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["Mark or Helen Angermayer" <hangermayer@isp.com>]

Very informative Nate.  This is just the kind of stuff that fits well in Pomona.  You should submit it. 

 

Interested to know if there is a difference in organza vs. footies.  I used a few footies, but was pretty late with them, so it's not a good test.

 

Here's where I got mine, but I notice they are smaller than yours. (price 4.95/144 footies excl. shipping) 

http://store.storesupply.com/webapp/commerce/servlet/CategoryDisplay?merchant_rn=631&cgrfnbr=296969

 

Mark Angermayer

Zone 5 Kansas

 

P.S. I notice you appear to have foliage under your trees other than grass.  Is it something you've planted?

 

 

Nathan wrote:

It was sour cherry harvest time last weekend, so I can give some results from the netting and bagging I have done so far this year.

 

Cherries:

I wrapped two Northstar cherry trees in tulle when I first started to observe plum curculio damage in the area (should have been earlier, but I ordered the fabric too late).  I tried shaking the trees hoping to shake off any PCs that might be in the tree.  After a few days I noticed PC damage on one of the trees and no PC damage in the other. In the one that had damage, the wind has blown the tulle open on one side, and I am suspecting that allowed the plum curculio to get in.

   At harvest I collected 2 lbs of cherries off of each tree (the trees are only 6 feet tall and young). One tree had PC damage in about 33% of the cherries. The other had damage in only 4 cherries.

    My guess is that if I would have netted the trees early enough and secured the seam to prevent the wind from blowing it open, both trees would have been PC free.

This works well when the trees are small....I'm not exactly sure what the best way would be for larger trees. The trees grew about 8 inches at the branch tips while netted, and the tree didn't really appreciate the netting keeping the growth confined, but it does look like the tips will straighten out. Time will tell.

 

Picture of one of the cherry trees wrapped in tulle:

http://www.nafex.org/uploads/northstar_cherry_wrapped_in_tulle.jpg

 

Plums:

I netted my Superior plum tree with tulle when PC first appeared. I tried to shake the branches before wrapping the tree. Since the tree has a spreading growth pattern, I wrapped 5 larger branches individually in tulle. I left 3 branches open, covered some of the plums in organza bags. On my Toka tree, I covered 20 plums that did not have PC damage yet with organza bags.

After 3 weeks, the plums on the Toka that were not covered in bags were 100% damaged by PC, many with several "smiles". The organza bagged fruits were undamaged.

I removed the tulle wrapping from the Superior tree and noticed 80-100% PC damage on 4 of the branches that were netted. One of the branches, however, had only 10% damage. I came to the conclusion that I must have trapped plum curculios inside the netting in four of the five, but the fifth must have been PC free and a success.  One of the exposed plums with an organza bag around it looked to have been peppered with PC eating attacks, but no egg laying. I think there is a risk that if the plum is against the organza fabric that certain insects will eat through the bag.

 I took off all of the tulle and wrapped the remaining undamaged plums in organza bags and nylon "footies" that were twist tied.  So far the orzanza bags and nylon have kept the bugs at bay.

 

Pictures of tulle wrapped plum tree branch:

http://www.nafex.org/uploads/superior_plum_wrapped_in_tulle_and_organza_and_nylon_bags.jpg

 

Zoom of bags on plums:

http://www.nafex.org/uploads/zoom_of_plums_bagged_with_organza_and_nylon.jpg

 

Conclusion: I think if I would have bagged the plum tree earlier I could have saved most of my plum crop. The tulle netting does get heavy with rain, and I will probably only use it to net off the tree until I can bag the plums branch by branch.

 

Peaches:

I netted my peach tree in tulle. I don't know how much pest pressure to expect, but I didn't see any damage on the peaches. After three weeks, the tree was outgrowing its netting, so I removed it and bagged the peaches with nylon.

 

Apples:

I bagged all of my Zestar apples in clear plastic bags (leaving one apple per cluster).  Two weeks after bagging, the tree was hit with a serious dose of apple scab. I sprayed the tree with sulfur, and whether that helped or not, the apple tree lost 10% of its leaves and then recovered.  Upon inspection, none of the apples in the bags were hit with signs of apple scab.

The tree did have large June drop, going from 228 apples to 119 in a course of three weeks, which has been typical for this tree.

 I bagged 370 Honeycrisp apples (leaving one apple per cluster) and it only lost 40 to June drop, so I may need to thin this one further to prevent branch damage.

Once again, the bags have kept the PC and apple maggots away from the fruit and it looks to be another good apple year.

 

Nate Torgerson

Andover, MN zone 4

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