It is amazing to think that this business is only 4 or so years old, it feels like I have been doing this for a lot longer than that. As with all unique and new products developed, you can't borrow knowledge from what others have done and need to learn from scratch, which is certainly what we have been doing with the frames.
One area we are learning a lot about each day is how to get the tree frames performing well in strong winds. I worked on a few set ups over the break and have found a very easy and simple solution – remove the net clamps!
With tree frames, the netting is normally secured to the ground, we have new net pins to do that, but people use all kinds of things – lengths of wood, bricks, sand socks etc. When these are in place, you can remove the net clamps so the net is not attached to the frame, so when the wind blows the net just flaps around, but as it is not connected to the frame, the frame stays in place and does not move, keeping everything together, as it should be.
It is such a simple solution and has worked well in the tests we have been doing. Of course, as soon as I go to film it the wind stops! But you can see in this video how the netting blows around without tugging at the frame.
Netting over smaller frames is not an issue in the wind and the clamps are still perfect for those, as they are easy to remove so you can fold the netting up to get into the garden.
Thanks
Peter