steve.k
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Homemade ClotchesBy obtaining odd scraps of plastic water or gas pipe approx. 1.0m in length. Can be begged from building site skips or even your local water or gas depot if their nearby. Place them in the ground either side and over the plant bed in a row. You can place clear polythene over these or netting as required. Don't forget to ask if taking from a builders skip as technically this is theft if permission is not obtained.
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joanne
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I'm losing it - I read this as homemade clothes - wondered why it involved plastic pipe!!! 
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nettie
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I often cut the bottoms off 5 litre water bottles to make bell cloches. Nice tip, Steve, thanks.
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tahir
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Good tip Steve, welcome on board. Like the new you Jo 
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Behemoth
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This year, time allowing, I'm going to try a cloche made out of a sheet of clear corrugated roofing sheet and some wire hoops made out of 5mm wire. The rough idea is to bed the wire, using a template of nails hammered into a board, into and arc equivalent, to the outside arc of the sheet bent into a semicircle, with some legs for pusinng into the ground.
As the roofing will be trying to push outwards and straighten itself, I'll need to put some 'restrainers', a length of wire hooped around each leg, across the bottom of each leg of the wire to hold it in, equivalent in length to the diamre of the semi circle.
A cane along the top to joing the wire arcs together should keep them stable and make it rigid but very easy and light to pick up and move. It'll need to be firmly anchored but should be more durable that plastic sheeting. For the ends I've got some more clear rigid plastic filched from a skipped sunbed.
You should be able to get two rows of carrots or similar under each cloche. The roofing sheets only cost £5 (ar B&Q slightly less from roofing supplies) for a 6ft length and the wire is pennies per metre, copared to £15 for commercially available products.
If this doesn't make sense please ask and I'll try to be clearer.
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wellington womble
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I do a similar thing with the roofing plastic, but just bung short stakes in the ground and wedge the arc between them. Yours sounds easier to move, and longer lasting though (and lot posher!)
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Treacodactyl
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Re: Homemade Clotches | steve.k wrote: | | By obtaining odd scraps of plastic water or gas pipe approx. 1.0m in length. |
There have been articles in the Kitchen Garden Magazine using the pip to make a greenhouse frame from. From memory, the sides are timber and the pipe attached to form the roof. Then a plastic covering to make a cross between a greenhouse and pollytunnel.
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mrutty
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This is how my cloches work. This year I'm going for fleece as the cloches do dry out really fast.
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Behemoth
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I fancy trying the pipe and fleece protection this year. I've always thought of cloches being for frost protection up to end of may and then off when it gets drier.
Is fleece as durable as enviromesh- given the difference in price how many years will you get out of the fleece?
Can you wash fleece?
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mrutty
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| Behemoth wrote: | | given the difference in price how many years will you get out of the fleece? |
Three years so far, it would be more had I not ripped it when in a hurry
| Behemoth wrote: |
Can you wash fleece? |
Yes, hand wash in the bath gets rid of most of the dirt
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alison
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| mrutty wrote: |
| Behemoth wrote: |
Can you wash fleece? |
Yes, hand wash in the bath gets rid of most of the dirt |
Do you need to?
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mrutty
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Yes I do as a fox rolled around into and made it all muddy 
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alison
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Oh 
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Sarah D
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It should be washed anyway, for mudsplashes, etc.
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Treacodactyl
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As people often grow crops full time under fleece (stops flea beetle for one) I would have thought it needs to be clean to let as much light through.
Have people done this here and are the results good? We have suffered from cabbage root fly this year and caterpillars over the last few so I'm thinking of fleece or fine netting.
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mrutty
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I grow my carrots under fleece and have no problems
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Tristan
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Down herefleece works against all the creepy-crawlies ( except burrowing slugs, but has to be on early. The flea beetle eggs overwinter in the soil, so a fresh patch is a good idea
HTH
Tristan
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Treacodactyl
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| Tristan wrote: | | The flea beetle eggs overwinter in the soil, so a fresh patch is a good idea |
Well we do have a three year rotation so we'll have to see how it goes.
We've just had the offer of some plain net curtains. No one needs them for curtains as they are old. I'll probably give them a try in place of fleece this year. Anyone tried it?
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alison
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Do net curtains work, I have a huge ammount of them from the hotel.
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Treacodactyl
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If no one's tried it I'll let you know at the end of summer. I think they will at least keep the cabbage white off (the hens do a reasonable job eating them, but then they go for the cabbages themselves ).
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alison
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I had hens digging up potatoes last year, as quick as I was putting them in. Clipped the wings in the end!
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Treacodactyl
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| alison wrote: | | I had hens digging up potatoes last year, as quick as I was putting them in. Clipped the wings in the end! |
Ours did 'help' lift some when the potatoes were ready to be lifted. There are much easier to control though.  The hens are actually very good apart from the strawberries.
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alison
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Mine also got the rhubarb, when the covers blew off one very windy night.
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Tristan
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| alison wrote: | | Do net curtains work, I have a huge ammount of them from the hotel. |
Yes, as long as they aren't the lacy type with holes about 3mm in!
Otherwise, great way to recycle them.
Tristan
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Sarah D
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I use net curtains for brassicas (keeps the butterflies off) and over the currant bushes; you have to watch them on windy days, though, and make sure no birds get caught in them. Make sure they are long enough to cover the plant/bush adequately. Take care when removing from fruit bushes as they can get caught easily and snap the branches if you're not careful. Mine get washed and put away at the end of the summer ready for the next year. My friend has a cherry tree for which she made long tubes from large net curtains and she slips these over the branches to prevent the birds from getting the cherries. Looks extremely odd, but seems to work.
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wellington womble
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| Sarah D wrote: | | My friend has a cherry tree for which she made long tubes from large net curtains and she slips these over the branches to prevent the birds from getting the cherries. Looks extremely odd, but seems to work. |
I read you can do it with stockings, which must look even odder...... or you can buy a cherry tree cage from Harrod horticultural for £300. hmmmmmm - decisions, descisions
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