Netting strawberries

Ripening strawberries under netting

Carrying on from yesterday when I touched on the ripening of grapes, here is an example of another fruit - the strawberry - which catches the eye of birds in particular. As the fruit ripens, it begins to gain its characteristic red colour on the side most exposed to sunlight. Birds do not wait until the whole fruit is ripe before tasting and happily devour half the strawberry leaving the remainder for the slugs or snails.

Netting, as shown above, is a good way of keeping the birds off. It is also used in vineyards where blackbirds, starlings etc can reduce crops considerably, as long as the grapes are sweet enough.