Do trees need fruit cages?

[Rambling]

Hi everyone,

I'm very much a beginner, so please excuse the rather silly questions!

Last year I bought three minarette fruit trees (plum, cherry, double-variety pear), a planter's worth of strawberries and a 'tophat' blueberry, all in containers. I constructed a fruit cage for them during summer(two garden arches with netting stretched between), only to find out that they were mostly too young to fruit anyway. Still, the cage probably saved my strawberries.

This year, I want to add a 'sunshine blue' blueberry plant, split my strawberries out and add in some vegetables.

The problem is:
1. my 'cage' area is too small for all of that.
2. my trees, despite being dwarfing, would have to be pretty violently pruned to not grow through the top.

So I was wandering if I move my trees out, and just have the small fruit plants in it, will the birds scavenge my trees bare? (Should I be letting them fruit in the first place?) Could I use products like irri-tape instead?

Thanks!

[fruitylou]

The cherries would be stripped, the pears should be fine the birds don't bother with mine until they drop to the floor and start going soft, I am not sure on the plums though but I will be interested to find out as I bought a plum tree this year. Be careful not to put any berries to close to the net as I did this last year to make more space and it just acted as a fancy bird feeder lol

[FB.]

Pears and plums are generally not generally attacked by birds, although wasps like ripe plums, while "maggots" or "worms" will also sometimes atack the fruit (so always cut open before eating!).

Cherries are a favourite of birds - if their size is controlled by proper pruning, cherries can be netted instead of caged.

Very-early-ripening strawberries can be attractive to birds (because it's the first ripe fruit of the season - before the cherries). Mid and late ripening strawberries aren't too badly affected if there are cherry trees nearby (did I mention that birds really love cherries?!).

Blueberries are very much liked by the birds. They will need protection - except the variety "Darrow", whose fruits are too large for most birds to grip and pull off.

White currants are of no interest to any pests or diseases. No need for protection.

Raspberries are a bird's favourite. They need protection.

[Rambling]

Thanks fruitylou, FB!

I can just imagine the birdfeeder effect

I'll cage my cherry, then, and take out the plum and pear to make way for the extra strawberries and blueberries. I hadn't realised you could grow raspberries in containers - I'll have to remember to plant some this autumn. If I'm going for a bird feast, might as well get the whole set

[Two_Sheds]

Raspberries are a bird's favourite. They need protection.

That's interesting, because I've never seen birds eating raspberries, and never noticed that I lose any.

Perhaps because they're too busy stripping my neighbour's goosegogs?

My strawberries are attacked all summer; the birds and the slugs, and the woodlice will take a bite out of each (rather than just mess up one fruit, they like to go through the whole lot)

Blackbirds really love blackcurrants too, mine do a kind of high jump act, bouncing up to reach all the berries

[jojo2910]

White currants are of no interest to any pests or diseases. No need for protection.

Last year our white currant was stripped of all the fruits, presumably by birds, and it fruited proficiently, along with everything else mentioned. Nothing was protected by a cage, but will be this year.

[Alison]

Mid and late ripening strawberries aren't too badly affected if there are cherry trees nearby.

I find that if I don't net my strawberries then the birds will take them whether they are early, mid or late but to be honest they're quite easy to net so I just string something over them and take it away afterwards to make weeding etc easier.

Blueberries are very much liked by the birds. They will need protection - except the variety "Darrow", whose fruits are too large for most birds to grip and pull off.

The birds don't seem to go for them round us, I have a couple of plants in my front garden at home and have never netting them but still get most of the berries for me

Raspberries are a bird's favourite. They need protection.

Again, not a problem round here, like somebody else said above. My row is quite long so I'm guessing they take some but certainly only a small percentage which they are welcome to.

I seems that it may depend on what birds you have locally which fruits they'll go for. The only thing I net is strawberries although eventually I will get round to building a walk in fruit cage around my strawberries, blackcurrants, white currants, red currants, gooseberries and blue berries on my plot but that'll be either next year or the one after as there is a limit to how much I can do every year

[valmarg]

White currants are of no interest to any pests or diseases. No need for protection.
Raspberries are a bird's favourite. They need protection.

I disagree about whitecurrants. The blackbird family will strip them bare at any opportunity, so need netting. They are sweeter than redcurrants, and therefore more attractive.

The sweeter tasting varieties of raspberry need protection. I've been growing JoanJ for the past few years. Whilst wonderful tasting fruit, the blackbirds, whilst not entirely leaving them alone, have left more than enough fruit for us.

valmarg

[FB.]

I'm located close to the edge of the open fenland countryside.

The garden is visited daily by:
Blackbirds (we have occasionally had up to eight adult blackbirds on the lawn at the same time!)
Collared doves (pair)
Wood pigeons (pair)
Magpies (pair)
Starlings (flock)
Sparrows (flock)
Wrens
Robins

At least once a week we have:
Blue tits
Great tits
Bullfinches
Chaffinches
Long-tailed tits
Thrushes

Occasionally we have:
Sparrowhawk
Kestrel
Goshawk
Redwings
Rooks
Crows
Jackdaw
Jay

We have never had pigeons here (as in the "feral" type that live in city centres).

The landscape nearby is mostly open fields, with occasional small trees and shrubby hedgerows and with occasional light woodland, ditches, streams, lakes and a river.

[solway cropper]

Some interesting replies about what birds will eat what fruit and it seems that they have different preferences in different places. My thinking is it's a lot to do with what other food is available. My rasps and blackcurrants are not touched but I have a big cherry tree close by which is usually stripped bare before the fruit is ripe enough for me to eat. My strawberries have to be netted but the goosegogs are not touched.

I'm growing blueberries this year but they are in large pots and should be easy to net individually.

my blog:
the recycled gardener

[gillian62]

Our plum tree was stripped by a local squirrel last year. We caught him chomping on them in the tree above our shed!! He ate what he liked and dropped the rest for the chickens to finish off - it didn't seem to matter if the plums were ripe or not. I am planning to make a wire ball around the tree this year to try and deter him.

[rogesse]

I'll be making my home fruitcage a bit more secure this year - the foxes opened up a gap and the birds got in and stripped the currents but didn't touch the blueberries or raspberries left in the open...

On the allotment the cherry gets a hammering if not netted but they don't seem to like the Tayberry, even when over ripe. I think I read somewhere that cherry blossom can be targeted but I've never had that problem.

Strawberries (Hubbies fav.) get the Fort Knox treatment!

[FB.]

Our plum tree was stripped by a local squirrel last year. We caught him chomping on them in the tree above our shed!! He ate what he liked and dropped the rest for the chickens to finish off - it didn't seem to matter if the plums were ripe or not. I am planning to make a wire ball around the tree this year to try and deter him.

If a squirrel or any other "vermin" dares to take more than a "fair share" small amount of fruit/veg from my garden, I would not hesitate to "drop him" with an air rifle - of which I have several that I use to control pests for myself, local smallholders and farmers.

[gojiberry]

It is very much a case of what birds are about and how much pedestrian traffic is about. My lottie site has houses on two sides and we get blackbirds and thrushes and a few crows. The blackbirds eat fruit the most and like my blueberries and strawberries which I now net. I have seen them take the odd raspberry as well but not enough to worry about. My boss is a bit out in the country with no neighbours for miles. All his fruit trees are stripped before the fruit is ripe and that includes apples pears and plums. The two main culprits are jays and magpies.

Ian