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TucsonKen

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Posted Reply with quote  #1 
A storm destroyed the netting on my big cage and I still needed to protect the ripening fruit on my persimmon. I figured I'd make the whole frame out of 1/2" PVC but it seemed too wobbly for the uprights. Electrical conduit (1/2" EMT) seemed better, but they didn't have the fittings I needed for the corners. Then I noticed I could force an EMT coupler into a PVC side-outlet elbow (slip fit) by removing one set screw and squeezing the fittings together in a vice. Presto! Just the hybrid fitting I needed to connect EMT uprights to a rectangular PVC frame. A digging bar was used to make holes in the ground to hold the EMT vertical.

For the netting envelope I folded a length in half and sewed up 1 1/2 sides of a big rectangle (make it slightly bigger than you need), leaving the lower half of one side's seam open for a door, which I closed with clothespins. From ladders, my son and I slipped the netting over the top, like a loose sock, and rolled up & clothespinned the slack "triangles" of netting hanging down--left over from the sewed corners.

The frame is not glued, so at the end of the season I'll just dismantle it and store everything till next year.
fuyu cage 1.jpg 
fuyu cage 2.jpg 
fuyu cage corner.jpg 

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Ken
Tucson, Arizona
Zone 8b
jkuo

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Posted Reply with quote  #2 
That is really convenient to know.  I might actually manage to get up some bird netting next year.
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Johnny - Lancaster, PA, Zone 6b
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Frankallen

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Posted Reply with quote  #3 
Ken, that is a very smart enclosure!! Great Job! Stops those Birds, but we have a problem in my area with Racoons!
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Frank from Bama-  Zone 7-b Alabama

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FiggyFrank

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Posted Reply with quote  #4 
Nice setup, Ken!  Very clever.
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Frank
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figpig_66

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Posted Reply with quote  #5 
I made a few out of 3/4 pvc. Like the idea of the eletrical conduit. Mine keeps birds and squirrels out
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RICHIE BONI
HICKORY LOUISIANA ZONE 8B WARM HUMID
WINRERS ARE VERY MILD LOW 20'S BUT WARMS RIGHT UP DURING THE DAY. SUMMER IS EXTREMELY HOT & HUMID 100 degrees 100% humidity fig tree grow like crazy but some split from rain & humidity
Wish list. Col de dame blanc
Col de rimada
Lsu numbered figs
jdsfrance

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Posted Reply with quote  #6 
Hi,
Is this persimmon a known strain ? Can you name it ?
The persimmons I see here grow taller and this compact persimmon is what I could be looking for.
Nice netting :) .
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rmulhero

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Posted Reply with quote  #7 
Very nicely done! I will have to remember this for next year. I am assuming you can dissemble it at the end of the year for storage?
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Becky, zone 5
Growing: Hardy Chicago, VdB, Dessert King, Celeste, Green Ischia, Marseilles VS, Kathleen's Black, Red Sicilian, Adriatic JH, Violetta bayerfeinge, New Brunswick, Magnolia and Italian Honey.

Wishlist: Sicilian Black JR, Petite Negra, Sweet George, Lattarula, Sals Corleone (Gene),  Vasilika sika, Galicia negra, Dalmatie and any cold hardy fig.
figlayla

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Posted Reply with quote  #8 
Nice looking tree..
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Joshua Ahl
New York/Long Island

Wish List:  black madiera, vdb, rdb, nero 600 ( waiting on greenfin's delivery) pomengranete cuttings/plants..and a bmw r25/26/27

Current list in pots: Sals, honey, green ichia, monstrues, hardy chicago, joe morle Goccia d'Oro, atillio purple, black mission.

Rooting Unknowns Now
TucsonKen

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Posted Reply with quote  #9 
Thanks All.

Jdsfrance, it is a Fuyu persimmon. I prune the top each year or two to keep the fruit within easy reach. It bears so heavily that the branches have become bent downward, resulting in the compact shape.
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Ken
Tucson, Arizona
Zone 8b
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Posted Reply with quote  #10 
I'm curious what type of netting this is and where did you purchase it? Thanks
TucsonKen

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Posted Reply with quote  #11 
It's the "bird netting smaller mesh" from Amigoni (http://www.amigoni.com/). It's very inexpensive per square foot, but you have to buy a 13' x 820' roll for $245. I don't recommend it for long-term installations--the manufacturer claims it's UV stabilized to last 3-4 years, but for me it only lasted one year.
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Ken
Tucson, Arizona
Zone 8b
jbclem

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Posted Reply with quote  #12 
I've been using 1/2" EMT pipes for years in my garden, and it's always bedeviled me that I couldn't find  inexpensive elbows and couplers and tees to put them together like you have.  There are people on eBay who have welded up their own solutions and sell them, but they are still too expensive.  However, I've found a solution similar to yours but eliminating the EMT coupler that you push into the PVC elbow.  Try using a 1/2" PVC elbow with internal threads, the non-slip kind of elbow.  You can push the 1/2" EMT conduit pipe into it and it's a fairly tight fit.  I haven't made a frame with it yet, so I don't know if it's as stable as your solution but it's a good fit and cheap.

