Impressive.
2 Likes
The weather here has been cool the last 2 weeks and there has been little progress in the ripening of the Eva’s Pride fruit. So much for my estimate of 5 days!
Yesterday a half dozen crows came by and started squawking about the barrier. I went outside to check on them and they flew off to a large pepper tree up the street - and then a few dozen more joined them presumably to discuss the situation. Later, they flew home to the Buena Vista wetlands for the evening.
Today I cut a door into one of the panels to rake up a few fallen fruits and check the remainder. To make a “hinge” on the left I cut in a pattern of “skip one cut two”. It was simply a guess but so far so good.
Of the fruits on the ground I found one edible and the other four were immature fruit fall. All the fruits I tested on the tree were rock hard save one with a slightly soft top. Progress! I secured the door shut with zip ties every ten inches on three sides.
8 Likes
Today I cut two more doors and rechecked the fruit. Most are still hard but a few were ready to pick. Typical for this location. Today’s temperatures ranged from 58°F overnight to an afternoon high of 69°F. The humidity ran the opposite way from 90% down to 70%.
10 Likes
Looks like a success.
2 Likes
I wouldn’t have guessed you were cooler this afternoon than Seattle! Well, my yard was 73°F at least. And those are some nice looking fruit, the crows must be forlorn indeed.
2 Likes
Today I installed D-rings around our Jiro persimmon in preparation for transfer of the peach cage there tomorrow.
5 Likes
Thursday Janet & I rolled the top off the peach tree and purposely dropped it on the ground, causing some disassembly 
. Friday I unhitched the vertical panels and transferred them to the new location - using clothesline cord to steady single panels on either tree. Today I staple-gunned the cover back together and rolled it up - sort of. Then Janet & I placed it on a greenery barrel and with the aid of ladders hoisted it up on top of the verticals and unrolled it.
5 Likes
Glad it is working for you. Hope you are able to harvest some delectable fruit. You provide some inspiration for us lazier growers!
2 Likes
In my view, the cost of the tree is just the down payment!
5 Likes
Last year’s cage will remain on the persimmon. In preparation for this year’s new cages I’ve just thinned out branches over-extending the tree rings of our Eva’s Pride peach and Flavor Grenade pluot. We still have some fruit thinning to do before I can start construction of the new cages.
3 Likes
4/8. New tie-downs around the Flavor Grenade pluot. I’m determined to keep the mourning doves from pecking them this year!
6 Likes
May the odds be ever in your favor.
2 Likes
Is the top screen securely attached or laying freely on top of the structure.
1 Like
After rolling it out onto the top, I attached it in places to eliminate gaps that birds and rats could enter. It appears to have been sufficient. I’ve decided to trim it a bit to the perimeter of the “walls”. This will involve more attachments.
2 Likes
This year I decided construct the top of each cage first, then the walls.
For our Eva’s Pride peach tree I laid out 3 1"x2"x8’ furring strips across the tree ring at 2 ft intervals, since the wire mesh is 2’ wide. I then cut them to length using the tree ring as a stencil. I also labeled them with a sharpie. Next I laid down two perpendicular strips at 1/3 intervals of the center strip which turned out to be 30". I used small bricks to hold everything in place. Next I drilled pilot holes and screwed in 1.25" deck screws into all the intersections except those on the right-hand side which I instead marked with sharpie. Then I lifted the nearly assembled frame to an open location and connected the right-hand strip. Notice also in the photos the diagonal piece I installed at the peach tree ring to keep the assembly from “folding” at the lattice screws.
With the frame done, I flipped it over and stapled on 2’ wide strips of FencerWire #16 plastic coated 1" mesh. I cut each mesh piece to the longest frame strip they would attach to. This insures overlap when flipped back over and placed on top of the cage walls. I used Arrow T50 1/2" staples with their corded staple gun. Afterwards I set the whole thing out of the way, leaning up against last year’s cage around the Jiro Persimmon. Tomorrow I’ll build the walls.
7 Likes
@Richard,
Great construction job. A real fruit Fort Knox. But I can’t help notice the mini golf. Love it, says a lot about you being a fun guy. Happy growing and golfing. 
3 Likes
Impressive and creative tree cages. Kudos to you for coming up with these.
3 Likes
Those birds must hate you! Enjoy your fruit.
3 Likes
Today I finished making the panels that will form the cylindrical wall around the peach tree. Overall (including the top) I’ve used 116 feet of 2’ wide wire mesh.
I knew in advance the wooden furring strips are rarely straight, but fortunately 8’ sections of 1" wire mesh are very straight. So I compensate for the boards by making sure the mesh is centered at the ends of the boards and allow the boards to “wander” in between. Generally I’m stapling mesh to the boards every 16". Sometimes the boards wander out from under the mesh so I secure those locations with zip tie.
Each panel consists of 2-3 8’ boards + the same number of 8’ wire mesh sections. This leaves one edge without a board so I can attach it to its “neighbor” around the tree.
I plan to assemble the panels tomorrow, and perhaps get the top on too.
4 Likes
Nice, I’ve been mulling over trying something similar with cages. Hopefully we make it through the next few cold nights and I have something to protect. If so, I’m going to try to fully enclose at least one of my trees this year.
2 Likes