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Thanks to all who responded to my questions about bagging and  
thinning.  Next year, i will try thinning with my kitchen shears,  
since they are handy to the back yard, and fairly sharp.


On Jun 5, 2006, at 1:42 PM, fuwa fuwa usagi wrote:

> . . .
>
> Ginda writes
>
> Well, I've been out of town, and I finally bagged my apples.  It was
> too late - every one was already damaged.  I figured I'd go ahead and
> try to prevent additional damage, and get some practice.  I ended up
> keeping 3 apples on one cultivar and 2 on the other, which is enough
> to taste if they make it through the season.
. . .
> Me:
>
> The fluffy one was also delayed this year.   In fact I started  
> wrapping yesterday.  I would say about 1 in 30 was okay…so that  
> still leaves a whole lot of fruit for me to wrap in newspaper.
>
> I use a pair of wire cutters to snip off the apples I do not want.
>
> The primary damage to my crop if curculio and coddling moth.  My  
> experience for my conditions is that both forms of damage MAY be  
> minimized.  It seems you can scrape off recent curculio damage with  
> you finger nail or a knife blade.  The fruit seems to heal over fine.

I just tried this with three of my remaining 4 fruits.  We'll see how  
it goes.  thanks for the suggestion,

> And I have noticed that some coddling moths damage already seems to  
> have exited the fruit on my trees, so you might bag or wrap any  
> such examples just to see what happens.

I bagged everything (all 5, of which 4 survive) for the experience,  
as much as anything.  One has a very short stem, and it may be a  
trial to keep the bag on.  Any thoughts in including the nearby leaves?
. . .
> Ginda writes:
>
> I did learn that I can't wait until "cherry" size to bag.  Next year,
> I will try bagging the whole clusters as soon as they set, then un-
> bag to thin and re-bag the remainder.  Of course, the crab apples on
> the same tree all look perfect.
>
> My reply:
>
> You could.  You could also just blast the tree with a general  
> purpose spray early on…maybe even two of them, and then go to  
> bagging.  It seems logical to me that if you start bagging at say ¼  
> size the residue has to be fairly minimal.
>
> I have done that in the past…bagging around the first week of June  
> after a couple of sprays and I have been very happy with the result  
> in terms of time/benefit.   I have to blast my plums about 2-4  
> times a season to get a full crop anyways so I hit the apples a  
> time or two when I do it.
>
> All the best…
>
> The fluffy bunny

Well, I sprayed at green tip for winter moth, and intended to spray  
again at petal fall.  But we had torrential rains from bloom until  
much later, and I simply didn't have a chance between my day job and  
the weather.  (The day job is what lets me buy nice fruit at the  
supermarket.)  Or maybe my spray wasn't effective against codling  
moth and plum curlicue.  I used spinosad.  I have few enough (and  
small enough) trees that the cost of the spray is irrelevant.   
Spinosad has the virtue of being essentially non-toxic to vertebrates  
and most beneficial insects, while being very toxic to caterpillars.   
It seems to only kill lepidoptera and hymenoptera, and is only really  
toxic to the bees if they get into it while it's still wet.  (Thus, i  
was avoiding spraying during bloom.)   It was very effective against  
the winter moths - perhaps not as effective as something harder might  
have been, but effective enough.  I had minimal winter moth damage  
and lots of tiny dead caterpillars.

If I get fruit again next year, I will try the early bagging thing on  
at least some of them.  Depending on my mood and the weather, I may  
try spraying some, too, just for scientific purposes.  (aka curiosity)

Best,
Ginda