Small trial protecting cherries

[nickdub]

I've got a Cherry tree which is about 40' tall. Normally the birds and squirrels eat all the fruit. This year, having read what others had tried to protect some of the fruit, I thought I'd try and give it a go. I bought some fleece, and I also had a bit of wire netting and some old nylon fruit-netting.

The fleece by itself was a fail - I think it worked for keeping the birds off, but that just ensured that the fruit was in good condition for the squirrels to eat. The wire netting alone was also a washout (difficult to get a tight fit anyway). Oddly the bird netting did work in one case, I think that bit was very old and tangled, and I just wrapped it round the branch in a big bunch, so the fruit could not be seen ( out of sight out of mind ?) What also worked was one part where I had fleece on the inside and then wire netting wrapped around that.

So some interesting observations which I will try to build on next year, and I got to eat about 20 ripe cherries :-)

[Jay-ell]

I've just tied a mosquito net on mine.

[veggiechicken]

I've bought some dwarfing ones and planted in a debris netting covered tunnel. Too soon to say as they're too small to fruit.
The outside Stella's fruit has been stripped. I'm growing it as an ornamental cherry now - attractive flowers and autumn colour. There's always a positive.

[FuzzyFeltDeath]

Second using mosquito nets. Covered our Stella and we've managed to have about 75% of the fruit this year. We left the other tree free for the chickens and birds to have some too.

[nickdub]

I've just tied a mosquito net on mine.

That's another thought for next time then - I notice the squirrels had chewed through the fleece in places - so obviously that's not robust enough on its own.