North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Stefan Brandle <sbrandle@css.tayloru.edu>]

I never got around to reporting on my apple bagging efforts. That 
includes both sandwich bags and white paper bags. I'm not overly 
dextrous and putting them on proved to be more challenging that I had 
expected. Several people had mentioned using a stapler, so that's what I 
had decided to use.

We have a tremendous amount of wind (normally and from recent storms), 
so I've lost a number of bags. A number of fruit also dropped and are 
now happily lying in the bags. Probably just June drop, but might also 
be because of damange when I was putting the bags on. The big benefit of 
the sandwich bags is that you can see what is happening inside.

I just did this on four of my 3-year old apple trees on M7. The thought 
of bagging the 20-year old trees (Jonathan/Lodi/"senior moment!" on 
something like M111) is way too daunting right now. I'll track and see 
how it goes.

Reflections: better bagging technique would make it less painful. 
Tie-wraps might have been easier, but I didn't have them available and 
did have a stapler available. Given the work and the fact that I'm not 
in prime organic country (see Ed. Fackler's numerous comments about 
trying to be organic in Indiana), I may just return to my low spray 
system: 3 sprays total through the end of June, then sticky red balls 
(Tanglefoot, Stickum, etc.) for the rest of the season. When I did that 
before, I got 90% acceptable crop.

Zone 5b.

-- sb