I am not sure where you are located, but here in Maryland our first major pest is plum curculio, which strikes as soon as the apples start to grow. I found Surround to be quite effective against curculio. Once the apples get to bagging size I can stop applying Surround. I then bag the apples in cut-down sandwich bags, as described by Jellyman many times on this forum. By the time the apples have reached full size there is very little clay left on them. These bags are effective in preventing further insect damage. I tried footies on my stone fruit and found them to be a waste of time, as insects can easily penetrate them. I am afraid that if you think footies make your tree look ugly, the sandwich bags will make it look uglier, but they do work. One thing to note though: make sure no apples are touching. I have found that where bagged apples touch, you tend to get rot. It is best to thin the apples so they are at least a few inches apart.

My bagged apples have turned of EXCELLENT. We've been eating them now for about a week. The Cortland are just huge and fill a lot of the baggie.

Although i think you are against using them? Aren't they just poly plastic? What about those cotton bags?

I had some BIG apples that were touching and no rot, but maybe thats just because overall its been very dry summer and cool.

I'm trying Surround next year for PC. I want to hit everything with it early and then discontinue for the rest of summer unless the need arises.

Does Neem work? I know i've read some good things about the Azidictran (derived from Neem) sprays (it doesn't work against PC, however).

You could grow your own tobacco like i'm doing and make up a little mix of Blackleaf 40 :) (oK, maybe not quite that strong).

Mark, I hope you try a couple of the cotton bags next year and let us know how they work. If you want just a few to try send me an email and I will post 'em to you.

I am doing OK this year on my apples with the mating disruption plus a bit of spinosad (erratically sprayed). Next year I will need to refresh my disruptors in July, I had no moths most of the season but they came on big in August. I think you need at least a couple dozen disruptors to create enough pheremone streams to confuse the males.

Scott

Hi Scott- I'll buy a few cotton bags if you'll tell me where, but thanks for the offer! And I agree that a lot more in the way of disruptors should help.

Frank, I (and especially my wife) do have reservations about the poly bags. Many very knowledgeable people here are comfortable with them, and I have no doubt that they do what is claimed for them. But something about the sun bearing down on the fruit through that bag all summer gives me pause. That's just us. As for Neem, I have no idea, but good luck with the tobacco.

Austranplant, we're in western Montana, zone 5-6. And I agree heartily about thinning- I must have thinned 90% of my apples this year and I think I could have taken out half of what I left! None of them touch, in fact, most of them are some inches from one another. As far as ugly is concerned, I can live with it if I see results, albeit my wife sure doesn't like it! (Still, she married me, so she can't be too picky ...)

Best,

Mark

Mark, try packcoinc or associatedbag (add the www, .com, and get 5x7 drawstring bags). The 5x7 are a bit small for the large fruited varieties, but the bigger bag sizes cost more. I only have 5x7 and just put up with it but I am only bagging a few things as backups now.

I have been meaning to try more neem, I did buy some of the real stuff, not the stuff you usually find which has all of the active ingredient removed (paradox: neem is good but nearly all the stuff with the "neem is good" on the label has the good stuff chemically removed from it!).

Scott

Mark,

It gets pretty hot here in Maryland in the summer but I have not noticed problems with apples ripening properly. Also, this year was extremely wet, but on the whole there were few problems with excess moisture in the bags. The key thing here is to cut the corners off at a diagonal (and make reasonable sized cuts) to allow ventilation, and to plump up the bags before you apply them to the fruit, so as to stop the corners from sticking. With just a few trees it is no big deal to go through and unstick bags that have stuck at the bottom, but I would think that with a lot of trees this might be very time consuming.