A net closed on three sides and left open on the fourth excludes nothing. The gap does all the work. Any bird netting installation comes down to three moves in the same order: support first, tension second, seal last. Get that order wrong and you have paid good money for a very slow piece of shade cloth.
The mesh must never rest on the plant. Birds land on a draped net and feed straight through it at the canopy edges, where the fruit presses into the mesh from below. That is why a light wooden or PVC frame over a berry planting counts as part of the install and not as an upgrade. Your netting perimeter support carries the whole job, so set posts at the corners and run a ridge or a line of hoops down the row to hold the mesh clear of the outer branches.
Fruit trees and grapes ask for the same thing. Hold the net away from the canopy so no fruit touches it, then bring the edge down to the ground and tie off the ends. A net thrown over a tree and cinched in at the trunk leaves the whole outer shell of the canopy in reach, and that is exactly where the ripest fruit hangs. A skirt that stops 1 foot (30 cm) short is a doorway.
On a building the net does the opposite job. It gets pulled tight against the beams and walls so nothing can slip in behind it. Penn State Extension sets the line at any opening wider than 0.5 inch (13 mm), which is a smaller gap than most people picture. Cover the undersides of the rafters to wipe out the roosting ledges up there. On a permanent job, cut velcro-fastened access panels into the net so you can still reach the lights and gear behind it.
How to attach bird netting over a row? The order matters more than the hardware you buy. Build, unroll, clip, then close the bottom.
Set the wooden or PVC frame first and size it so the mesh clears fruit on every side, the outer branches included.
Work from one end to the other. Long rows go faster with a Netter Getter or a PVC-tube-and-crank rig, and a shirt without buttons keeps the net from catching on you as you go.
Pull the mesh level between supports so it cannot pool into low pockets that drop onto the fruit.
Clip during the install or right after it, never the next morning. Netting left unclipped blows off the row.
Bring the netting all the way down and tie it off at the base, corners and end walls included.
Bird netting tension is the part that gets left for later, and later is how a net ends up lying on the crop. A loose net sags into pockets, the pockets settle onto the fruit, and birds feed through them the same way they feed through a net draped over a bare tree. Take the slack out as you clip rather than after, because a clipped net holds whatever shape you gave it.
Clipping is not a one-time chore. Netting blows off rows without clips, so clip it as you install and then walk the edges again after every hard blow. Re-secure anything that has worked loose, since one lifted corner puts birds under the whole net for as long as it stays lifted. That walk is part of a bird netting installation, and it repeats all season.
Read the full article: Bird Netting That Works Without Trapping
