Bad Armadillo Vineyard

Bird Netting

In 2008, we lost almost all of our Blanc du Bois grapes.  The reason - Birds!  They went wild (which is probably what they were suppose to do . . . )  Because of this, I did not have any Blanc du Bois wine for 2009. 

I searched the Internet to find different ways to prevent birds from eating grapes in the vineyard.  There were a few solutions:  Bird of Pray Recordings, Scaring Devices, and Bird Netting.  I chose the netting.  In my search over the Internet for netting, I came across some at Amigoni Family Vineyards.  They had the most economical netting I could find.  It is made out of 3/4" x 3/4" black polypropylene mesh, and is only 2.2 cents per square foot.  It is UV Stabilized, and can be reused year after year.

Here's how we installed the netting.

The netting will come wrapped in a plastic bag, and rolled up on a cardboard tube.

Set the roll at one end of the row, and then unroll it along a row.  I tried the "kicking" method, but unrolling it by hand seemed to work the best.

Now that was a good kick!

Now cut the netting to the desired length - don't forget to leave a little extra on the ends to fold over.  I left about 4 feet.  Its better to have a little more, than not enough.  Use your first row to experimant with, and then adjust for the other rows.  Ordinary scissors work fine for cutting the netting.

Drape the netting over the row.  You might need some help when doing this.  My rows were short, so it wasn't too difficult.  Try to center the netting as best as you can.  The excess will be gathered on the bottom.

After the ends are secure, I gather the netting up around the vine trunk, and secured it on each side.

I then gathered the netting around the trellis posts, and secured the netting with clothespins.

The last thing to do is to put a clothespin in the center, between the vines.  I only needed one, but you might need more, depending upon your vine spacing.

Now the grapes are safe.  Hopefully, this will ensure our Blanc du Bois grapes will be there when we are ready to turn them into wine at the end of June!