How to Protect Your Fruit from the Birds for One Dollar
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- Опубліковано 3 лип 2016
- John from www.growingyourgreens.com/ shares with you how he is protecting his tomatoes from the birds for just one dollar. You can use this same technique to protect fruits, berries, seedlings and more from birds and rodents for just $1.
In this episode, John will share with you a problem that he has every year with the local birds and his newly ripened tomatoes... The Birds!
You will learn how John is able to exclude the birds from his tomato plants by using a product that he purchased at the 99 Only stores for just a buck.
You will learn about the durability of this one buck bird netting and how long it is. You will also discover how John installs the bird netting by fastening it to his tomato cages to protect his tomato fruits.
Finally at the end of this video, you will see how John was able to successfully keep the birds, rodents and other mammals away from his tomato crop with this one dollar netting from the 99 only store.
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I like this guy! Plain & simple & cheap! Hubby’s fave word!
Either plant extra for the birds or put plants in for the birds and you won't have to fight with them. I'm not a fan of sunflowers (for consumption) but I plant those to keep the birds fed and draw the bees to the yard. They don't take up a ton of room and come in all sorts of colors and sizes. My neighbor dries out his sunflower stalks at the end of the season and uses them the next year for free homemade trellises for vines/beans/etc.
Sorry, the birds do everything. I feed them, but they want it all
Your idea of planting extra or adding plants to quell the birds does not work in my experience, Tanja. I have twelve fruit trees and three grape vines, and the birds eat everything. Birds like variety like every other animal.
@@ritcheymt There is no right or wrong way to garden. There are only things that you can try. I tried it and it worked for me, you tried it, it didn't work for you. But the point is to put the options out there for people to try and ways to make it worth your while to try if you are recycling plant stalks for supports. Heck, I had growing food down to an art at my last house, I thought I knew what I was doing (and I did for that yard). Then I moved to a whole other climate and it was like learning all over again. ALL of the rules changed. There is no one size fits all approach. Thank you for pointing that out.
Great tip about the dollar store netting. Another thing that's worked well for me without the worry of tangling up other creatures is to loosely place a plastic sandwich or snack bag over the tomato when it gets close to ripening. I leave them open at the bottom so not too much moisture accumulates inside. Not sure why, but the birds leave my tomatoes alone now (maybe its the texture of the bag or sun reflecting off the plastic). A bit tedious to do if you have a lot ripening at once, though.
This is an excellent idea particularly if you have cherry tomatoes that aren't as much of a problem if birds spoil 4 out of 60 but you have a couple of prized plants with novel medium to big varieties .. I just went and covered my "red and black" and my "Zebra" big ones
Might go back and punch hole in bottom for water drainage
Two minutes of valuable information packed into a 20 minute video.
😂😂😂
Hi John, I've been using this cheap stuff but it deteriorate on the sun quickly and end up everywhere in your garden, also some birds can get trapped in it. I started using better quality netting made from fine material and in big sheets to cover whole bed so that birds can get trapped while trying to go through some holes. But agree that netting is the best way of preventing birds !!
I really like your attitude, John. Thanks 😀
Another great idea, thanks John.
I like it when you have episodes that are shorter like this please try to make more shorter so you can watch them and not have to sit down for an hour so I'll use you to watch a whole bunch of short episodes and a 45 minute long one keep up the good work man
Straight to point is great, too
Now you can skip ahead with transcript..
For videos like his…playback speed at 1.75/2 helps and gives good guys like here…better statistics.
One video uses galvanized pipes as frames…
This guy is too cute. I love your little chuckle. Great video too. Just discovered you. :)
Thank you for the video. Always on point. You are the best brother.
Happy 4th!!! Very good video!!!
Target has these little square mirrors for a $1.69. I hang them on my fruit trees every year. It keeps the bad birds away and attracts Robin's. The Robin's are territorial and the pecking noise keeps the other birds away. Since the Robin's like worms and ground food they leave the fruit alone. You will be picking tangled birds from netting every day this way.
I put the Lowes wildlife netting over my raspberry bush and the bird got every raspberry except for one. I wonder what I did wrong . She still got her beak through the squares in the netting- I saw her do it. I wonder if the netting squares are too long? I would like to figure this out before my tomatoes ripen. What if tomato is taller than the cage? Can the netting go directly on the plant? I have landscape pins. Are those good?
Suggestion noted, thank you. One day it will probably come in handy.
Using nets does work, but they're a real hassle: 1. Tomato branches and leaves quickly grow through the holes in the net and its about impossible to untangle them. 2. Birds get trapped under the net, then get their feet tangled in the strands and end up helplessly hanging upside down under the net. You have to cut the net to free the birds.
