Kitchen Garden Forum

I am mulling over how to do some crop protection using the 25mm MDPE Blue Pipe 25mm you can get at builders merchants for about £15 for 50m.

I am thinking about using it as hoop supports for netting over brasicas, strawberries, fruit bushes and the like.

But I have some questions:

Does anyone use anything like this and does it work ok?

How do you get the hoops to sit firmly in the soil at each end, do you add a spike of any kind?

How do you make the tops of the hoops stable so they don’t move around in high winds?

Is there any easy way to fix the netting to the hoops in such a way that it is easy to move to gain access to under the netting?

Any ideas will be a great help.

Thanks

Jerry

Have a look under Best Practice/Carrot Root Fly viewtopic.php?t=576where there are full instructions with photos on how to build fleece tunnels. These are made using wire hoops but I would think could be adapted to using blue pipe. As I understand it you use wooden dowel pushed into the pipe to either push into the ground or afix to a base board.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Chantal, the post you refer to is my post.

For netting I am thinking of something on a large scale but the principle is the same.

Jerry

Oops sorry. I though it was from Jerry? Ok, same person, different user name. I've seen something somewhere about using blue pipe and dowl on a fixed base but can't recall where. I have a feeling it was something to do with Piglet.

Hmmm, that could be a nice idea for a portable type cloche. I will think more on that.

I assume I could fix screw hooks to the pipe to help fix the netting.........

More planning required!

Jerry

It's a shame, but I have the same hole in my memory Chantal.

I do remember seeing (I think) Geoff Hamilton do water pipe cloches and putting doweling in to the pipe to steady it in the ground and stop the ends getting clogged up with soil. I seem to think the dowelling was the most expensive bit of the project and I know I pondered cheaper alternatives but never did anyhtig about making one except buy the pipe. So let us know if you come up with a good plan.
Cheers

i used 18 inch lengths of 1 1/4 galvanised pipe hammered in the ground with yellow plastic gas pipe hoops over 4 foot beds. the gas pipe is a loose fit inside the metal pipes. the hoops are about 4 foot apart. the net was slung over and anchored round the edges with bricks and stones. anti bird netting doesnt need much fixing cos the wind blows through it.

Richard

Did you need to support the tops of the hoops or is the plastic pipe rigid enough to stand up on it's own. I was thinking about running wire of canes from the top of each hoop so they are all "tied" together and then a stake at each end to support the lot.

Many thanks for the input.

Jerry

Some folk at our site were featured ages ago in the magazine. My recollection is that their cloches were made by drilling holes in 3x3" timber to take dowelling rods. The hoops of pipe popped over these and the netting was secured to the timbers with roofing laths. This enabled the whole thing to be lifted off the bed for weeding, etc. Bit of a kerfuffle if there's only one of you, as they are quite unwieldy.
I use rigid white water pipe and use 90 degree fixings to make rectangular covers. This means I have the same height under the netting across the whole width of the bed I just stick canes into the soil where the pipes want to go and drop the 'hoops' over these, then hold the netting down with bricks.

Angi

When you say rigid pipe do you mean waste pipe like this:

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro ... 2&ts=27054

I like the idea of verticle sides and this is far more space efficient.

Thanks

Jerry

I have a pile of useless 20 mm water pipe in 10ft lengths. It will have to be dumped, costs too much to join it up for normal use.I tried to use it on a temporary tunnel, every time the wind blew it twisted the pipes to make them like serpents. If you must use that pipe use a much bigger size. The stakes you suggest didn't stop it twisting up and collapsing. PVC pipe is somewhat stiffer. 1" galvanized steel tubing hoops are wise investment.

Allan

Thanks for that, but with netting their should be less wind resistance I hope.

Was your cover net or sheeting?

Thanks

Jerry

Going back a bit - yes, it was Geoff Hamilton and he refers to it in some of his books/BBC archives. Let me know if you want me to search it out. I was (still am) a big GH fan. Incidentally - Sky have been re-running his programmes, so you might see him referring to it on there.

The GH design isn't in my autographed copy of his little "Gardeners' World Vegetable Book" it must be in one of his others. I can't remember the suggested lengths but you want them to give a reasonably high hoop over about a 4' width. The method is to push dowel or cane tightly into the ends to give something over 1' to push into the ground. Drill through pipe and wood about 1" from the pipe ends and push through a split pin or bent nail. Tie a piece of binder twine to one nail a bit longer than the hoop, this will be used to secure the cover by tying to the other nail. I have modified the original design with a stiffening string. Space the hoops about 4' apart down your row, best to be fussy and align them accurately. Put a good wooden peg in on the centre line about 1' beyond each end hoop. Use more binder twine to tie from peg to peg tying in each hoop to create a fairly rigid structure. Put on the cover and tension longitudinally with heavy stones / breeze blocks. Tie the strings over the top and bury the edges if very exposed.
As I have said before I have a galvanised version of this design with wire clips that I would like more of but cannot find a supplier, anybody come across them?

Hi Jerry,
I would suggest that for your purposes 25mm pipe is not strong enough and suggest you step up to 32mm
pipe which is considerably stronger. I have used this for many years now and to keep it rigid I lash a series of Bamboo Canes along the length with a stay to the ground on alternate sides at both ends.
I live in an area of high wind and they stay as rigid even in a gale.
I have a selection of scaffold poles along the length both sides and these keep the netting/fleece/polythene in place and removed individually as and when required.
I would make a suggestion to Allan. I use 20mm MDPE to make supports for my strawberry netting by simply using it as a simplw support hoop down between the rows so that it supports the netting
over a large area and prevents the net sagging.
Apart for that and actually running water through it I would suggest 20mm is far to frail for anything else.