Bagging fruits on the tree, for insect and disease protection

I just finished totally bagging up my peach trees. My main tree has about 200 bags on it now. It worked really well last year and I got 67 peaches in great condition, first year tree fruited. I was looking at the selection available in the local garden center and it was quite impressive: different types of bags and colors depending on the fruit and the effect you want. Apple bags look the most interesting, two bags in one made of different materials, you remove the outer bag about a week before you harvest.

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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.


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Strong work Maria.

Tony

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Thank you, Tony. It will be my first substantial fruit harvest this year, so I am trying to do everything I can.

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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

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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

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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:

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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! mesh

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How is it squirrel proof?

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One year only, I found two rolls of this material and wrapped my entire cherry tree. I could barely get one cherry, due to the bird and squirrel pressure. I found the fabric type cloth at Home Depot. They have never carried its again. Must have been a close-out purchase. It was fabulous!

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I was tempted to buy some material from here. http://www.joann.com/nylon-net-72in/prd7200.html They have a big sale today. My plan was to make sleeves for every branch. On that link they have a more coupons link that you can get 50% off with one item too.

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Looks like tulle.

I have a store close to where I’m working. Maybe I’ll stop on my way home and look at the material. I have rolls of cheap bird netting too. Maybe I’ll buy staples and make sleeves out of that. My trees are getting too big to net the whole tree. It just seems easier to net some branches. I tried doubling up nets last year and the chipmunks were hard to keep out. They made me think of kids in the play area at a fast food store.

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I didn’t bag last year, not ambitious enough. This year I’m trying the nylon footies from Home Orchard Society. It takes some practice to tie them on. For me, the sandwich bags didn’t work well, seemed to cause more damage than they prevented. Others on this thread have better ideas, but I think it depends on each of our climates. I tied footies on about 3 dozen apples, and have about double that number now without any.

I don’t know if they will be needed this year. I have ducks penned under most of my apple trees. They have been busy sticking their bills into the ground for mugs, larvae, worms, and other cool stuff, which I eat second had via duck eggs. Maybe the ducks will do better than the bags.

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I have so few potential fruits on my Gala tree this year, I think I’m going to bag the entire clusters - then the individual apples that survive

Does anybody bother bagging their pears? I bagged my apples because of Codling moth but have not had a problem with unbagged pears in the past. I don’t want to spend my time doing so if it is not needed.
Thanks

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I have. Whether it’s necessary, I can’t tell, but I often find some kind of entry wound near the calyx end in a lot of ripening pears.

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I usually don’t as pears expand so fast so mostly, not much internal damage even if insects lay eggs on them. However, stinkbugs can be an issue as they cause external damage (catfacing injury). If you don’t have stinkbugs, it’s a blessing. If you do, it depends on much damage they can cause.

I had it bad one year but not bad after or before that.

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