

My mom used cheesecloth, a very loosely woven fabric.

We had good cherry pies that year.

--
Dan Espen

Dan Espen wrote:
CherryTree writes:

I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries every
year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat them all. I
erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there any reliable l
ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

Other posters recommend netting.
Seems to me you'd end up with a lot of birds caught in the netting.

My mom used cheesecloth, a very loosely woven fabric.

We had good cherry pies that year.

one year for the grape vine i used very fine
mesh/netting (2mm holes) which worked well for
the few days it was needed. also used that same
mesh for strawberries to keep the hail from doing
damage.


songbird

Dan Espen wrote:
CherryTree writes:

I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries
every year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat
them all. I erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there
any reliable l ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

Other posters recommend netting.
Seems to me you'd end up with a lot of birds caught in the netting.


You don't usually get trapped birds. This is the system used commercially
including vineyards, without netting there would be no grape harvest round
here. If you don't enclose the tree(s) fully you might get one or two birds
that get underneath and then insist on flying upwards and so cannot get out
but normally you can enclose it and avoid this. Even so it takes 5 minutes
to free them.


D

"CherryTree" wrote in message
...

I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries every
year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat them all. I
erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there any reliable l
ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

White bird netting. Not black because birds have more difficulty seeing it
and can get caught in it. white netting works well and we'v used the same
netting year after year on our trees. This year we covered a pear, 3
apples, a plum and fig with it. We ahrvested bumper crops from all of the
netted trees and no fruit at all from the trees that we didn't bother to
net. It's a bit of a pain to put on or get off as it needs the careful use
of soft headeed broom and ladders, but if you want fruit, that is what you
have to do.

"Dan Espen" wrote in message
...
CherryTree writes:

I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries every
year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat them all. I
erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there any reliable l
ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

Other posters recommend netting.
Seems to me you'd end up with a lot of birds caught in the netting.

My mom used cheesecloth, a very loosely woven fabric.

We had good cherry pies that year.

"That year"?

We've been using netting on fruit trees for multiple years and it works well
so long as the netting is white in colour.

You know this same happening with me...and i am really fade up for this.

On 4/30/2013 7:27 PM, David Hare-Scott wrote:
Dan Espen wrote:
CherryTree writes:

I have a nice cherry tree in my garden, it has very tasty cherries
every year but... not for long. Every year thousand of birds eat
them all. I erected a dud but this has no effect at all. Are there
any reliable l ways to protect the cherries? Thank you.

Other posters recommend netting.
Seems to me you'd end up with a lot of birds caught in the netting.


You don't usually get trapped birds. This is the system used
commercially including vineyards, without netting there would be no
grape harvest round here. If you don't enclose the tree(s) fully you
might get one or two birds that get underneath and then insist on flying
upwards and so cannot get out but normally you can enclose it and avoid
this. Even so it takes 5 minutes to free them.


D


I've had a bird get around the netting and trapped inside but not
tangled up in it.

OTOH I've found snakes hopelessly tangled in the netting when they tried
to crawl under it. If I had not freed them they would have died.
Fortunately no poison snakes around here and one of the black snakes was
about five feet long.

Many thanks to everyone replied. So it is white netting then. But is there a simple way of applying it on an 8 meter tall tree without a helicopter?

And is there a formula on how much netting should I order for an H meters high and W meters wide tree? And how to make a 'cap' out of plain square net?

CherryTree writes:

Many thanks to everyone replied. So it is white netting then. But is
there a simple way of applying it on an 8 meter tall tree without a
helicopter?

How do you plan to harvest the cherries up at 8M?
Use the same technique to get the netting up there.

Otherwise, only net the parts of the tree that you can reach.

--
Dan Espen