Using insect netting in your organic vegetable garden

Using insect netting is one of the ways to protect your crops from pests or also called harmful insects. But it is not always necessary and it also has other functions. In this article I will discuss insect netting and everything that comes with it.

What are the functions of insect screens?

Protecting your plants from pests

Insect netting protects your plants against fly larvae. Both the onion fly, the cabbage fly, the leek leaf miner and other flies that lay their eggs near the base of your plants. It is a survival strategy of these flies to lay their eggs near a source of food for the larvae. With cabbages, the roots are eaten by the larvae (also called maggots) and they fall over, the carrot fly and the leek leaf miner bore into your plant where they feast on your delicious vegetables. The cabbage whites use the same strategy but they do not lay their eggs at the base of your cabbage plant but on the underside of your cabbage leaves. Once the eggs become larvae they feed on the leaves of your cabbage. In a few hours an entire cabbage plant can be eaten bare. It is better to combat snails before they get a chance to get to your cabbages. How to combat snails effectively can be read in this article: Combating snails – 4 crucial tips to eat your own vegetables

Insect screens are the alternative to (chemical) pesticides

When you see entire fields of cauliflowers in the countless fields in our low countries, you wonder: "Aren't those farmers bothered by the cabbage fly or the cabbage white butterfly?" The cabbages in the fields are usually controlled with chemical agents. Note, there are more and more organic products on the market but they cost the farmers more so most cabbages (and other vegetables) in our supermarkets are still controlled with chemical agents.

Which insect screen should I use?

In our vegetable garden it is a great alternative to invest in a good insect screen , this site sells insect screen from Duranet, the best on the market that ensures that you eat your own vegetables for life. The screen consists of woven UV-stabilized polyethylene monofilament. There are 2 types, so pay close attention to which mesh you invest in:

• Insect mesh 0.97mm x 1.54mm 90gr/m2 – 3 meters wide : This mesh keeps the following pests out of your crops: cabbage fly, onion fly, carrot fly and cabbage white butterfly
• Insect mesh 0.27mm x 0.77mm 140gr/m2 – 3 meters wide : This mesh keeps the following pests out of your crops: cabbage fly, onion fly, carrot fly, cabbage white butterfly, aphids, whitefly, leaf miner fly and thrips.

Curtain fabric or net curtain

For budgetary reasons, some gardeners opt for curtain fabric or net curtains from a Swedish furniture manufacturer or other store. This fabric is made to hang in front of your window on the inside of your house. It does not have the quality to withstand sun, rain, wind and other weather conditions. So know that if you use it outside, it will quickly go to the incinerator. I was also tempted once and it was simply dead after 1 year, nothing more to do with it.

Protecting your plants from the elements

In the current changing climate, our plants have to endure a lot. Bright sun, hail, torrential rain, wind, ... 4 weather phenomena that are partly blocked by the Duranet insect screen . Direct sunlight is broken and sufficient light is allowed to grow your vegetables. Hail simply bounces back up and driving rain is broken into a shower for your crops. The wind dries out your soil very quickly, especially when your plants are still small, the wind has free rein. I also use fleece for this. But for crops that also need to be covered with insect screen , I immediately use insect screen . Especially when no more frost is expected. Insect screen insulates less than root cloth.

Disadvantages of insect screen

In very humid conditions, moisture evaporates a little less quickly from your beds. This can cause diseases in very humid warm conditions but with the crops where you use insect netting (cabbage, carrots , onions, parsnips , ...) diseases due to humidity are rare. Be sure to plant your crops at the right distance so that you optimize the air circulation under the netting. If you are sloppy with insect screens , you can attract snails. If you have too much insect screen on both sides of your bed, carefully roll it up and make sure that it does not lie on the ground. Because that creates damp environments where snails live. Combating snails (click on link for more information) can be done very efficiently and in this way you prevent them from reaching your insect screen .

In which situations do you use insect screens?

In a garden where you do crop rotation or where you grow large quantities of the same crops, it is best to use insect netting . In the case of companion planting, you can often mislead the pests so that they look for a better place to lay their eggs. But many vegetable gardens and organic growers work in beds with monoculture. That means for example: 1 bed of 1m20 on 5m carrots or the same size leek . That is a set table for flies or butterflies that look at your garden from the air. They also smell large concentrations of plants that are interesting to them. The onion fly smells your onion bed from a long way off, especially after a hoeing session. In a garden with companion planting, you confuse the pests. Bright colours of flowers, the smell of carrots that repels the onion fly and vice versa. Companion planting is very interesting in that sense. You have to think a little more about your garden and to be honest, I find it easier to sow my carrots than in tubes through other crops. But the overview I want does require me to install nets.

Alternatives to insect screens

As I said, you can delve into companion planting. Peter Anrijs has written a lot about it, you can read more about it on this site: http://natuurlijkemoestuin.be Vera Greutink also has nice articles and videos about companion planting: https://www.tuinsmakelijk.nl/ You can also distract insects with pheromone traps. A little bit of sadism keeps a lot of harmful insects out of your garden. The technique consists of spreading the breeding scent in your vegetable garden and then catching the harmful insects for your vegetable garden. In some cases you can release them somewhere else.

Finally

Hopefully, with this article we are one step closer to an ecological vegetable garden. Chemical rubbish is really unnecessary and harms the nature we need so much. If you found this article valuable, please share it with your friends and acquaintances. You can support the operation of this site by purchasing your vegetable garden supplies in our webshop , with the discount code 'biomoestuin' you will receive a 5 euro discount on your first purchase. Have fun in your vegetable garden. Tom