I bagged my first fruit yesterday and it got me to thinking that some of us bag or use surround but there is probably many others with different options. I’m sure many others as well I would like to know what and how your attempting to get more usable fruit. Any thoughts and comment are welcome.
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The grands and I fixed up Ziploc bags yesterday and we put them on my/our entire Harrow Sweet pear crop for this year. Last year I only had two that ripened and we shared them. Everyone though they were the best they have tasted. The total count was only 53 HS bagged and I wish there were more.
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Well i use insecticides, I don’t have pears though. I don’t bag anything and I get all of the fruit blemish free, I said I don’t bag anything, but I do, mostly figs, i don’t spray them. For birds I use netting.
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Those harrow sweet do have a nice flavor. They are almost the best and they certainly hint at being the best though they always come up just short of it. The pears that are better are not as reliable, early to produce, disease resistant etc…For the reasons mention Harrow sweet is exceptional! I started growing because of @alan high recommendation for it in his area.
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In Texas I used draw-string bags from sheer mesh, like they use for wedding gifts. They worked really well for many fruit, I could even bag clusters like grapes and several mangoes at a time. Used on peaches was the best in some ways.
It protected from rain, insect damage and other larger animals from stealing.
The only real downside is that it reduces sun blush colors (and of course the time it takes to put them on). They can be reused many seasons, so I think cost isn’t so bad with eBay around.
I’m hoping they work here on the east coast as well.
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I don’t want to sound pessimistic. I am in the East Coast. I have tried all kinds of bags including the drawstring mesh bags you mentioned (we call in organza bags here). If they are the same, mine let air and water through.
They do not protect against insect damage (plum curculio and OFM lay eggs through the materials) or animals (squirrels or birds). Other people here got the same result I got. @mrsg47 used them on her grapes. I think birds pecked through them.
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Bill,
53 HS pears are fantastic. My tree has not gotten big. Could be that I let it fruit too early and has stunted it and it does not get a lot of sun, either.
Love the way you get your grands involved in gardening. They will have wonderful memories to last a life time.
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Nothing is a guarantee I suppose, but just from what I saw personally in my last location. I had grapes disappearing daily, bagged and then totally stopped.
I’ve also had neighbors with PC and OFM in their unprotected trees, mine didn’t get hit with bags. I used oversize ones, so fruit didn’t touch the bag except at the top by the drawstring.
I’ve heard disposable sock/stocking soaked in Surround works the best with a rubber band, but I’ve never tried it.
Bummer to hear it hasn’t worked for many on the East Coast here I was hoping it would. I’ll still try, never know.
You had the key sentence there, “fruit did not touch the bags”. It will work if fruit do not touch bags. Sometimes, after rain or wind, bags get squished and touch fruit. OFM and PC seem to find those fruit in no time.
I used both nylon socks or fruit sox, with Surround and without Surround. Some say it has worked for them on apples. I don’t use fruit sox on aplles, plastic zip lock bags are cheaper and easier on apples for me.
At least for me, Fruit soxes do not work on stone fruit like peaches. They lay eggs through the soxes, Surround or not.
I use surround on a limited basis last year but this go around I have been coating the fruit and waiting until they are dime size. My pears were the first to get to this size and it sure made bagging and thinning much easier. Last season I mostly used ziploc bags and a few of my broganza bags.
Bill,
I forgot to ask when do Harrow sweet ripen in that climate?
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The cloth bags: I tried two varieties, the first was ‘Organza’ bags with satin ties, the birds pecked through everything as all of the fruit is still visible through the bag. The following year I ordered up beige cotton bags, thinking since they were opaque, the birds wouldn’t see the fruit. Well, I forgot about the fragrance of the grapes and the raccoons attacked not only the entire trellis, but the arch as well. In one night there were grape seeds, white bags, and grape skins all of the the lawns, driveways and terrace. The raccoons had a dinner dance! From then on I have sprayed my fungicide and after the fruit is pollinated I give a light spray of triazicide. I then cover the entire trellis with my green netting. Not one bird or raccoon last year! I had buckets of grapes! I tried Chinese bags, Japanese bags, small paper bags and baggies. The squirrels got into all as well. Now I net my trees., and take my squirrels to the spa.
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I followed all that Mrs. G until you got to the part about taking your squirrels to the spa … Clearly, I’m missing something here!
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I picked my two HS on 20171004. Everything bloomed out early this year so it will be interesting to see how it changes the ripening time.
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Take them for a very long lesson in diving in the pond…
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Thanks- :-)M!
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This is a few methods I’m trying out.
001 Open ended BroGanza bag. Guthrie plum.
002 Mini bags on AU Cherry plum.
003 Temporary Broganza bag over my long awaited Honeycrisp apple bloom.
Ziploc bag on Korean Giant pear
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I found ziploc bags, with their bottom corners trimmed off to allow some air, to be the best. They’re not effective against birds, squirrels, possums, raccoons and roof rats but are super effective against flies, codling moths and other insect pests. Only problem is, I’d probably have to bag thousands of fruits. So I only bag the really newest additions that I wanted to taste.
For the mammalian type pests, I spray oil laced with trinidad scorpion pepper powder on the plastic bags. They don’t like capsaicin. The super hot peppers don’t bother the birds though. So I have to use bird scare tapes also.
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Oh, squirrels, possums, raccoons and roof rats love all of my persimmons and winter citruses. I spray a mixture of oil with hot pepper (Ghost pepper that I used to grow, now I just buy powders) and soap on the fruits as they turn color. That’s the only way to have a lot of fruits from my trees. Bird activities are down by the time the persimmon ripens.
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Yes, they do not have receptors so cannot taste it. I saw a squirrel grab one of my hot peppers and it was so funny! And yeah that gave me the idea to use it. I found though that it’s hard to get pure powder from home grown, probably the skin, so if you roasted them and peeled the skin off. The skin of the pepper, remnants will clog your sprayer. I started using commercial product. I don’t even have to use it now, the mammals long ago gave up on my yard. The dog helps too!
Because of the birds, I pretty much just net everything these days. I have some pvc net cages I can move around too.
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