North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Nathan Torgerson <nathantorgerson@yahoo.com>]

Using Jim Fruth's suggestion for barrier fabrics, I bought some tulle to wrap my trees. 

 

I wrapped two sour cherry trees in tulle yesterday. I found lots of sellers of it on ebay for 9' x 150' bolt for ~$55, so I was willing to give it a try to see if it would keep the plum curculio at bay. (It's going to hit high 70s, low 80s here next week, so the little critters will be very active destroying everything in reach...at least that's one of the temperature triggers the Michigan State extension claims can be used to determine when they will be out and about. http://web1.msue.msu.edu/vanburen/plumcurc.htm) 

 

The trees are young, only 6 feet tall, so I staked a 9' tall fence post in the center of the tree and wrapped the tulle around tree, wrapping the top and bottom onto the post and trunk. On one tree I wrapped to whole tree, on the other I wrapped around the tips of a few of the major branches so the tips won't be bent by the netting. 

Tulle looks like a reasonable material for this, a relatively fine netting that doesn't impede the light very much but is small enough to keep all but the smallest insects out. I would think the nylon would last for more than one year, making the cost minimal. It's much cheaper than mosquito netting or other netting marketed to stop insects.

 

I left a third cherry tree with less fruit on it unwrapped for comparison. (Though I may need to wrap it with bird netting to keep the brids from eating the results.)

  

I might try to wrap my plum and peach tree too, though the plum is much bigger and has a spreading structure...maybe I'll wrap a couple of the major branches to compare wrapped vs. unwrapped.

 

 

 

Nate

Andover, MN zone 4

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