Bagging plums with bread bags. Open to suggestions/comments

Mamuang! Perfect! Off to the bakery I go. Thanks so much.

One of the reasons that I have not planted many plums is due to the constant insect attack to the fruit. Hope this works and please follow up later. Thanks, Bill

Thanks for the details

Alcedo,

THANK YOU.

Mrs. G. - a small bakery may not want to give the bags out but the bakery section of a big supermarket is likely to. They have them in bulk in different sizes, and they want to please customers. So, they are likely to give you a few for your “science project”.

Bob - last year, my Shiro produced 12 plums so I used sandwich bags to individually bag them like you do. I worked out perfectly. No rot.

These bags look like they could work. Thanks, Bill

Absolutely! I am not spray-resistant but as a backyard hobby grower I would like to be as organic as reasonably possible. I really like the idea of allowing the fruit to remain attached without affecting the stem or risking fruit fall by having entire sections covered. For heavy setting plums like your Shiro I think you really nailed it with this flat-bag idea Mamuang. Plus it allows for air movement.

I worked this whole weekend (owww, feet hurt) but I was thinking quite a lot about learning that Jellyman from GW had heartbreaking losses due to BMSB biting through conventional bags. I was contemplating the weakness of bagging: the flat lie of the plastic over the fruit surface, which allows a bite through the plastic. That is why I used pipe cleaners to make a ‘dome’ for my peach bags: no direct contact between fruit surface and bag. But it was quite hand-crafty and possibly too labor intensive and impractical for an average tree-sized crop. So… bubble wrap came to mind, as the depth of the bubble compartments must surely exceed the reach of even BMSB mouthparts even as fruit grows wider and the surface angle of the fruit touches the inner surface of the bag .

They make these bags, and while a bit expensive to buy they would possibly be re-usable:
http://www.gtbag.com/bz.html

Some cuts for fluid flow would still need to be made in these bags. Am now also contemplating bubble-wrap sleeves, inspired by your flat bread bag sleeving.

Clearbags.com is the site that sells the exact bread bag. They are also suggested for fresh produce. 250 pieces cost $24.00 not including shipping.

Brethil and Mrs. G.,

We are getting close to growing a $60- per -plum level now. I think if we could design a net that could cover the whole trees against small insect like moth and does not cause moisture-trap rot, we could be rich :grin:

While I was putting footsies on my peaches (not very convenient and more time consuming than sandwich bags), I thought about my co-worker who hinted strongly that she would love to try my peach. I was like did she know it’s a lot of work to get one clean peach.

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Yuppo. :smile:

I was like did she know it’s a lot of work to get one clean peach. (Mamaung)

I just had a conversation like this with one of my physician friends this weekend at work. He loves listening to what I plant and grow and asks for advice as to what to put in, but thinks that you just plant it, allow a year and traipse out to the yard to harvest bushels of stuff with no work at all (presumably singing while you do so). You just smile at the trees and bushes and you get perfect fruit.

I told him plant a mulberry.

A clear trash bag sure would be a good way to go if I could figure out how to vent it. I’m thinking I could slit and staple it.

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Clark,
With all kinds of bagging, zip lock bags on apples and pears and bread bags on plums are my most successful organic approach. I bought a bulk of long bread bags this yesr. Not sure how many Shiro will ever set fruit as there is no other J plum to pollinate in my yard.

Not working is footsies on peaches. Footsies on pome fruit are not as cost effective or convenient as zip lock.

When you figure out a medthod of clear plastic bags with vents, please share it with us.

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I bagged peaches, plums and apples in blue footies. At my work they are used once in a very clean facility and then they are thrown in a trash by bags every day. I cut each footie in half, stapled the cut side and then stapled top ends over the branch. The last step is annoying because the stapler did not staple very well. I will bag some apples in a regular way with the plastic bags and compare.

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Hope this works. B T W if these were yellow color the whole tree would look like with yellow ribbon😉

Bagging obviously works but I scratch my head every time I see it and wonder how this does not induce rot. Specifically the sandwich bag approach. Seems to me like it would trap moisture and create a damp environment. I’d think water could enter through the site where the stem enters the bag or on the corners when they are snipped.

I have 2 peaches growing gand they will be my first ever. I’ve thought about bagging them. Maybe I’ll bag one and leave the other untouched as a comparison.

I don’t have good luck bagging peaches with zip lock bags.

Bob Vance’s dad has been very successful using zip lock bags on peaches. Bob posted his dad’s bags on one of the threads. Can’t remember which one.

Mamuang,
I’m giving this a try using something similar to your method. The test is on a plum that I don’t mind losing fruit on using old bread bags, ziplock gallons and quart bags etc… There is heavy insect pressure here. I cut the corner out of the bags and will hybridize this method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug34jxEcOzo and this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOdy2pAc63A. I pruned the branches back to where the heaviest clusters of fruit are at prior to bagging them. Any fruit showing insect damage I thinned out of the clusters prior to bagging.

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Will the fruits mature with the leaves pruned off? That is where the photosynthesis occurs.

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northwoodswis4 ,
I did not prune all the leaves off and new leaves will form in the bags, I suspect the plums will ripen faster than normal. We will find out more pretty soon. I spent the remainder of the day thinning the plums off that I did not bag. Thanks @mamuang for this post on bagging fruit I think it’s one of the best. The follow up post A good result of bread bag bagging Shiro plums was inspiring!

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Clark,
Thanks for the kind words.
The credit goes to Alcedo as it is his technique.

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Mamuang,
I found the thread Bagging fruits on the tree, for insect and disease protection - #34 by Auburn you were talking about and I see the post now. Thank you very much for posting your success because that’s the post that helped me. I’m looking at the other post now and see a lot of people are bagging their fruits!