North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[John Barbowski <jbarbowski@gmail.com>]

I have just finished bagging apples. I used both inexpensive zip lock
(2 cts/bag) and a cheap sandwich bag with a twist tie (1 ct/bag). The
zip worked best (easiest) on my short stemmed macintosh. The twist tie
performed well on long stemmed golden and red delicious, as did the
zip lock. Zip locks were much quicker to install.

I did not use staples on the zip locks. From last year's experience, I
deemed it was not necessary. I invariably lose about 3% through wind
removal or poor fastening. I lose another 5% through natural apple
drop. I don't have enough apples (150-175 on a mature mac) to thin the
tree, - I bag-em-all. The mac drops more than the delicious. There was
minimal dropping (<1%) on the delicious (250 +/- apples on 2 mature
trees). The macs also appeared to have more blemishes than the
delicious.

I did use some staples on some zip locks that I recycled from the
previous year. Stapling was the only means to ensure closure of the
opening.

I used the bagging process to prune off excessive vegetation from all
three trees. I don't know if this is a desireable thing! Some of the
sprouts had already grown more than a foot. It was done last year with
no obvious detrimental effects. I wanted to ensure light permeation
and ventilation.

My smaller trees had a very high apple drop, but this was attributed
to the immaturity of the trees.



On 6/21/05, Jim Fruth <jfruth@uslink.net> wrote:
>   Since it has rained nearly every day or two or three, spraying my apple
> trees with Surround (r) has been futile so I'm bagging my apples.  I found a
> 500 pack of zip-lock sandwich bags from Sam's Club.  I position the bag over
> the apple's stem at the middle of the bag and zip as tightly as possible
> against both sides of the stem.
>   Now for the question:  Can my bags be expected to stay put through an
> average wind-storm?  Or do the bags need to be stapled too?  I'd appreciate
> any advice or comment.
> Thanks,
> --
> 
> Jim Fruth
> Brambleberry Farm
> Pequot Lakes, MN
> www.bberryfarm.com
> 
> 
> 
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