North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu>]

Dylan, I used these cloth drawstring parts bags on my peaches last  
year and they worked very well.  This is in a humid, disease-prone  
Maryland climate.  They are more expensive than baggies but can be  
used for several years.   I also tried them on apples and plums and  
they worked well on the apples but many of the plums fell.  Maybe the  
stems are a bit too weak when the wet bags are blowing in a strong  
wind, or maybe my plum trees were too immature to set fruit.

I had tried to find a good deal on the footies last year but did not  
find any, but at the price that Mark quotes they are a better deal  
than the parts bags.  They also may be better for the plums since  
they are lighter.  For the  apples I think the ziplocs may be the  
best because they cut down on diseases as well and there are not the  
rot problems to worry about.

Scott

>     I was wishing out loud that I had access to cloth bags, when my  
> fiance
> (who is a lighting designer) commented that in her business they often
> shipped fixtures with the necessary accompanying hardware in  
> attached cloth
> drawstring bags. I had her research a source for me and she found  
> one that
> actually is having an overstock sale on 4" x 6" drawstring cotton  
> bags, 9
> cents each, 200 bag minimum, + tax and shipping. A bit roomy  
> perhaps, but
> the price is nice. The web address is below.
>
> http://www.uline.com/browse_listing_202.asp?besc=cloth+parts+bags
>
> Seems like a pretty good deal, if they do the trick, as I suspect  
> they would
> be reusable.   dylan