Question to those of you who grow fruit and veggies in gopher cages. There are two brands for sale in my area. I’m dealing with voles and gophers. Which would you buy?
Here are pictures of each type (below). One is made out of a knitted stainless steel mesh and the other is made from 20 gauge, 3/4" hex galvanized wire mesh. Alternatively I could build my own gopher cages out of 1/4" hardware cloth but that would be a pain. Thoughts? Thanks in advance.
I’d probably go with hardware cloth, partly buried in the ground, along side a regular coated deer fence, above ground only, to get additional height ( because it is less expensive than hardware cloth and a gopher will not fit through it ). I read that the gophers may chew through chicken wire meshes.
I have been building my own from hardware cloth. I’ve made, and planted out, about 100 in the orchard. It is a pain, but I am not able to manage the day to day battle against gophers. My orchard is on family property, 20 minutes from my home, and that’s enough to keep my work days to once weekly (at least until harvest).
I’ve gotten a method down of building cages and it’s no big deal at this point. The one lingering doubt is the possibility of girdling the roots. Some gopher cage companies advertise based on how long the product will last in ground as a selling point. Some claim breaking down sooner to be advantageous as it will reduce girdling. Most growers I’ve talked to are not concerned about root girdling. I’m getting the impression it’s a potential concern that is not observed by experience.
Good luck!
I’ve had considerably better luck with the stainless mesh ones here, where we have a LOT of gophers to contend with. I also find them easier to work with.
Hi Aaron, would you be willing to share your process for building cages – or maybe just the steps that make it less difficult / time consuming?
Also, I imagine there’s less possibility of girdling the roots with hardware cloth than with the knitted stainless steel…so that’s appealing.
Thanks!
@PlantEater Sure. I assemble them from hardware cloth with wire clips and wire clip pliers.
I like to use scissor style snips, I can slice through more length per stroke.
I either use 2’ high wire, or 4’ and I rip it to 2’. I like to have the clean edge above ground. I make them fairly large, approximately 14 gallons when planted with 6” above the soil line. I figure this will allow a good amount of safe space within the cage if roots are pruned by gophers outside the cage. I cut a 4’ length of 2’ wire and fold it in a circle, attaching the ends with wire clips every 4th square or so. I’ll then cut a smallish square (I’m very variable about the size, sometimes it’s fairly large and folds up the cage). I then attach it to the bottom of the cage with clips in such a way that the bottom is shaped kind of square.
I don’t have any handy, but here’s a pic in my phone. Actually no, I’ve tried a few times and for some reason uploading that pic keeps failing. I’ll try starting a new post…
@PlantEater
Weird. I still can’t upload that picture. I even tried to upload a screenshot of the photo. Seems like I can’t upload anymore photos right now.
I have used both types of gopher cages. If you are going to buy your cages, I would probably recommend the one in the top photo. When I used the kind in the bottom photo, the gophers completely tore them apart like they weren’t even there.
However, I use so many gopher baskets that I just make my own. The cost to buy them would be prohibitive. I use hex mesh poultry wire (aka chicken wire). I use the 1" size, but if you have voles you might want to use the 1/2" size. My process is slightly different than @AaronN. I make a cylinder, but I then bend 2 sides inward at the bottom and fold the resulting points back toward the center, then smash down all the folds. 12" wide wire works great for one gallon baskets and 24" for 5 gallons.