A bird, when he is trapped under something, he ALWAYS looks 'up' to find an escape route. That's why those hollow pyramid looking bird traps work even though there's an easy escape route at ground level that the bird could've used to escape. Thus when you use nets to cover your crops, any birds that get under the nets will become trapped.
Hey I got an idea why don't you grow sunflower seeds throughout your Gardens and the birds will mess with them instead of messing with the stuff you like..... will that work ?
I just put some water in red Solo cups , next to my tomato plants and they don't touch them! Thanks for the video and bring this topic up. Great job!!🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅🍅
Kristy's World Right! just add a little dish soap to the water. kills the bugs and nothing will drink it!
I ! Don’t know some. Reason I’m not getting too much fruit on my plans😞😞😞😞
john, make sure that netting is biodegradable and would compost and not end up anywhere in a landfill.
Wouldn't the cups of soapy water kill bugs indiscriminately this including beneficial insects that we try to attract. I thought the cups of water were to give the birds a drink so they don't have to resort to eating the fruit for hydration.
@jojo Britain'scrazywormwoman someone suggested to me that briar limbs forming a perimeter around the plant prevents slugs from climbing into the plant.
i did that exact same thing from the 99c store last month. besides being so much and a little hard to handle its so worth it
yeah I agree a tomato with a few holes pecked out is discouraging. I'm ready to upgrade it to a hoop house with shade cloth. and two layers of overlaping chicken wire 2 feet down. then add lots of beneficial insects. with 18 tomatoe plants and only 3 unmolested tomatoes to harvest. I'm mad that I have the only big garden in 4 surrounding neighborhoods. the birds have slim pickins.
Great vid John. always enjoy and appreciate the information you share. the birds peck and go because they are easily scared, lol. otherwise they would stay and eat the hole thing. im sure there in the desert they are looking for any water sorce they can find. i like the netting but i really think the bird bath will help allot. good luck john.
love your idea l will certainly purchase this bird netting item. thanks for sharing.
Brenda Dumas you might want to rethink using this cheap solution. This netting stuff is a mistake to use.
It works great for me.
We employed bird netting during one season. In early Fall, we were picking tomatoes. I noticed some movement near the base of one of the plants. A large, black snake was caught in the bird netting, his body scraped from attempting to gain freedom. I was able to free the snake without further damage. The following day we were amending soil near our peach trees, which we wrapped with bird netting. I stepped around one of the trees and noticed some movement on the ground: another snake, this time venomous. A large copperhead was trapped in the netting, its body scraped; the snake was obviously quite upset. I tried to free the snake without success. As I attempted to free the snake it struck at me multiple times. Eventually, it was obvious freeing the snakes was impossible and had to be humanely dispatched. Because we believe all creatures are part of dynamic nature it bothered us that we had contributed to injury to snakes. We no longer use bird netting. I strongly recommend using bird netting in areas where 'creepy crawlers' may be present as injury to the animal or death to the animal is very likely. The black snake I was able to free was in distress by the time we recognized it had been trapped in the netting - We hope the snake made a full recovery. I caution recommending devices, like bird netting, that, though expedient by nature, can trap unwitting animals in an inescapable prisons
We had the same experience with a black snake. I used cuticle scissors to free the snake. His head was not stuck so he kept trying to bite. My husband nearly had a heart attack. I used the fishing line to keep deer out and after they broke it we saw it tangled in two bird nests. We stopped using it. I’m trying bridal veil netting laid over lettuce, etc and over just the clusters of tomatoes due to bird pecking.
It depends on the society's values, beliefs and religious beliefs. For example those who believe in bible, the bible tells us that snakes will bite our heels with poison and kill us. Human being will hit snakes' heads and kill them. In Africa, there is no mercy with snakes because all of them are poisonous, killers and wild. If you see it in your garden, hit on the head.
Hi, love your videos..I tried this dollar store netting. The birds cut threw netting made big holes and got my grapes and apricots. Kingman AZ
Did you through the netting away afterwards? :D
I had the most beautiful peaches last year on 4 of my peach trees, I got absolutely none. The damn squirrels got them all, the deer got the apples and pears and only God knows who got the plums. This year I'm netting them all.
