Hundred And One Uses For Nylon Tulle

[AlittleSalt]

Oakley, I like that a lot. Our greens get attacked by every kind of bug you can imagine. That would go a long way to curing the bug problem.

This thread has given me some good ideas. I hope I can afford it when the time comes. I can see our gardens changing a lot in the near future.

[Father'sDaughter]

The classic Italian wedding favor. It's always the first thing that comes to mind when I see tulle.



My siblings and I would fight over the Jordan Almonds inside whenever mom and dad attended a wedding.

[Gardeneer]

Protect your fruits from the birds and bugs:
Aug 26- CP 1.jpg
Aug 26- CP 3.jpg

I didn't wanna take a chance with my nice-n big CP tomatoes with the birds and slugs , casually.

[habitat_gardener]

Tulle (and other lightweight fabrics, such as the $3 nylon curtains I found in the remainders section at Ikea) works so much better than floating row cover in winter rain and windstorms! All the regular (=bought at garden shops) row cover got saturated and then fell or blew off, but the Ikea curtains stayed in place last week. I replaced the coverings on other beds with more lightweight fabric yesterday.

The only downside (vs. something like metal screen or hardware cloth) is that rodents can chew through it, but that happened only once this year, and once last year. I covered the hole within a day or two, and saw no further gnawing.

[KarenO]

score at the local thrift shop today! 13 meters of 100" wide very fine bridal quality tulle. for 6 bucks.

the thrift shop ladies asked "what on earth are you going to do with all that?"

they very clearly thought I was crazy when I told them it was for my garden... perhaps they are right but I'm happy
KarenO

[Barb_FL]

My first tulle application was building a Tulle room; 2nd was covering the tomato cages when the plants were small with tulle.

Summer of '16

I draped tulle over my cucumber plants this past summer every night to protect them from the pickle worm moth. Plants went on the produce 330 cucumbers; only 3 had worm hole. No spraying.

2nd big use was I covered every mango on my Kent mango tree to discourage any damage to fruit (rats, squirrels, birds). I used tulle previously used covering cucumber plants.

3rd - If I end up using the black plastic containers, I cover the bottom with previously used Tulle so the mix doesn't come out with drainage.

[Gardeneer]

Karen, you've got a good deal. I used to buy them at Joann's fabric section for about $2.50 per yard. Sometimes for less.
It is easy to use because of its light weight. You can just throw over any small plants. The wind won't move it , light and rain will get through it ... And because its clingy, rats, rabbits, squirrels don't like to get tangled and they stay away and go somewhere else. Also it is deer resistance.

[GrowingCoastal]

Thrift shops are great for curtain material and tulle. Stronger than the specially made cloth I noticed got punctured when deer stepped on it and curtain material is often a finer weave. I got a unit made of tulle for draping over a crib that I used use over raspberries and blueberries.


A curtain over chard one spring to keep whitefly off.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by KarenO

score at the local thrift shop today! 13 meters of 100" wide very fine bridal quality tulle. for 6 bucks.

That's a good find.

Bridal tulle ("illusion tulle", "bridal illusion tulle") is very fine and a good choice for the garden. But it's expensive. I haven't done a side by side and made any calculations, but it might not actually work out to be cheaper than insect cover with built in UV protection for the material over time.

In my experience, most of the cheaper tulles/craft tulles don't do a good job of keeping out smaller pests like young flea beetles.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by habitat_gardener

Tulle (and other lightweight fabrics, such as the $3 nylon curtains I found in the remainders section at Ikea)

Cheap/old window sheers are the best. I have a bunch that my mother saved from many years ago that I use in the garden all the time.

[bower]

I'd really like to get something like this to make sure I don't get rust fly on my carrots this year.

It's cool if you can score some tulle that works and is inexpensive and maybe lasts ?? I don't know I guess it depends. I really got burned with the row cover I bought at the Dollar Store - the wind tore it to shreds and the fragments quickly turned tiny and soooo hard to pick it all up. Also fed up with everything I've bought that quickly falls apart or needs constant maintenance instead of having a reasonable lifespan....

I found one company that boasts a ten year lifespan for their netting - they are ag so likely have to buy farm size amounts which is too bad... But they explain about different materials for netting. They say that nylon and polyester products are treated with UV protection after manufacture, while they inject and chemically bond the UV protectant into the polyethelyne material for longest lasting product in the field.
http://www.smart-net-systems.com/agricultural-nets
They have one for thrips too, super fine
http://www.smart-net-systems.com/agr...insect-netting

Duboisag also has a HDPE product with 5 year lifespan but don't seem to offer in garden sizes, their Proteknet product is available at William Dam in a $30 garden size piece but the lifespan is only 1-3 seasons. :/ That one is made of polyamide.
Duboisag gives some good info about mesh sizes for different insect pests:
http://www.duboisag.com/en/proteknet...t-netting.html

And I found another american company besides the megastore (where they ding you if it's not a huge order) and they have the HPDE product citing a 7 year lifespan... for about the same price only american $.
http://www.americannettings.com/prod...insect-screen/
seven years sounds a heck of a lot better to me than "1-3 seasons"
I found one nylon product, that's on Amazon from gardeningwill, there's no mention of UV treatment at all so I guess it's the biggest gamble - for about the same price.

[KarenO]

For six bucks I don't care if it lasts but I think it will for several seasons, it's pretty strong . Look at the fabric shop Bower or thrift store for old polyester curtain sheers as suggested above. As in the local buy and sell might be can idea. I'm a thrift store junkiecand old curtains go for next to nothing if you only want them for fabric not style. colour doesn't need to be White either
KarenO.

[bower]

I will keep an eye out! (Good excuse to go to thrift or fabric store, anyway)
But I'd be happy to spend $30 on something that lasted seven years.

[gorbelly]

Originally Posted by bower

I really got burned with the row cover I bought at the Dollar Store - the wind tore it to shreds and the fragments quickly turned tiny and soooo hard to pick it all up. Also fed up with everything I've bought that quickly falls apart or needs constant maintenance instead of having a reasonable lifespan....

Yeah, in many ways, you still get what you pay for. IMO stuff bought at thrift stores/secondhand stores are always more durable than dollar store stuff, which is designed to be garbage from the beginning. Don't get me wrong--I love deals at dollar stores, but it really depends on what product you're looking for.

Maybe ask around with extended family, neighbors, etc. A lot of people have a box of old window sheers in their basement or attic.

[jtjmartin]

Tulle use #?: My neighbor hangs soap in it as a deer deterrent.