Re- evaluating bagging fruit

Thank you for the ps. I appreciate the extra effort.
I don’t have any more information except that the person I’m looking for took a DNA test on AncestryDNA and uses the name hambone0118.
If that’s specifically you, then you and I are closely related. Real close. :slight_smile:

I’ve suggested to a number folks interested in genealogy and DNA “testing”, to break free of the ancestry paywall. To download their sequencing results and upload them to at least gedmatch. I had someone find me as a match on there recently and we’ve since determined that a great uncle of mine is his grandfather. He was a soldier in WWII near where his grandmother lived at the time. Pretty cool…

That’s a great story. I too, have entered my raw DNA into GEDmatch. Thanks for mentioning it.

I double checked and not me. Hope you find them.

I put a 10x10 ft Kootanaycover on my Euro plum in April right after petal fall. The cover is quite heavy. Although, the material is breathable, it is very fine mesh.

After a few weeks, I noticed white flakes and sticky stuff on many leaves (looking from outside in). I also saw several lady bugs. (they must have been in there before I covered the tree. The white stuff could be empty shells of larvae that were killed by some parasites.

By June, we started having a lot of rain, a record breaking amount of rain. By this past week, the leaves have looked horrible. I decided that I had enough of the experiment and took the cover off. The tree looks awful. The bent braches are to be expected so I am not worried about it.

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I am in humid east, covering the tree without any fungicide resulted in fungal diseases on leaves and fruit.

A plum tree next to it that received a few rounds of fungicide spray (and insecticide), has had clean leaves and fruit.

I will spray fungicide on this newly uncovered tree to see if I could improve its condition.

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Your first two pictures are exactly how my Calville Blanc looked during the aphid infestation. It looks like a fungus, its aphids. Same with my espaliered apple. The calville is just now starting to sprout new tiny leaves. The Reinette Gris du Canada has recovered.

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Tippy. So much for my plan. I was hoping to eventually get a good plum set and cover the entire tree as you did. I wonder if you would still have a problem with a normal year’s rainfall. Netting my blueberries worked well but I put the net on as they started to ripen and removed as soon as picking was completed. We are usually dry during the blueberry ripening time.

Bill,
The company owner who sent me the product to experiment asked that I do not spray anything, no fungicide, no pesticide to see how the cover would work by itself.

Yes, I believe this fungal issue would still be an issue here in normal year of rain as we have quite a bit of rain and quite humid here,

For this experiment, I think if I was able to spray fungicide a couple of times before putting on a cover, the issue would not be this severe.

This cover was effective where the owner is, Utah, an arid climate.

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I also want to add that the material of this cover is thicker and much heavier than the Agibon material that @galinas has successfully used as covers for her fruit trees.

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Yes, there was aphid infestation in there. Luckily, there were some parasites that attacked those aphids. Ladies were also working in there. That how my tree was not destroyed.

However, there has been fungal issue as well, so much defoliation. Some branches that are full of plums barely have leaves. That will affect fruit quality.

Mam I saw this black gooey substance all over the branches and twigs of my espaliered apple. Some of it fell to the beige tile floor. It is the mildew that aphids make, it turns black and then becomes a fungus. Its a vicious cycle. So it is both aphids making a sap that becomes a fungus. It looks like sticky soot.

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Mrs. G,
Totally agree. The gooey, sticky substance from aphids is everywhere. It is on almost every leaves, branches, many fruit and on the cover, too. It turned my white cover to dirty dark mess wherever that goo touched or dropped on it. What a mess!!

Many leaves also show scab-like signs.

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That was my nightmare on my only two apples. The black stuff (I found) can be hosed off after a while about two weeks. Its on my tiles and very hard to remove. The leaves too were covered in it that is when I started reading about how it carries a fungus. It was horrible, so sorry about your tree.

Flex force sandwich bags. Really, best result ive had. Taste, color, no bugs. For me: Worth the work

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Same here, Tippy. I got a cover and then thought I’d better not put it on, because of the fungal issues here on the muggy east coast. I have to spray - no question - or I’ll just get all rotted fruit.

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Hope you get either Bonide Infuse (propiconazole), Indar, or Luna Sensation ready for next year.

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Karen brought up a good point. @mamuang How do you manage to avoid fungi grow on fruits if they are all bagged? Infuse is systemic but I don’t think it can last for whole season. The bagged fruits does resolve bugs issue but does not resolve fruits rot issues.

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I sprayed my apples with Bonide Orchard spray, or maybe Bonide Spray w Plant Guard . . . and possibly with Infuse, too. I should have kept a better record. But I did not do a ‘great’ job because the apples kept blooming constantly for a long period . . .
Think I also sprayed Imidan as well. It’s possible I mixed the Imidan in with the Infuse, once the pollinators got busy with other plants.
It gets a little fuzzy after awhile! :crazy_face:

Clemson suggests one spray of insecticide and fungicide before bagging. That is South Carolina, I guess.

Where I am in MA, I did 2 sprays of each of Surround, Spinosad and Indar before bagging in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The result was 60% as PC got on the fruit before bagging.

This year, I switched to new Sevin for insecticide and Indar. I sprayed this combo 3 times before bagging. The result has been much better.

When you close those bags, they need to be totally closed so water could not get in afterward. Bags that are not closed well suffered brown rot. That happen to a few of my nectarines.

All my Challenger are 100% brown rot and pest free.