Mostly a lurker here, but I appreciate you sharing your info/experiences.

I tried a couple of ziplock bags and they kept blowing off in my west texas wind. Maybe I didn't do it right.

Hmmm... Perhaps it's not as windy here in RI, but even during good storms, I've never had a bag blow off. Perhaps you want to try again?
-Glenn

I also had many ziplocks blow off in a windstorm shortly after I had bagged the applets. Someone suggested staples alongside one or both sides of the stem to help hold the bag on. Had wonderful apples where the bags stayed on. The rest were total junk. I definitely plan to try it again.

On the message forum for the Home Orchard Society in Portland Oregon there is talk of using footies that have been pre-coated with surround.

This is presumably supposed to work against codling moth. They'll be selling them.

Of course for the past few years they've been promoting straight nylon footies against codling moth and apple maggot even though it turns out they are nearly useless against codling moth.

Hopefully this new approach works better.

Hi, Murky.

Well, if pre-coated footies work better than bagging the apples and then spraying them, well and good. One has to wonder how well the coated footies will hold up under handling. Myself, I found the entire experience frustrating enough that I'm going to bag it.

I have to say, if you want to do bagging Don's got it covered (so to speak) with zip locks.

This year I will, as I said, be aggressive and a little bit early with Spinosad. Last season showed real progress against codling moth. If I'm able to whittle down the base population to the point where I only have to deal with newcomers things will be easier, and it'll be much less challenging to keep on top of it.

We'll see. Right now we have fresh snow on the ground, and more to come; for now it's not spring yet, and I'm still waiting for Raintree to ship my new apricot tree ... scions are ordered and in a few weeks I'll begin to assault my little prune plum as I have done my poor Liberty apple and the Gold Spice pear. That constitutes my "orchard"!

Good luck all,

Mark

Footies pre-coated with surround? I really doubt that will help. One year I sprayed Surround over footies on apples. They were well covered until it rained. I had to respray at least 6 times. It did help on sunburn but can't say it helped anything else.

It doesn't sound all that wild to me. Peaches hold on to Surround nearly forever since the particles get lodged in the fuzz. I have sprayed a few footies with Surround and noticed the same effect. So I would put it in the worthy experiment category.

This summer I am going to use the codling moth granulosis virus and see how that works, along with mating disruption plus the occasional Bt and spinosad spray. This virus needs to be reapplied weekly but there is a short period when I got a big flight in early July last year (2nd generation I expect) and I think if I spray like crazy around that period I can whack 'em way back.

Scott

scottfsmith,

What is your source for the granulosis virus and the mating disruption pheromones?

I bought my supplies from Great Lakes IPM - they have a great selection and if you call them up you get great advice on the phone. I had to buy a many-year supply of the granulosis which was really expensive; I think you can get CydX from agriculturesoltions.com in a small quantity but per spray the Virosoft I bought is a lot cheaper (1/15th the price - they are the same per oz but Virosoft is much more concentrated). One 1.5 oz CydX bottle only gets you three gallons of spray.

Since I have a lifetime supply of Virosoft I may be interested in selling some of mine. You need about 1 tsp for a 5-gallon backpack and I have 32 oz which is 200 backpack loads. Since I will be doing at most 10 backpacks per year I expect, thats a 20 year supply I bought. Drop me an email if you want an oz or two of my supply (each oz makes around 30 gallons of spray), I will sell it at my cost.

I also bought several years worth of disruption lures from them; both the lures and the Virosoft can be stored for several years in the fridge (the former refrigerated and the latter frozen). You can tell if the lures are still good by smelling them, the pheromone is a sweet smell that is easy to recognize.

Scott

"Someone suggested staples alongside one or both sides of the stem to help hold the bag on."

Most definitely. I always trim off the lip that extends past the zip line. Cut off the corners just enough to allow it to drain rain water. Partially close a little less than half the zip on the bag. Slide it over the fruit snug and then staple as close to the fruit as you can. Then close the rest of the bag as snugly as you can and staple as close to the fruit on that side as you can.

My Ziplock brand bags with the double zippers have never blown off and it is windy here in KS, you know, upwards of tornado speed with 30mph for days on end normal for the summer. As has been mentioned, remove the extra bag just outside the zipper. Last spring I decided to try a couple stapled to see how the idea would work and was very glad I only did those 2 as it is more difficult to get the bag and apple separated with the staples present.

Since starting with footies 2 years ago, no insect problems with footies on peaches and no sprays once the footies are installed at about 3/4"+- fruit.

Michael