This year is already a wash. I doubt the same deer will remember my yard come next year, however the new ones will find it. Either way, I will install new countermeasures by then. As the tree grows controllably taller, the deer will no longer be able to reach them. I wonder what that deer safe height might be.
At least 7ā as they can stand on their hind legs to reach your fruit.
@SusuI am concerned about rot re. bagging peaches with plastic zip lock bags. Only @BobVanceās father has had success with it.
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Even with holes on the bottom you mean?
Yes. The same way we do for apples. Stone fruit have thin skin. Pome can tolerate plastic bags a lot better.
You can use this as an experiment. It may work for you.
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After a hail storm went through, and bruised apples badly, I was thinking I need to bag them with bubble wrap bags!
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As long as I can pick them from the ground, I can deal with it.
I donāt think you can have it all. If you want to let your trees grow above a deer browsing line and be able to pick fruit from the ground, thatās hard to do. You could if you have Yao Mingās height 
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This year looks to be the best for Bardsey apples. While it fully bloomed first time in its 8th leaf, I finally covered the lot in time to foil codling moths. Have found orchard socks/sockettes much better than ziplok type bags for my purposes. Only one apple on the tree that had been invaded before I started covering them.
BTW, it stands on EMLA26 at about 9 feet tall and wide, and I thinned its numbers to a bit over 100 apples. I must leave only one fruit per spur die to very short stems - otherwise they push each other off - and to every other spur if they happen to stand very close together to gain fruit size. Worth the trouble
Also stripped orchard socks off Winekist yesterday (ripe about July 26 this year) and no codling moth damage at all.
I wonder if the residual kaolin/Surround on the skins deters moths in the two weeks they are exposed to full light to finish getting color? I havenāt noticed fresh/tiny caterpillars in apples from the short time they have been uncovered before harvest.
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Fruit sox, with or without Surround, works well with apples. I just use zip lock bags because they are cheaper when I bag in 1000.
Do you still have moths (coddling and OFM) by now in your area? I guess Surround would help. I do not use Surround on apples as they are in plastic bags.
With clear zip lock plastic bags, I have no issue with coloring.
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I can almost reach up to 8ā, I donāt mind using a ladder for pruning.
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Mamuang: Yes, there will be another cycle of codling moth here before the growing season closes. I know someone with an orchard near town who gauges the cycles, who states there are always two and some years.three cycles of egg-laying in this region.
Due to your enthusiasm for plastic bagging, I tried it two years, doing a better job of applying them the second year, and nicking the lower corner of each to allow drainage. I found the winds here tear about a third of the fruit from branches with plastic bags on them - more drag, perhaps. There were also losses due to sweating, or whatever high moisture collecting within bags, enabling rot. Finally, earwigs climbed in through the drain holes and feasted undisturbed by predators.
Skin color was good!
So, I buy orchard sox from Home Orchard Society, pour Surroundā¢ over them until water runs clear, dry them on a window screen and count it cheap compared to buying spraying equipment, poisons to put in the can & a Hazmat suit to protect myself from spraying every 10 days or so through the season.
Am waiting to find if any other apples in this bunch may not need protection from codling moth. Am still delighted to find Redfield standing alone across one street has never had CM damage, while Hunt Russet standing next to the CM magnet Bardsey is overlooked by them.
Connell Red needs the sox. I found two with frass at a hole after applying sox. I applied sox to Edelborsdorfer the same day as for Connell, (both are last to finish blooming among those trees old enough to do so) and have not found evidence for invasion yet. Next year Iāll leave 4 or 6 Edelb. fruit unprotected to check on its attraction.
Since 7 other apples have yet to come into production, I may need at least $100 worth of orchard sox. Time will tell.
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I hear you about the plastic bags. Itās not good in warmer zones. Earwigs are enemy #1 for my plastic bags.
I should not be the one talking about saving money in growing fruit. At the rate I pay to fertilize and protect my fruit (not counting free labor), even my cherry would cost about $5 per cherry!!!
Fruit sox are good because it protects against earwigs, too. I did the same things you do re. add Surround to my sox (when I used them). I even got fancier (stupidly) by adding Nufilm sticker to the mix. What a mess I created. I dried my creation on tarps. All my tarp still have marks of Surround with Nufilm on them 3 years later. Donāt do it!!!
Good luck with your fruit protection.
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Iāve been wondering if you could spray some insecticide inside the bag for protection
No way Iām going to experiment on my 7 peaches! 
they are coming off tomorrow.
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The first two years of having peaches from my own tree, the fruit were perfect, free of pests and diseases. Pests did not know about my peachesā existance yet and diseases have not built up, either.
You may experience the āhoney moonā period with your new peaches, too.
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Lois,
Are you talking about ziplock plastic bags?
Bagging usually is to reduce or eliminate spraying. If you bag and still have to spray it may defeat the purpose. Also, it would be quite difficult and time consuming to spray inside such bags individually.
It certainly would!
I think the better solution is taking the bags off the fruit in August
Patrick,
Thanks for sharing your experience. So far, the nylon bags have the most resistance. Squirrels can damage the fruit inside but most of the time the bags sustain only slight damage.
See how squirrels damaged my Asian pears in a day. The largest one is Korean Giant, almost a lb.
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Questions:
- Does bagging help with fungal issues too, or just insects?
- Does the plastic create a mini-oven on hot, sunny days that cooks/damages the fruit?
- I assume the @&$@ stinkbugs still pierce the bag and damage the fruit anyway?
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