I bagged about half the apples on one of my trees this year to see if it made much of a difference. Normal techniques with cheap baggies with the corners cut, put on as soon as the apples were big enough to make it work- probably just shy of quarter size. It was a pita. I lost a whole lot of apples (bagged and unbagged) due to early dropping, which wasn’t fun to watch, but what is left showed me I’ll be bagging more next year.
My goldrush apples are on the tree the longest. Most are still hanging right now. I’m picking them when I see some red and darker golden tones (vs. green).
What is odd about my bagging experiment is that there is a striking difference in both size and appearance in my bagged vs. unbagged apples- even on the same branch. The appearance difference is huge, and expected. The size difference makes no sense to me, but it’s obvious. The bagged fruit is bigger. Much bigger. I didn’t select for size at all when I bagged, so I have no idea why this is.
Three apples on the left were bagged, on the right had no bags. Lacross ball for scale.
Other big advantage of bags, for me, is they keep the European hornets off. The hornets are bad at my house, they ate and/or maimed dozens of apples. Next year I’ll bag them all. Can’t say bagging is for everyone, but it worked for me. I’m curious if others have noticed this.
Oh, my apples were scions I got from Scott Smith years ago, grafted onto a honeycrisp semi-dwarf from Stark that I have worked over to a variety of apples Scott recommended. They goldrush are wonderful.
How many corners are cut and is the zip on the bag the only thing holding the bag on or do you put some staples or other on both sides of the apple stem? What diameter is each hole on the cut corners?
In my experience bagging apples (the past 4-5 years), I see a difference re. sooty blotch and fly specks, on bagged or no bagged but not as huge difference as @PatapscoMike has experienced. I don’t know where Mike lives or if his area is drier than mine.
I also have seen sunburn in a couple of my apples and pears, the area where they got a lot of sun. To me, sunburn/cooked in bag is possible esp. in hotter areas (mine, temp never goes to 100 F, around mid 90 is the hottest).
However, Ziplock bags with two bottom corners cut off are cheap and easy way to protect apples. Large size apples like Honey Crisp can easily burst out of the bags
@BG1977, you may want to try using perforated bread bags to bag apples. It has more holes on bags, more chance for water in the bags to evaporate and less chance for apples to be cooked.
It may not cause sunburn, or not as much as using plastic ziplock bags. It’s less convenient to use because you have to cut large bags to size and use lot of staples. .
We get 100 where I am too (close to Ellicott City, MD). Apples didn’t cook at all despite these being on the sunny side of my tree. The only thing I saw that happened in the bags that I didn’t like was some light cracking. Maybe that was from the heat, I don’t know, but it was very minor. You can see a crack on one of the apples in my picture.
Earwigs seem to love our bags. This year I put nylon footies on a few. Whatever critters stole and carried off all of my apples, took the ones in footies too. I haven’t checked the trailcam yet, but my wife has seen a squirrel run off from the orchard with something nearly as big as itself in its mouth.
@PatapscoMike, I wouldn’t pick until (by sampling) the seeds are dark. Here in SE Mich (Zone 6) that is the first half of November for GoldRush. Can you report? (Zone and ripeness via seed color?)
I’ve had earwigs preferentially eat apples that are in nylon footies over ones that are un-bagged. Not sure why this is, but I think they must like hiding in the bunched up end of the footie.
The goldrush I’m picking are fully ripe based on the seeds I’m seeing. I’m zone 7a.
I worked in the Schwallier orchards outside of Grand Rapids many moons ago doing agrichemical research. Wish I could grow apples like Phil did, I’ve not seen anything like it since I moved back to MD.
Skillcult reports cracking on Goldrush in NorCal. He also says sometimes they get a weird banana flavor in his climate. I’ve never heard anyone else comment to this effect.
My footie Goldrush were pristine before the tree lost vigor and took a hiatus. Picked them on Nov 3 in northern Frederick County. They were perfect. Yes; yellowing with ruddy speckles is what you’re looking for. We both have a winner here.
The other nice thing is that the bagged apples are storing perfectly. I took some out of the bags and grouped them in another plastic bag. Losing some moisture on those. The ones still in bags look like I picked them yesterday. Flavor is getting better and better.
One of the things I learned reading this forum is how long some people were able to store apples. I used to be in a rush after harvest every year because after maybe 6 weeks my apples would get dried out and wrinkly. Not anymore. I’m very grateful to have learned this!
I bagged most of my apples this year. Bagged apples off my trees were left in their bags and went straight into the fridge (in another grocery bag). I did several dozen apples like this and probably 2 dozen unbagged. My unbagged ones dried out even though I had them wrapped up in a grocery bag in my crisper. They went into juice. The bagged ones are still great. I don’t think the flavor is as good as it was a month ago. The acid bite is still terrific but some of the floral notes just aren’t the same. But they are still crispy/crunchy and delicious.
Gold Rush here bloomed first time; the tree is at least 9 feet tall and the scaffolds are coming along nicely. (Love its natural scaffold spacing; very little pruning for shape.) I covered 6 debut samples with orchard sox treated with Surround™/kaolin powder. Three of 'em dropped off the first couple weeks. A fourth seemed to have stopped growing, so I checked it. Sure enough, the stem had little attachment; mostly going brown from lack of sap.
It seems Gold Rush is easily disturbed by my technique in applying orchard sox. Since I don’t know for sure it needs protection from codling moth, next year I may leave a quarter of those kept, untreated to find out.
In the meantime, has anyone encountered delicate attachment for Gold Rush when the fruit is very young?
Second question: Has anyone had good fortune in spraying Surround on apples, without using sox?
I thinned aggressively when apples were tiny. That has alleviated June drop issue. I have not had heavy June drop.
I’ve sprayed Surround+spinosad about 3 times before I bagged with sandwich ziplock bags. When I bagged I thinned off fruit esp if ones had bug damage. I usually only leave one fruit per cluster when I bag.
This has work well. Today, I took some more fruit out because I think my tree still carried too many. Gold Rush has biennial tendency.