I was just at Home Depot last night looking for more of these elbows, and could only find a 1/2" tee with internal threads.  It cost $1.34, so the elbow has to be even cheaper.  Here are the SKU codes from the two types if anyone wants to try to find them.  I don't think they are as common as the slip-on elbows, and I don't know what they are used for

elbow:  49081 14206
tee:      49081 14938  (1/2" PVC Tee FPT sch 40)    ....I think the FPT stands for pipe thread, and a 1/2"
            galvanized pipe nipple will screw into the threads, whereas the 1/2" EMT pipe just kind of         
            squeezes into the hole with the threads.

So this is great, two solutions to the problem, both inexpensive.

If someone tries to make a frame with the FPT elbows, let us know how stable it is. 

John
TucsonKen

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Posted Reply with quote  #13 
John--Sounds like a good method. I didn't think to try fitting EMT into one of the pipe-threaded side outlet ells. However, the EMT couplers are so cheap ($1.60 for a bag of 5) I expect jamming one into a slip-fit side outlet ell may still be a few cents cheaper.
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Ken
Tucson, Arizona
Zone 8b
jbclem

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Posted Reply with quote  #14 
I didn't realize EMT couplers were that cheap.  Every time I've looked at EMT accessories they seemed way overpriced.   I found the FTP elbows at the Home Depot website(from a Google link) for  34 cents each, but there also was a blurb (in the google search result) that they were discontinued. 

The 1/2" EMT couplers I see on the Home Depot website have raised areas where the screws screw in.  Is that what makes it a tight fit, or have you found couplers that are smooth after you remove the screws?

John
nycfig

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Posted Reply with quote  #15 
Nice set up.  Good job Ken!
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AltadenaMara

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Posted Reply with quote  #16 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Frankallen
Ken, that is a very smart enclosure!! Great Job! Stops those Birds, but we have a problem in my area with Racoons!

Raccoons are my main problem here also. Have you tried the plastic clam shell containers over the figs? I was thinking of trying that next.
I've had to bring the fig trees with ripening fruit inside at night to save my two Bourjasotte Gris figs. The trees are still in five gallon containers so it's not difficult. Ripe BG figs broadcast a surprisingly strong, fruity fragrance that fills the room. Outside the coons will knock over the pots to get to the figs. They'll even eat the not so ripe Improved Celestes split open with normal watering.
Perhaps it's time to get a big, barking dog. My little Bichon Frise is getting old and lazy.   
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Mara  Southern California  Zone 1990= 9b   2012= 10a  2020=?

 
Charlie

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Posted Reply with quote  #17 
I like this, well done!  Seems a waste to spend all the money and time, only to have critters get the figs in the end. 
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TucsonKen

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Posted Reply with quote  #18 
John, yes, that raised area around the screw is what makes the coupler fit tightly into the PVC. I left the other screw in place but plan to remove it when I store everything for winter, because it serves no real function and still managed to get caught in the netting when we were setting things up--even though each screw was turned to the inside of the corner.

Mara & Frank, I wish I could offer a solution for raccoons, but (fortunately) I don't have any experience with them, although they do live in parts of Tucson. I have an electric fence around most of my little orchard to keep javelinas out--maybe something like that would work? A friend keeps rats out of his garden with a three-foot-high wire fence with a hotwire suspended an inch above the top (connected to insulators). When rats climb the fence they have to grab the hotwire to get over the top, and it sends them flying--with little enthusiasm for a second try. Maybe a bigger version would work for coons. My guess though, from what I've read on the forum, is that the only way to truly solve the problem is to completely enclose your trees in a cage of metal mesh.

PS--yes, I have tried plastic clamshell berry boxes. They work to a point, but I don't think they'd deter a raccoon for more than about 10 seconds. My main problem with them is the birds often manage to get a beak in through the ventilation slits; the fruit also seems to get pretty hot inside them, though maybe that's less of  a problem in cooler areas.
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Ken
Tucson, Arizona
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