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Fruit & Orchards

Bagged apple oddities

14 years ago

Is this a copyright infringement?

{{gwi:124638}}

Guess the bags aren't quite bird proof.

{{gwi:124639}}

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Comments (6)

glenn_russell
14 years ago
Hi Michael-

I love the Ziploc pic! Perhaps we could use this technique to start branding our own apples! :-) I've always used the cheapest Walmart baggies because that's what Jellyman recommended... Perhaps this is one reason why!

If the birds damaged all your unbagged apples, and only took one bagged apple [per our email], it sounds to me like the bagging was still a success. Despite this damage, this is the first time I've seen an example of where the bagging really did help thwart the birds. Good info.

Thanks for sharing these pics!

ÂGlenn
franktank232
14 years ago
I think i lost about 4 bagged apples to squirrels. Mine turned out great and i'm very impressed with bagging. My wife even was taking them off the tree because they were so good :)

The "Ziploc" must have shaded that part of the apple. That makes for some VERY GOOD IDEAS.. You could write your name on the bags (perm marker?) and brand your apples :)

cool stuff
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I also had some sunburn/rotting last year in late June on my bagged apples. Most seemed to rot on the upper south side of the more exposed apples. It may be partially due to very young dwarf trees which don't have enough leaves to provide some shade. I know at least some of the burned ones were Goldrush. I'll look for a pattern next year in terms of variety. The bagged apples which didn't burn turned out very well cosmetically- generally better than the un-bagged ones, though I haven't yet had any insect problems (other than ants/aphids). I didn't notice any problems with the bagged apples becoming mealy. Next year I'll try to pay better attention to see if there is a difference in flavor or brix. One of the more annoying aspects to the bagging was when the apples would drop, bag and all. Every few days I would pick up a few and move the bag to another apple. It wasn't bad this year as I had so few apples, but when the crop goes from 20->50->400, etc, it could be more of a problem. Part of it could be that I started bagging pretty early- May 8th, per my records. It was an early spring, so that may have contributed to the long drop window
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Paul and/or Irene: I am totally on board with tcstoehr on this one. Get up there and thin those apples immediately, to one fruit per cluster. When you do, you may notice there is already some apparently minor insect damage in the form of small scars, holes, or just dark colored lines. These imperfections that may seem minor now will later become major. So start by thinning all those apples off that have even the slightest imperfections. After that, go for the fattest, fastest-developing fruit. Once the chosen fruit is alone in the cluster, bag it. Waiting for fruit drop is a recipe for disaster if you have any kind of insect activity around. By leaving more than one fast-developing fruit in the cluster you are ensuring that neither or none of them will grow up to its full potential. Once all but one has been removed, the one you leave will begin to grow even faster. Unhappiness is thinning off all but one fat apple, then finding out the one you have selected has also been selected by the plum curculio or codling moth on the side you could not see. I am thinning right now, and my apples are much smaller than one inch. However, I am able to idenfity those with the best potential, and usually find the insect damage in time to remove it. Clusters of apples are more attractive to insects than singleton fruits. Insects are efficiency experts. I usually work with a small scissors when I can clearly see what I am doing, but if I have to reach into the tree I also try to roll or break off the apples gently with my fingers. You have to be careful because fruiting clusters are still quite tender at this time of year, and can be easily broken off. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
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With so few fruits last year, I tried bagging with plastic ziplock sandwitch bags. I did a few apples on several different trees. I had one bag somehow blow off over the summer but the rest did great! I did spray for PC at petal fall and then bagged the fruits when about the size of a dime. I have too many apple trees to bother with bagging but I will do it on my haralson as they were the best crop I ever had on them. Since I spray with Imidan normally, I never got good Haralson as the fruit would russet up heavily. I heard Imidan is phytotoxic on Haralson and my results seem to show that too. The tree is on M26 or Bud 9 (not sure which) so easy to bag. The photo I am showing is from last year.
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If you bait your traps at night and check them first thing in the morning then your kids will not see any squirrel nearly all the time - they tend to show up early and check out whatever is new then. The one thing I have not done right with my Kania traps is I mounted them to fixed trees and I think they are really better on posts you can hammer into the ground near wherever the squirrels are causing trouble. Once I get some time I am going to re-mount two of them as portable traps. I have a pile of havahart traps that I could not get to reliably work. Part of the problem is dogs etc would kick them over to get the crackers and I never built a platform for them out of dogs reach. This is the reason the Kania need to be on a pole, you don't want Fido from next door with a crushed paw whining in your backyard. Scott
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rain2fall
14 years ago
THey used to do that in Japan. People would order an apple with a name or message on it to a loved one, and the fruit grower would grow the apple so that the message was white, against the red fruit. Very costly!
Michael
Original Author
14 years ago
Upon further reflection, that looks a lot more like squirrel gnawn's than bird peckn's. Maybe that is why I've not seen any birds in the tree, but then again, never seen any squirrels either. All the bagged apples except the one above were fine, the dozen or so left unbagged for observational purposes all have been pecked/chewed to varying extents. This seems to be evidence indicating a benefit to bagging other than insect control.

Michael
Scott F Smith
14 years ago
Michael, thats birds. Squirrels shred bags and bite the surface, birds peck holes. Wasps also make holes but I don't think they can get through the bags.

There is someone in the US doing the apple messages business as well now. Its amazing how easy it is to do based on the above unintentional example!

Scott
Michael
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks Scott, I guess that's a relief. I was thinking squirrels because plastic that was once there is no longer, figured birds wouldn't actually remove plastic.

Michael

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