Netting -What a pain, but we have little choice!

Okay, the nets are on! With such a small vineyard, it didn't take all that long, but it is the clipping of the nets that takes a lot of time, and thank goodness we had wonderful friends that could help!

In the photo above you might be able to see that we have netting that goes over a single row, with the edges joined at the bottom. We roll them up and clip them in place with curtain hooks.

It's essential that there are no gaps in the netting, even very small ones, as birds are very clever and will search for any access point. 

One problem is that sometimes the net is resting against clusters that stick out into the row - birds can sit on the net in these places and peck at the fruit. So outriggers, or something that pushes the netting out away from the fruit, are sometimes used. Most often, some sort of horizontal support is used to push apart the first foliage wire, which then keeps the netting from getting too close to the fruit. We haven't done this at our vineyard yet - we're seeing how it goes, and will try to tuck shoots out to push the nets. If necessary, we will be fabricating some sort of stick to push out the foliage wires, and thus the nets. However, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that!!

Hopefully, this is the only view of the grapes that the birds will get!!