Nobody doubts the fact that orchards, vineyards and vegetable lands perform better when covered with netting that those that are left uncovered and are open to the ravage of the scorching sun, raging wind and devastating hailstorms.

André van Zyl, sales representative of PlusNet/Geotex says: “One of the citrus farmers in my area says they previously had an average packout percentage of 60% from the picking crates. With orchard cover of 20% shadow cloth, the packout percentage increased to an astounding 97%! The main difference was made by the elimination of wind damage.”

“However, to cover absolutely everything with netting can, on the other hand, result in unintentional after-effects. No lemon, orange, berry or any other fruit can develop when no pollination takes place in the flowering stage. The hardest workers during pollination are bees and farmers know all too well that they cannot harvest a good crop without the input of these persistent insects.”

“Consequently farmers leave the sides of their net-covered structures open to allow unhindered entrance to bees and also other predators on unwanted insects to do their good work. However, open areas of the net-houses also mean unhindered opportunity for birds to enter and feast on the good work of the farmer and his bees.”

PlusNet has now come up with a nature-friendly solution that solves the problem – bird nets with openings of 17 mm keep the birds out, but still allow free access to bees and other advantageous friendly insects.

André says the bird netting is available in rolls of 50 m long and from 1 m to 5 m wide. The net is not heavy and handles easily. It can be pulled over an ordinary net-house structure, or be used to cover only the openings.

Trials have indicated that it has no influence on the movement of bees, while birds see the netting hindrance in time and move on to find easier targets on neighbouring farms where bird-netting have not been hung.

For more information regarding an affordable solution to keep birds out of orchards and other net-covered crops, contact André van Zyl on 060-987-9708, 011-412-3954 (landline) or by email to andrev@masterplasticsgroup.com .

Alternatively you can visit www.plusnetgeotex.co.za on the internet to view the complete range of PlusNet netting house solutions and see how you can improve your harvest (and profit!) by using the correct net to solve your problems.