Crackpots Rural
Build your own Orchard Structure
Are you looking for Orchard Netting to protect your fruit trees from the birds? Our EZBuild Structures are a permanent anti-bird structure. We think they are the most efficient and cost-effective way to protect your orchard or garden.
Crackpots has designed DIY kits so that you can build your own Netted Orchard Structure using timber poles. It’s a simple to follow process, and with a few basic skills and the right tools, you (and a friend or two!) can build one for yourself.
DIY Orchard Netting Structure
Our DIY Orchard Structure kit is called an EZBuild. It’s ideal for smaller structures up to 22m wide, and up to 100m long. They are best suited to protecting your orchard, small vineyard or edible garden.
Very simply, you build a structure from CCA pine poles, and tensioned wire cable to create the frame. Then the whole area is wrapped in a single piece of bird netting, which is stretched and tensioned over the sides and fixed at ground level.
If you’re interested in setting up your own permanent orchard netting, then we can help.
What size orchard structure should I build?
To get started, simply measure up the area you’re looking to enclose. We recommend taking a look at our off the shelf kit sizes.
When you are working out the size of your structure, remember to leave room around your trees for pruning and mowing.
Here’s some helpful tips to consider when working out the measurements:
- Small – 12m x 22m x 3.5m High
- Medium – 18m x 30m x 3.5m High
- Large – 22m x 40m x 3.5m High
We also build custom sized structures.
When you are working out the size of your structure, remember to leave room around your trees for pruning and mowing.
Here’s some helpful tips to consider when working out the measurements:
- Allow 2.5 – 3m width per tree
- Allow a minimum gap of 1m between the rows of trees – maybe more depending on the size of your mower, and the type of trees you’re growing.
- Allow at least 1m between the trees and the edge of your structure – both for mowing & so branches don’t grow through the netting.
What height do you recommend the orchard structure to be?
All of our standard structures are designed around a height of 3.5m. Why 3.5m? For most people who have a small orchard, and are managing trees without a mechanical picker, it’s ideal to keep the trees pruned to a height of 2.5m. This is a good height for both maintaining your trees & picking the fruit. The structure will then be one metre taller than your trees, so there’s space for the trees to grow in spring. The extra height will minimise the risk of the branches growing through the netting and damaging it.
Call for a quote
When you’ve got your measurements finalised, call or email us with your dimensions, and we’ll put together a quote for you.
Interested in indicative pricing? Have a look at our kit prices on our e-commerce website.
Reviewing your kit before you order.
Together with your quote, we’ll send you
- an overview of the steps required to build your own orchard structure.
- Confirmation of the number of poles you’ll need to source for the project. We recommend using 100mm diameter CCA pine poles, about 4.5m in length. These can usually be sourced from your local rural supply stores.
We recommend double checking that you’ve left enough room to easily when mow, prune or pick inside your new orchard the structure
Do Crackpots supply the poles?
We don’t, and there’s a few reasons. It will save you money on freight; some people already have poles on their properties, and often local suppliers offer a better price. We like to stick to the areas we can supply a great product at a value price.
What size poles should I order?
If you are ordering one of our EZBuild kits, the finished structure is 3.5m high. We recommend that the poles are buried close to one metre below ground, so that means you’re ideally looking for poles around 4.5m long. If your ground is particularly rocky, then digging down a full metre is going to be problematic. You might need to source slightly shorter poles.
Should I concrete the poles into the ground?
No, you don’t need to concrete the poles into the ground. When you are putting up the poles we recommend just backfilling and compacting the soil around the pole. You will need to do it repeatedly. But this will give a really strong and stable result, without the need for concrete. The only time that you might need to anchor your poles in concrete, is if you are building in very sandy ground.
If you’re keen to go ahead with the project, then we’ve got a video to show you the easy, step-by-step process of building your own EZBuild Structure. Plus we’ve got a more detailed instruction manual for you to follow, that should answer all your questions.
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