Can you cover strawberries with clingfilm while it is still growing in the garden?
Question:will the stawberries die, i want to find a simple way to prevent caterpillars eating them
Answers:
My dad says no they will start to rot as there will be too much moisture. He says put a fine net / mesh over them , just knock 4 pieces of wood into each corner and stretch the net over as close to the strawberries as poss and knock a nail into each bit of wood to hold. There is little pellets from garden centres you can sprinkle around them also but these should be used as well as the net not instead of it. Net avail from garden centres also , cheap as chips.
the plastic will make them rot, get a good organic pesticide.
what about some small garden netting..you can get that at most garden stores. i have that around my small apple tress..keeps the birds away. i have probelms with woodlice eating my strawberries. i put some incect killer powder down but away from the plants. although not to far away.
Cling film will kill the plants because it will get too tho underneath and no water will get to them.
Two simple ways to control the caterpillars. One is to hand pick them once or twice daily or use Bt (dipel) daily either as a spray or powder. Other hings you can do is encourage beneficials such as spiders, wasps to come in and eat the worms for you. These are very good predators of caterpillars
You could also use Reemay/row covers but this will prevent bees from pollinating the flowers and you will get far fewer berries. Not to mention you will have o eradicate 100% of he caterpillers before putting anything like row covers or mesh over top
They will rot, you need something that will let air in, like plastic mesh.
do not cover your strawberries with cling film this would cause the fruit to rot. get some fleece from the garden centre and some 1.6mm garden wire. make hoops out of the wire and cover the plants with the fleece. the hoops will keep it of the plants. this will keep the pests away but let moisture get to the plants.burry the edges of the fleece in the ground and close up the ends this will also keep the fruit clean and also keep the birds away.
spray the plants with soapy water and that should kill any caterpillars from eating them. cling wrap will kill your plants.spray bottle with a few drops of dish soap and water does the trick.
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