JoeRay that is a very acceptable practice. Too make it easy to put the netting on, drive a 3' piece of rebar half way into the ground on each side of the tree and put a piece of pvc water pipe from one to the other to make a hoop. Put several of these about 4' apart then run one piece of pvc along the top and tie them all together to make it ridge. Works great.
"gene"
From Houma, La

Gene:
I followed your advise and made covers for my smaller figs trees using the rebar and pvc pipe. As you said, it works great. I'll have to wait on the big trees and cut them down to size later this year. It'll probably be next year before I can cover them. Thanks for the advise.

JoeRay

Hey Gene,

That's a great solution - are you using old shrimp netting or buying something else?
young

Shrimp netting would work although heavy. I use plastic bird netting from Lowes of Wallyworld. As Tim warned in another thread, "don't wear a shirt with buttons", right Tim.

Gene, you got it right about the shirt with buttons. I wish I had my trees planted more in a row so I could cover a whole row, like your picture. It would have been easier to set up drip irrigation, too. To me a 6' tree once it grows out again is still going to be too big to cover.I'm going to trim mine back shorter maybe 4'. The nets from Lowes are 14' X 14'. You can order it on rolls too that are larger, but haven't done that yet. Tim

Thanks for posting the pics Gene. Are those 20' lengths of pvc pipe? What diameter?

Dave

Yes Dave, those are 20 footers and 3/4". What you can't see except for the orange tape is the string I have tied between them. I took some heavy nylon and tied it to the bottom of one leg and then ran it over to the next one to where I wrapped the tape about 4' from the ground. The tape keeps the string from slipping. I tied it over the tape. From that point I went down to the ground on the next leg. The I ran one from the bottom of the middle up to the tape on each of the two end legs. This created a criss cross pattern which added a lot of rigidity to it. The top piece is just taped on with good old duct tape. It's very cheap, light weight and can be put up and taken down in a few minutes.
"gene"

"It's very cheap, light weight and can be put up and taken down in a few minutes."

I like it. Thanks for sharing this with us Gene.

I have just purchased a Brown Turkey and a Mission Fig, only about 18 inches high to start. Could I keep it pruned to only 4 feet high and still produce figs?