Hello,
I have the 25 gallon version from these guys. https://www.ivamfg.com/sprayers/lawn-garden-sprayer/lawn-garden-orchard-sprayers
I ordered it with an upgraded Honda engine.
I have about 25 trees or so and it usually takes 10-15 gallons of spray to cover them depending on if they are leafed out yet or not.
This sprayer has a very good agitation system and I believe it would do very well with surround.
I paid about $1800 with tax
I never use organza bags with apples. Using Plastic sandwich bags for apples is more cost effective and gives maximum protection of targeted pests in my area. Sandwich bags last about 2 years.
@Auburn, do you re-use your home made apple bags?
I’ve used organza bags for peaches and plums without much success. OFM or PC lay eggs through bags if any part of the fruit touches the bags. Organza bags last longer than sandwich bags.
I use fungicide such as Immunox for CAR, scab and sooty blotch. Kill a few birds with one stone.
I only use the ziploc bags one time. The ones made from screening can be used for many years.
I will look for that window screen material this winter. I put a small screen pouch on a branch of my pears. No animals touched those pears. I was impressed and encouraged.
I have a dwarf crabapple tree that is my worst to get CAR. At loose cluster I sprayed with Immunox one time and never saw any CAR for the whole summer. I probably will cover my Goldrush next year. It really works well.
My biggest fruit losses the past two years:
1 Asian plums, birds got a lot of them. Maybe half, or more than half.
2. Peaches - leaf curl, birds. Birds got about half of the curl-free peaches. That tree is in the chicken yard, and I even saw a hen up in the tree eating one.
3. No bird losses for blueberries or cherries this year, I used scare tape. A lot of it. It worked very well.
4. Figs - last year, yellow jackets got them all. This year it was weather.
5. Apples - yellow jackets, then birds. Some were lost to sunburn. Also biennial bearing because of inadequate thinning on my part, and overbearing which caused small bad late fruits on two trees. There were some coddling moth worms, mainly on Jonagold for some reason.
I wish I could train the birds to eat yellow jackets.
Yellow jackets bite into the fruits then eat them from the inside out. It’s mostly apples and figs. Once they settle on a type of fruit, their destruction is like a plague.
So, I need to make some changes. The trees need to be short enough to prune, spray, thin, and / or bag but tall enough to protect from deer, or in deer fences / cages. Most are in cages right now, but those take a lot of effort to maintain. During the next few years, I’m changing to a fenced garden that I hope they can’t get in (7 feet tall- I cant go taller due to county regulations), with miniature or espalier trees. Then I can thin, spray if needed, bag fruits if needed. No ladders for me, I can’t any more. I also cant haul a big sprayer around but can probably do an oil spray for some trees and surfound for some.
In the past, my apples in ziplock bags were ruined, despite cutting off corners. They sunburned, got moldy or mildew, and some rotted in the bags. I assume the difference from some here is local conditions. I was really hoping that would work.
I don’t think curculio is an issue here. So, I was thinking organza or mesh bags, if they help with coddling moths, and maybe yellow jackets? I don’t see that mentioned here (might have missed - this topic is a wealth of knowledge, thanks!). Maybe for blue jays too? They only go after the red apples and red or blue plums.
The sooty blotch thing is a concern. I don’t want that, so if the organza causes that and I have to spray for that, would it be better not to bag, and use surround instead? I don’t use insecticides at all. Im open to neem if that helps.
I might add scare tape for apples and plums next year. It was the biggest help this year for bird protection.
I suppose organza lets peaches breathe more.
Every year i have used plastic bags on apples i got pristine fruit. Only gala was a problem as codling moth hits it big time and some bites thru bags
I like trimming the plastic bags over the winter on front of the tv
@Bear_with_me,
@scottfsmith showed the pic of his wasp traps (and yellow jackets, too). He had a good result with these traps.
Wasp control, any good methods - #4 by Olpea
You can try Surround if you don’t want to spray chemicals. How much rain you gets? After heavy rain, you need to reapply. I also think that fruit sox are likely to work for you without causing sunburn on your apples like plastic bags did.
Organza bags don’t work if fruit touch the bags (it happens alot when it is windy and rainy) . However, I was able to protect most of my figs with organza bags.
I have two apple trees on M27 super dwarf. They are easy to reach, bag and spray. Of course, the yield is Much less than a tree on M7 but that’s OK for me.
What happened when I bagged Korean Giant at nickel size and I didn’t keep a good coat of surround on. For awhile I didn’t see any insect damage but as the fruit got bigger the stinkbug bumps emerged. I did bag these at nickel size or larger but apparently the damage was already done. Next year I plan to spray more frequently and bag quicker.
Same. Last few years i have had poor starts to seasons, did stuff a week too late. Plus lay down more surround.
@Auburn and @Reg,
It was only a matter of days, not a week for me.
This was about my two full size peach trees. I planned to bag them with Clemson paper bags. Clemson recommended spray the fruit with insecticide and fungicide a day before bagging. I sorayed them with Surround and Indar (for brown rot).
Bagging is time consuming. I finished Autumn Star in a day. Then, work got in a way. It took me 2-3 days before I could finish bagging PF24 C. I thought those peachlets were clean when I bagged them.
I was wrong. By Sept, I could see oozing inside some bags. Definitely occurred inside the bags (not from bugs boring holes from outside in like what happened to organza bags).
I had 50% bug-damaged on PF24 C and a lot less on Autumn Star peaches. So, it was only a couple of days late in bagging, those buggers had already caused serious damage.
Timing is everything. You can use the right chemical, protectant, bags, etc. but if you execute it at a wrong time, it won’t work.
I was using only nylon footies on some fruit,but birds were probably getting to them,particularly Flavor Grenade Pluot.
Then those white bags,with the wire tie were put over them,so there was a double protection and it did help.
I wonder if that combination will be effective against some insects?bb
Actually, it’s very effective for birds too! I started bagging my tomatoes before bagging my real fruits because birds would not allow me to pick a dark red, ripe tomato… they start attacking them while still pink.
They colored up very nicely, dark red and where so flavorful… I was basically leaving the tomatoes for about 4-7 days on the plants after they became fully red, and they added a lot of flavor in these last few days! However, some varieties have an optimum picking period, and afterwards they start loosing flavor, so be careful. I was using mesh bags, and there was no significant difference between bagged and non-bagged in terms of disease susceptiblity. When the weather was dry or moderately wet, all were ok, when the monsoon starts, they all start cracking and suffer from various diseases…
Ahmad,
I would call the bags in the pic you posted nylon bags. They are tougher and offer more resistant to pests.
When I talk about Organza bags, I mean those draw string, sheer bags that are often used for party favors. They are thin and offer almost no protection. OFM and PC could easily lay eggs through them. Not much use.
https://www.amazon.com/Organza-Drawstring-Pouches-Assorted-Colors/dp/B002HIL50C.
Thank you @Ahmad I think those are the ones I ordered for next years’ fruits. I wondered if they would help with birds. They look difficult to see through. I was wondering if I should sew some scare tape onto each bag during the winter, but sounds like I don’t need to.
In my experience, at the beginning of each season, birds will start pecking on a couple of bagged fruits, but soon they figure that they can’t eat much, so they stop attacking bagged fruits.
My ziploc bags offer some bird protection especially if I spray the outside of the bag with surround. The surround appears to alter the birds vision of ripening fruit.
The only bird problems I have with tree fruits are stone fruits, and those I don’t bag