O dear :D sry for laughing
Buy the Have-a-heart rodent cage. Then drown those suckers
@@CrimeDoesNotPay Agriculture is destroying the planet. It is very frustrating how much misinformation there is on this topic. Grazing can actually sequester far more carbon than forests at a much, much faster rate. If we grazed animals on a large enough scale, we could actually mitigate all human emissions. Growing plants can not do this. Plant agriculture uses massive amounts of fossil fuels and unlike grazing cattle, it doesn't mitigate its own emissions. The soil microbiome is killed with chemicals and that dead soil is lost rapidly, causing complete land infertility and desertification. Grazing animals is the fastest way to replenish these lands, bring the microbes back, give nutrients back, rehydrate, break up impaction, and build soil faster than any other process. It would take nature decades to build the amount of soil made in a couple of yrs of Grazing.
Do you get botrytis in the center of those cages when you wrap them with netting?
Lucky!!! I could not find anything like that at the dollar store and I live in CA. So since my plants aren't that tall yet I bought a laundry bag at the dollar store made on mesh. Hope it works since I too am having the same problem!!!
Thanks good idea
Well, my family's method of bird defense is a bit unconventional. Instead of using netting to keep birds out, we use avicide to eliminate some birds; and deter other birds. Instead of using toxic chemicals for such avicide, we use a ball action toy gun meant for a sport called airsoft instead. It was originally meant for me to play with friends, but when I stopped doing that and we kept that old toy rifle that shoots plastic BBs at 380 feet per second: we tried it for birds, have since killed five and noticed that when birds realize their buddies are dying in a specific area, they tend to avoid that area.
love watching ur video
It’s best to use smaller hole netting because this type you showed gets a lot of birds caught and many don’t make it. They die twisted up in the net because they freak out when they initially get stuck and twist and turn which makes it wrap around worse. They make better cheap alternatives
I planted my cool vegetables & japanese maple seeds 3/12/21 the next morning the birds eat my seeds, I replanted extra seeds again and cover them with blue tarp,so disappointed then I checked the youtube and found out that bird net works to some people, some don't cause birds are brave enough to dive in and loosen the tarp. To make a story short this guy used a sunscreen cloth where sun can go through it. Now his seedlings are growing same as mine. Today is 3/16/21 & very happy. If you want to try you can buy it at Lowe's bundled 6x15 feet for & $29.98 or & $1.98 a foot & there are 3 color to choose from. I just bought 6 feet and plenty enough for my seedlings. It works!!!
Perhaps one could create an impromptu “cage” by slamming four stakes around your tomato growing area that have a notch cut in the top to slide the netting into when draping it over to hold it in place. Might work better with fish netting, but I see that on sale in craft stores from time to time.
Good job 👏 budd
john has the best laugh.
just a thought... the lady across the street from me uses similar netting... she's got hers stapled to skinny dowels that are as tall as the saskatoon berry bushes she's trying to protect and just walks around her bushes like she's saran wrapping it :) might be easier to open back up to get at the tomatoes? :)
As the birds ate all my tomatoes last year, this year I placed plastic snakes on each plant to "maybe" keep the birds out. Crossing my fingers
Did it work?
Well?.....
Make sure the nets are checked each day, unfortunately I had a fatality. Suggest you use a denser fabric to avoid this.
Great idea.... although I would imagine that even good bird netting won't keep rabbits out : )
Great Idea! Dollar Store! Who Knew?
John, everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room! ;-) The number 1 reason birds go after vegs/fruits?? Water!! Especially here in the Mohave desert. A cheap solar powered water pump/fountain and a bucket/container, turned into a birdbath, resolves this issue. Lot of birds? Make a large one, or several smaller ones.
Put one in the ground, away from the plants, for the 4 legged ones.
I used a retired trampoline saferty net to protect my blackberries.
I'm trying to get away from plastic. I hope you have a recyclable answer. Thanks.
New to the Gardening world so I might be wrong here, however.. Standing water ( bird bath ) = Mosquitoes and West Nile. I think I saw some bird baths on the cheap that had a small pump for water movement. I just talked with someone today that lives 5 miles from my house. His father passed away from West Nile. Standing water scares the.... you know what out of me.
Stephanie Conroy
Might the birds eat the mosquito larvae in a bird bath,
thus preventing the problem?
Son there ain't no 99 Only Stores , No More! Huh there was one? -- Sargent Hulka
Tulle from ebay? Looking for applying netting tips!
Hi, MI Live In So. Cal Santa Clarita valley and my problem with gardening is squirrels...any recommendations
A .22 works wonders...
+Chris Dahl Lol everyone says that :)
Well, they won't touch my blueberry plants that I have out for them. I do have around twenty different feeders in my backyard and garden area, along with two baths. I was hoping to share my blueberries with the robins and waxwings, however that's not working. I guess more for me.
