Crackpots Rural
Build your own Orchard Structure
Are you looking for orchard netting to protect your fruit trees from birds? Our EZBuild Structures offer permanent bird protection. We believe they are the most efficient and cost-effective way to protect your orchard or garden.
Crackpots has designed DIY kits, so you can build your own netted orchard structure using timber poles. The process is simple to follow. With a few basic skills and the right tools, you (and a friend or two) can build one.
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. Then use tensioned wire cable to create the rest of the frame. The whole area is wrapped in a single piece of bird netting. It 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, leave enough room around 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
See pricing for our standard kit sizes on our e-commerce website.
Or if you need a custom sized structures, please contact us for a custom quote.
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. Check the size of trees you are planting. Larger mowers or tractors will also need more space for access.
- Allow at least 1m between the trees and the edge of your structure. There needs to be enough room to get a mower or tractor through. Plus its important to avoid the branches growing out 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? Most people with small orchards manage trees without a mechanical picker. At a 2.5m tree height, you can safely prune and pick fruit from a ladder.
The structure will be one metre taller than your trees, allowing space for growth in spring. The extra height helps minimize the risk of 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.
Do Crackpots supply the poles?
We don’t, and there’s a few reasons: Buy poles locally will save you money on freight. Some people already have poles on their properties that they would like to use. Plus we often find local suppliers offer a better price. We like to stick to the areas we can supply a great orchard structure product at a value price.
What size poles should I order?
If you are ordering one of our EZBuild kits, the finished orchard 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. If you are building in very sandy ground, you might need to anchor your poles in concrete.
If you’re keen to go ahead with the project, reach out. We’ve got a video that shows the easy, step-by-step process of building your own EZBuild Structure. Plus we’ve got a detailed instruction manual for you to follow, that should answer all your questions.
Where do you ship to?
Crackpots is based in O’Connor, WA, and you can easily pick up your orchard kits directly from our warehouse during opening hours. If you’ve ordered a gate with your structure, you’ll need a ute or trailer for collection. Alternatively, we can arrange freight with a carrier to deliver your kit. In fact, we’ve shipped our kits all over Australia—from Tasmania to the Pilbara. Please note, however, that if you’re in Victoria, specific regulations apply to orchard netting. You can read more about these requirements here.
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