North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Louisa Rogoff Thompson <louisathompson@erols.com>]

Regarding experiments -

The researcher at University of Minnesota, Larry  Zilliox, asked that 
anyone planning to do a study contact him.  He can tell you exactly what 
his experimental design was, and the great thing is that he can do the 
statistical analyses and then report your results along with his when he 
publishes this year's results.   His e-mail is  
larry@mail.co.douglas.mn.us <mailto:larry@mail.co.douglas.mn.us>
or possibly lzilliox@extension.umn.edu (this one was listed in his first 
report, the other in the more recent report).

If everyone who wants to try this out collaborates in the planning 
stage, the data can be analyzed together.  The results are stronger if 
you all follow the same method.  Also, Larry can tell you which 
questions have already been answered satisfactorily, and which still 
need to be researched.  The questions now seem to be which apple 
varieties are suitable - some are too short-stemmed - and whether 
bagging leads to an increase in diseases.  Apparently some cultivars 
seemed to have more sooty mold if bagged.

As others have said, bagging may not be practical in large orchards, but 
for home growers and organic growers it could be a very valuable technique.

Here are the links again, if you want to read the results so far:  
http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/yglnews/ygln-jan0100.html#apple 
and
http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardandgarden/YGLNews/YGLN-Jan0101.html#apples

Louisa Thompson

From: Stefan Brandle <sbrandle@css.tayloru.edu>
Subject: [NAFEX] of sandwich bags and apples

Message-ID: <40853C27.60807@css.tayloru.edu>

Bagging with sandwich bags sounds interesting. ...

So I'm going to try giving it a shot with sandwich bags, paper bags, and 
the proverbial control group with nothing. Expect a report in September 
or thereabouts. If more people are willing to join in and someone with 
knowledge about how to do a study properly wants to give advice on what 
to do, that would be great. It is worth finding out whether this stuff 
is feasible for home growers in the midwest, as opposed to places with 
lower pest/disease pressure. The happy bagging stories seem to come from 
Oregon and such, but that may not transfer.