You are lucky, the robins have taken all the fruit from my six blueberry bushes. I need to come up with a plan for next year..
what happened to the eonmicro website ?????
how much does it cost?
What do you recommend to protect tomatoes from sunscald?
Last year quite a few were silver on one side......
I did this to protect my strawberries but it just got the young blackbirds trapped in it several times.
Thanks! My strawberries have been disappearing!
I have the opposite problem i try to feed the local birds some tomatoes and strawberries but they dont eat any of it...why? Id rather they eat the extra ones then let them rot.
I'm prepping for the birdglers
Thanks for sharing that. The birds have been eating my grapes.
put a birdbath for water and a bird feeder....
Same here. Didn't listen to my wife in time and couldn't harvest any grapes in good bunches except a few plucked to taste. All bunches damaged. Birds having a field day. They got a few almost ripe tomatoes as well. Oh well. Growing is still a joy. Will prepare for it next year.
Bird bath and feeders are there but no help.
What about keeping rats out? They ignore my electric zapper with peanut butter and I don't want use bait. Any thoughts? They're eating my cilantro and my parsley.
neighbors dog LOL
I cover clusters of tomatoes with bridal veil netting.
Ooh
Bridal veil that sounds effective and expensive
I’ve lost 6 tomatoes in the past week due to these birds smh time to take back what’s mine.
Wonder if bird feeder like honey water or fruit flavored water will help?Thanku. God bless
Hummingbirds would love it!
The birds in our area ignore tomatoes but harvest our cherries and strawberries :-(.
Then what they will eat
We found a large snake tangled in our bird netting last year. This weekend, I found another snake tangled (and dead) in some extra bird netting on an area that hasn't even been planted yet. Yuck!
That's probably what's eating my goji berries as they turn red. I haven't been able to eat one yet. :( I need to pick something up.
Great idea and advice but nets also have disadvantages. Plants needs flying insects like bees for flower pollination. If you net your young fruits you will be preventing new flowers from pollinating. Unless the nets are a little big enough to accormmodate the size of a bee to go in and pollinate. Otherwise thank you.
Is it UV sensitized, or else it will crumble in months
Mohan Udiavar crumble in months
Man I wish the birds only ate my tomatoes. The squires and the crows are the worst. Ground hogs are devastating bad if you get one hanging around a cat is perfect just plant lots of catnip.then again the cat might not be qualified for the job at that point
A second pair of hands helps a lot when it comes to dropping bird netting
I recommend using wood vinegar to deter birds they don't like the smell hang up a few bottles with holes in top of it watch the japanology episode on charcoal
I’ve waited 6 years for my avocado trees to fruit. Birds ate every one before they got over 1 inch in diameter
How're your weed plants doing this year?
Eric Christian Quite a few edible weeds came up just outside my garden came up for me. Not sure they still deserve to be called weeds any more. The only problem is they can be unsightly. How are your weeds?
Alley 🐈🐾
I planted garlic three years and the xxxxxxxxx squirrels ate them all up
but bees can still get in?
what would one do for squirrels in fruit trees
BB gun and a good squirrel grilling.
Really worried about a small bird getting their leg or wing caught in the mesh or even worse wrapped around their neck : /
I used the netting on my peach and almond trees and was saddened to find a lizard had gotten trapped and died. I will throw the netting away and try the CD's.
Mary Anne Folk is there a certain way to place the cds. I haven’t had any luck with them.
I don’t like that idea, the pollinators needs an open field to work on the production of tomatoes, can you explain?.
Cheaper solution to plant clips... go to walmart and ask them to same pants hangers for you. Cut both ends off and BAM... 2 plant clips for free...they also double as chip clips. :)
or maybe just some paperclips?
Sandwiche greenhouse plastic between concrete wire mesh. You heard it here first! J.H.
Too bad those tomato cages are actually expensive as funk now. Cut the videos down too long
No thanks to netting, but thanks a bunch for sharing the idea and where you get it from. May use it for other(non food) things :)
what about the litter rat , I saw one last night
Hey Buddy, we have that cheap Chinese netting here in Australia. It is pure CRAP. Tears like tissue paper and costs $5 here.
I wish:-)
Instead of catching birds in nets you should use red plastic ball Christmas ornaments right before your plants come to fruit
I use clothes pins 😁
We have lots of citrus trees in the yard & flocks of parrots come & just make holes in the fruit to eat the seeds...... We hung old cd's in the trees & they quit........... This might also work with your birds.....
They hate "old" cds, they prefer more modern music......
