That is a lot of tedious work.
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That it is.
But no-spray, unblemished apples is the reward
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Apples and pears do well with plastic zip lock bags. Even when I cut off the bottom cornersquite wide, bugs do not bother to fly in from bottom up.
However, this year, I got too much moisture trapped in some bags, causing my pears to have rough skin like russeting. I took bags off all pears after a month. By then, pears have expanded so fast crushing bug eggs along the way. I left bags off some apples, no bug damage so far.
Stone frruit is another story. Plastic bags tend to cause rot. Other organza or perforated bags can’t protect against OFM and PC that can lay eggs through the bags. Only Clemson bags work but putting them on is not my strength 
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I noted the amount of Surround(t) still coating the surface of the Rambour Franc apples more than a week after removing footies I had soaked in kaolin before applying. Might still deter late season codling moth. The fruit from this tree is likely to be all ripe in another week.
No need for footies on Hunt Russet, nor on the NOT-Medaille d’Or. (Any of you I sent Md’O scions this year: sorry. Ordered Md’O, got something I cannot ID. It’s large, mostly green, had no codling moth larvae (without footies applied because I thought it unnecessary) and is likely to ripen well before Md’O.
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I’m liking bread bags…seem to have good success so far with nectarines and plums.
I put this Alderman in this baggie about a month ago…before it started getting red (birds pecking all of them)…i just left it. Still out there. Still full of water…
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Rob,
You don’t cut the two corner bottom off?
My bread bags did not work with plums and peaches. OFM laid eggs through the bags ( softer and thinner plastic than that if ziplock bags).
Bread Bags with Surround on top may work but I get tired of rot because Indar could not get through to fruit effectively. Need to spend the winter planning for better fruit protection next year.
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That’s what I thought too. I cut both corners off the bags and have not noticed any water build up so far. This is my first year bagging so my sample size is small, but the apples and pears in the bags are noticeably better than those treated with Surround and various other organic sprays.
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I cut both corners. At times it stick together and I have to go around and puff up the bags. If you have hot weather, apples in bags with poor ventilation coud get sunburn. My pears in bags russet when they shouldn’t. I try not to bag pears.
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Nope…just put it on and left it. SO far it seems to look fine. Maybe i’ll pull it off it tomorrow and take some pics. Alderman plum seems to have a thick’ish skin…probably helps. I also have a bread bag over Flavor Queen pluot for the past month…3 of them…they look great still. I’m saving all my bread bags now. I’ve got a big sheet of clear plastic over a bunch of flavor king pluots …at this point its all for cracking (FK) and bird protection.
I tried putting a baggie over a big beautiful flavor king pluot…it feel right off…rock hard and green. ugh…what a waste.
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My apple tree, with 7 grafted varieties, was fruiting this year with about 12 apples that I bagged with ziplock and mesh bags. I was planning on sampling the first apple next week. Yesterday all the bags except two were on the ground empty. One graft branch was broken. When raccoons (I assume) come the bags don’t help. While they were at it they ripped apart my bird netting on blueberries making them and the birds happy.
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Well the peach/nectarine harvest this year is a right off. Of maybe 200 I bagged, about 10 were edible, of those three had no insect holes. All fruit were small and of poor quality.
Almost every peach had ants digging holes in them and farming maggots or somesuch. Other beetle like creatures were also eating them. Most of the bags appear to have been chewed through by insects or deteriorated around the top of the fruit. The ants had access regardless though.
The Peachtree had serious defoliation issues due to aphids early in the season, and it took time to get a pesticide program in place that worked. There’s also a very serious mole problem in the area destroying the roots. I believe it’s these factors that cause the ripening to be delayed by over a month, which gave extra time for bugs to destroy the peaches within the bags.
Last year worked very well following the same procedure with no pesticides, but I believe the pests hit much terribly harder this second year.
I’ve planted three more trees which will be in good producing form next year, but I’m afraid I’m going to have to hit them incredibly hard with a lot of poisons to get any kind of harvest. I’m not sure whether to bother bagging or not next year. I’ll give growing peaches and nectarines one more chance next year. I’m considering giving up on them completely.
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Sorry to hear that. I’m a long way from Japan but also have had increasing problems with ants, moles and even more with voles. Ants can get into the bags as you said. The only way to stop them is a sticky substance on the tree trunks or poison ant traps. Because there are so many different varieties of ants the traps work with some ants but not others.
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He came back to get the two other bagged apples. This time he broke the branch off and emptied the bags.
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Time to arm your night vision trail cam. Bam! No more thieving varmints. Yes, I have a strong hate for raccoons. We should convince people coons are yummy and allow for year round open season on them with no bag limits.
Anthony
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Yeah…that needs to be trapped or shot (or both). No other way to fix that problem.
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I’ve seen many of my bags on the ground… after that I set out traps and that pretty much took care of that.
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The tanglefoot approach worked for me, but only on certain trees where there is no other avenue into the tree than the trunk. I actually couldn’t find tanglefoot available locally anywhere, so I reversed electrical tape and then wrapped flypaper around that. Worked quite well.
Besides ants etc slipping in the top, one new issue that concerns me about the bags is they appeared to deteriorate Or be chewed through at the top. I had two different high-quality types of bags on my Peachtree, and they both suffered this. There were extenuating circumstance is though. My harvest was delayed a month. Additionally, I hosed the entire tree down thoroughly with soap and water and rinse, twice. I also wetted it all down with pesticide, twice. On all four occasions, the bags were sopping wet. This may have hastened the disintegration near the top of the fruit. Alternatively, it could just be that the bugs were able to work their way through the paper in time. I believe my area has quite high pest pressures though, so you may not need to worry about this.
One safeguard which appears to work so far, is to place a rough nylon cord bag over top of the paper bag. It appears to retard animal attacks, while still allowing airflow.
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I just picked the last alderman plum that i had a bread bag over…it ended up perfect. I really like that method…but i’m not sure all plums would handle the moisture. I still have the other plum in the ziploc full of water. I’ll pick that one maybe tomorrow. They are all very ripe…maybe over ripe somewhat. Alderman is a very “eh” plum…but it is pretty and sizes up very nicely.
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I took my bread bags off these Castleton E plums before I picked them today. I’ve found that once I sprayed Surround to coat the bags, the pest issue has been manageable.
I am still concerned about rot. With bags on, I can’t spray Indar effectively.
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