I bought both metal and fabric screen. I feel much comfortable working with fabric screen, the metal one is soft and not difficulty to handle but I am worried these little tiny metal piece left on the floor might poke my bare foot. Also, the fabric screen bag can be store a lot more flat than the metal ones.
Cost wise, they are about the same, I get about 0.25 a bag which is not too bad if it works against the squirrels. I figured if I leave 100 peaches on one tree, it only cost me $25 bucks. And these bag can be used next year, I hope.
The unanswered question is will or will not the dip on the fabric screen, looks like sort of rubber, release any harmful substance when it is in contact of fruits. Same goes to the alum. screen too, it is coated with some polymer, will or will not the polymer stable enough and not release any harmful substance.
Annie, I guess you can always avoid getting poked in the foot by metal screen by wearing shoes 
And for me, my squirrels are pretty wiley, and fabric screen would be no match for them - they’d chew right through it in 2 seconds. Clint found that out, which is why he uses metal screen. I plan on storing my used metal screen rectangles in a flat cardboard box. They will lay flat enough stacked on top of each other, and I can add a piece of cardboard on top to flatten them more, if need be. And, I cannot imagine that any harmful substance from either type of screening material could be transmitted into the fruit in any amount that might be harmful to you. The screen would have to be coated with a significant amount of toxic chemicals to be able to be absorbed in high enough levels into the fruit to cause any sort of medical concern.
Patty S. (RN)
Your imagination is wild
A screen enclosure would be great if you have a place to store it and could dismantle it easy when not in use. I don’t have that kind of available storage space. These pouches scrunch down pretty well in a plastic tub in the garage.
I haven’t tried plastic screen, so I can’t speak to using it. Steel screen is cheap enough and easy enough to work with.
I have squirrels really fighting to open a number of the pouches this year. They are starting to take it as a challenge. Shredding leaves, chewing the pouches, chewing branches, knocking down pouches, etc. I’m going to up the game a little by adding some tanglefoot around some of the stapled areas. The trees along the block wall are getting pounded right now.
It is high time I wrap my fruitlets in protective pantyhose.
Yeah-- it was me. I was the creep in Walmart buying boxes of women’s pantyhose today.
My wife can have the extras.
Don’t judge. I love unblemished fruit, and I love beautiful women.
What does that cost you per fruit?
I use zip lock sandwich bags for apples and organza bags for soft fruits. After a season the bags still looked like new so I am reusing them this year. 5x8 is large enough for most fruit and the “moss green” colour does not stand out. Added benefit is if you tie the drawstring to the branch if your fruit falls when ripe it stays attached to the tree and it’s not vulnerable to bugs are animals on the ground.
http://www.yourorganzabag.com/organzabag.htm
About $5 bucks per box of 10 knee-high pantyhose. Each piece of hosiery can be cut in half-- and the ends tied off-- resulting in 20 usable pieces/ protected fruits. They last one or two seasons-- eventually deteriorating. Sometimes if the fruits plump up big enough, you get “holes in your runners.”
Probably more expensive than your longer-lasting ziplock bags, but I like the added breathability of the footies. And I like to have an excuse to buy women’s lingerie.
The organza bags are a nylon mesh. 100% breathable. Zip locks I only use for apples.
I’m still stuck on ziploc sandwich bag for both my apples and pears. Also bagged ten peaches this season with the ziploc bags.
I am also using nylon footies to bag my soft fruits. I got them on Amazon, for about $10.50; the are the little nylon socks used in shoe stores for people to try on shoes, and are already the size I would want for my fruit, so that’s handy. In the reviews you can see that many of the other purchasers also had the same idea! I didn’t count them, but it’s a small shoe box crammed full of them–approximately a gajillion. A pretty good buy. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B008NCHM9Y/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_vote_lft?ie=UTF8&voteInstanceId=R1K9XQOK8RWO6L&voteValue=1&csrfT=gPQhfsCqOaI2EdDIb4A0pu2%2BBgAZhBVE0GpECRsAAAAJAAAAAFkbI3hyYXcAAAAA#R1K9XQOK8RWO6L
I will probably use these until they are no longer of use, but I have to say I love those little organza bags, HungryFrozenCanuck! It would be like having each fruit individually gift wrapped! So fancy! 
Bagged a lot of apples last week and this week. About 200 apples on my 4th leaf 4 apple trees on M26. Just the right size of an apple tree for me so far.
I used 3 kinds of bags, two types of plastic ones which I perforated and the fancy hand made ones.
The other bags were the cheap very thin but I liked them, they were handy to put on the fruits with short stems. I do not know how they hold but so far I liked them.
Bagged several peaches in these light bags to see hoe they do. Tango peach on the above picture.
In the winter I made a fancy bags from the frost protection cloth. I hope they withstand UV light and will be usable for several years.
Strong work Maria.
Tony
Thank you, Tony. It will be my first substantial fruit harvest this year, so I am trying to do everything I can.
Those look great! I admire your industriousness! Best of luck with the harvest this year and with the bags lasting!
Interesting to see the home made exclusion bags from frost protection cloth. I don’t see that stuff where I live. I have made some bags and sleeves from fruit fly exclusion net that works well on peaches and like fruit but I mostly use commercial bags on bunching fruit, citrus and soft fruit like tomato and peppers. It is interesting to see how you deal with the short stemmed fruit with the plastic bags.
Mick
Loring
O’Henry
used these
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Y4EHTUM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There is a promotion where you get an additional 100 free green 4x5’s too right on the page.
I like that they have an actual drawstring, took me about 10 minutes to bag 30 peaches
Bonus! Thanks for the link. They do look functionally easier and faster than the tied nylon socks option, and easier for helpful hands, which is always a plus!
Today I finally put the footies on the two dozen viable apple fruitlets that formed on my trees. I removed any buggy apples beforehand.
Some of the Rubinette:
At least seven (7) Goldrush apples covered up on this tree:
A few Carolina Red Junes… These ties have a dual purpose for espaliering the tree branches to the post-and-wire:
I tried ten types of bags. Some ordered direct from Japan, some from China. Clemson and Footsie and Organza… I think I have used em all over the last four years.
Now I think I have a winner. Squirrel proof!
This is what it looks like. Heavier nylon mesh than Organza. 15x25 cm size. I get Japanese quality Apples. $10 each in their makets! 