+Chris Dahl funny...aqui tiene que hacer en espanol
LOL!! Just add a water bowl or bird bath. They are thirsty that's why they only take a couple of pecks and go. They want water after flying around your garden and eating a bunch of bugs. Netting is so annoying!
I have to agree with you. Maybe some seed as well. Like others said, nature welcomes the birds and they don't want to steal.
My friend in town tried this.. and the birds still pecked the tomatoes. Thus the netting.
+Learn Organic Gardening at GrowingYourGreens hi john!! I am a new subscriber!! I learned about your Channel from Benji from itsjudyslife. I wanted to ask you a question. how do you get rid of the catapillars from your tomatoes trees? there is this specific catapillar that is always on my tomato trees and it's eating my tree!! also my mother hates catapillars. she is terrified of them. how do you keep your plants catapillar free without using chemicals?
i use Carolina reaper and garlic juice. grind the reaper peppers and garlic into a paste and mix with a 3 cups of water. leave it in the fridge for a day or to then filter into a squirt bottle. and spray. watch them squirm lol
yeah but have you tried it? "my friend tried this..." anyone can say that.
damn Squirrels ate my Apricots this year and all of them too, in the process they broke some branches as well which really pissed me off. I don't mind sharing but don't break my tree. :-(
I'm not sure if John recommended this or I saw it somewhere else, but I use rubber/plastic snakes on my peaches and so far they are working both for birds and squirrels. I got mine @ Amazon, as the dollar stores didn't have any.
My parents lost an entire granny smith tree to turkeys! Unknown to them, they roosted in it at night and would eat the apples. One night half the tree cracked in half and fell to the ground. The next night every fruit and leaf disappeared. I think their friend the deer had a party. The NEXT night, the other half of the tree had gone a cropper too.
Fat Squirrel: "Your apricots were delicious!" "Next time, I'll bring my family over."
Love it i bought some of that and built a area for my corn dam opossum got in and took most of it lol.chack out my vid ;) great video bud! love your content!!
Plants will grow and get stuck in the netting. I hate this stuff.
if you cut a pie tin into strip and attach to the cages, it'll scare off the birds.
Anything involving pie is a good idea.
Doggone it. I didn't even think to look at the dollar store. I got a bunch of cheap tulle. Off to the dollar store I go! Thanks.
My" dollar tree" doesn't have anything like that, he said the" 99 cent store" which I don't have.
I have several of the same kind of store that advertises their products are all a dollar, but of different names here in my area. "Dollar store" was a generalization, not a reference to a specific chain.
A bird bath and a bird feeder....problem solved....it works for me anyway...
have you ever grown comfrey
I do, but not for food, I use the leaves to cover weeds and bare spots.
have you made tea with it
the only problem with this is it will kill birds they will strangle themselves on the netting
very unlikely they will get strangled to death, but there is a chance they could get caught in the netting wrapped up and not be able to fly away. In this case im sure john will cut the netting down and free the bird, so not a huge deal.
I've used bird netting for years & never had a problem with it. If you're worried about birds flying into it hang tassles/bells/old cd's from it to make sure they notice it.
Is this something that happens or an ungrounded fear?
I used to use netting over small fig trees. The netting had to be completely sealed to the ground all the way around the tree. Birds would actually walk circles around the net looking for a way inside. If there was even one hole under the net small enough for a bird to get through -- he would. Then he was trapped under the net and would soon get his feet tangled in the net hanging upside down unable to free himself. I had to on several occasions go out and cut the net to free trapped birds.
NORMALIZATION OF IGNORANCE No, not rare. The first year I bought it a bird got stuck in it & I released it just in time before heat killed it. The second bird that got stuck in it that summer wasn't so lucky & the heat killed it before I got to it. I've never used it again. I would suggest only to use it if it's framed & not loose or draping at all.
try using clothes pins to close your netting with they are cheaper than those clips probably
Good idea,and PRICE! Are the holes big enough for the bees to get in? Must have the 🐝❤️
Yes bees can get in, but there won't be bees when tomatoes are ripening. (flowers are gone)
Tomato plant are self pollinating
squirrels eat my tomatoes. how to keep squirrels away?
Try hanging cd's.... Squirrels are pretty smart though ...
Blood meal..
ᏳᏫᏜᏡᎦᏈᏜᏫᏳ Probably due to whats available naturally.. animals in cities scavenge places they wouldn't need to in rural areas..... I'm assuming you live somewhere other food sources are prevalent?....
i live in the suburberbs, small city of 35k
medicineman firehorse I would try sprinkling blood meal.. or at least researching.....