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Re: [NAFEX] covering cherries, fruit bags questions
- From: "Mark Dorogi" <mddorogi@comcast.net>
- To: "'North American Fruit Explorers'" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [NAFEX] covering cherries, fruit bags questions
- Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 21:19:55 -0400
Yes, I used floating row cover last
year. My two sweet cherries are semi-dwarf; one is 10’ tall and the
other 15’ now. They usually set cherries pretty well, but between
the birds and raccoons, we usually get only a few. It is frustrating. So last year I was more aggressive in
trying to win the battle with nature. I used aluminum flashing around the
trunks to keep the coons out (which seems to work), I hung lots of pie tins in
the trees, and I wrapped individual tree branches with floating row
cover. I have a picture of what it looked like; e-mail me separately (mddorogi@comcast.net) and I’ll
send it to you if you’d like. The floating row cover actually did work
to keep the birds off the cherries. However, it was very labor intense,
cutting pieces of row cover, teetering on a ladder and trying to reach branches
loaded with cherries, wrapping the row cover around the branches and securing
them with clothespins. There’s no way I could protect most of the
cherries, but we did end up getting more than we ever had. I’m not sure I’m up to doing
that this year. I’m actually thinking about building a big giant
cage, 10’ on a side, 15’ tall, and just enclosing the whole tree
with chicken wire. That would keep all the birds and the raccoons out,
and the neighbors would maintain their suspicion about what’s going on
over here. I haven’t worked out the engineering details of it yet,
but it seems like it ought to be possible for one or two trees. (I have
two smaller balaton cherries right along the garage wall, and I’m
trimming them so they can be enclosed more easily, by just putting up a couple
posts and using chicken wire). If your trees are small, it would be
easier to cover them in bird netting. Bugs aren’t a big deal for
cherries, at least where I am, but the birds have a field day. I have a
dwarf sour cherry that I cover with bird netting (also a tedious operation) and
that seems to work. I bagged my apples last year (I have pics
of that too) and was relatively happy with the results. I used plain old
cheap sandwich bags. My one mistake is that I didn’t clip the
bottom corners to allow water to drain, so I had to go around and do that
later. Even with that, there was more condensation in the bags than I’d
like, but it didn’t seem too harmful to the apples. I experimented
with perforating the bags with a wire brush to allow some air circulation, but
the holes were too fine; then I made a perforator with wire brads that did the
job better. More engineering details. Maybe I should try the paper
bags, or footies. But I used around 500 bags last year, and the plastic
baggies are cheap. This year I am contemplating sealing off
the little space where the stem goes into the baggie with some tanglefoot or
something to keep water out, and the occasional bug as well. It would be
nice to modify the baggie to remove a section of the seal, since it digs into
the stem a little. I don’t think that caused any premature drops, but I
could see a little mark on the stems. Put the bags on as soon as you can see
apples, when they are around dime sized or even less. Don’t wait. Thin at
the same time. That’s around Memorial Day here in southeast I put some bags on peaches. It didn’t
work too well; I think any condensation in there is deleterious for
peaches. Anyway, the raccoons get mine every year, and bags offer no protection
there. This year, it might be electric fence time. Or,
rent-a-dog. Mark From:
nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Goat Gal For the first time my two dwarf sweet cherries managed to bloom after
frost and have set tons of berries. I was thinking of covering the trees
with floating row cover (making big sacks) to keep out birds and bugs.
Has anyone ever done this? When would be the time to cover the fruit
...to protect from pests like cherry fruit fly? |
-
[NAFEX] covering cherries, fruit bags questions,
Goat Gal, 05/06/2008
- Re: [NAFEX] covering cherries, fruit bags questions, Mark Dorogi, 05/06/2008
-
[NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
Mark Dorogi, 05/06/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
dmnorton, 05/07/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
William C. Garthright, 05/08/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
dmnorton, 05/08/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
William C. Garthright, 05/12/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
Mark Dorogi, 05/13/2008
- Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur, dmnorton, 05/14/2008
- [NAFEX] Hawthorne question, Gene Spears, 05/14/2008
- Re: [NAFEX] Hawthorne question, Lon J. Rombough, 05/15/2008
- Re: [NAFEX] Hawthorne, and myrobalan, Donna &/or Kieran, 05/15/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
Mark Dorogi, 05/13/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
William C. Garthright, 05/12/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
dmnorton, 05/08/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
William C. Garthright, 05/08/2008
-
Re: [NAFEX] Captan/Sulfur,
dmnorton, 05/07/2008
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