I guess birds don’t like being poked by artificial thorns…Where did you source them? I have a few robins I’d like to introduce them to on my blueberries next year.
Amazon. (For the natural ones, from cutting off what was growing from the rootstock of an orange tree below the graft.)
Interesting question. We have always used bird netting to protect our berries. The stuff catches on everything and it is a real pain. This year we purchased white tulle from hobby Libby and it is my new favorite thing to use. Very thin and easy to put on and take off. I tied all my elderberry clusters with individual “hats”. Ha. I just tied it underneath like a bonnet. It held perfectly and protected from all the birds. Good luck.
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That net bags work well against PC and OFM. It does not protect against squirrels. I have had first hand experience. They can bite through it, not as cleanly as through organza bags but they definitely can do damage to fruit inside this type of bags.
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You are right! I lost a nectarine and a peach that way. My dog is my best defense! He is well trained.
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Can I borrow your dog 
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I’ve used them for a few years and they worked ok. This year some of the birds where so aggressive they pecked holes in some of the bags.
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Beautiful rose too!
The birds mostly attacked our pie cherries. I don’t grow sweet cherries because the pie cherries are just so much more flavorful and satisfying to me. The birds don’t eat all of your pie cherries the way starlings will literally eat all of your sweet cherries. They just eat a few. At the beginning, I only had a few on my tree, so I netted. The netting was a hassle and it got stuck, but fortunately, no dead birds or even caught birds. After awhile, I was getting so many pie cherries, that losing about 3 to birds wasn’t an issue. Since I started using biochar, they eat them even less. I saw an organic gardening lady named Jessica Smith who said that there is some kind of energy vibration that they can measure with a machine, and if your plant is healthy enough, the bugs and pests don’t eat them. I think it may be related to brix, but I don’t have a phd in biochemistry, so a lot of the time, I can’t quite understand their extremely complicated explanations.
I have seen some great systems for those using nets. One had a giant, 12 foot letter “T” shape on either side of the tree, so that the netting doesn’t get stuck in the tree. I would have used it had I still needed to use netting.
John S
PDX OR
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