Wobur:

If you want helpful advice, why don't you specify your location? In fact, why doesn't everyone specify location? Is it fear that a salesman will call? Since I don't know where you live, other than zone 7/8 which is pretty general, I can't relate your climate to mine. But I have pretty good luck on apples with plastic sandwich bags.

Peaches have been more difficult using the sandwich bags, since earwigs have entered the bags and damaged the peaches even though oriental fruit moth has been kept out. This year I have purchased 300 nylon "footies" used for try-ons in shoe stores, that I will use on some of the peaches. I am also going to try to intercept the earwigs with tangletrap and occasional spraying. It seems to me that fabricating your own bags from netting would involve an awful lot of time-consuming sewing or something of the sort. If you can buy something cheaply off-the-shelf, that sure seems better to me than trying to make bags by hand.

The Japanese fruit bags, which I have also tried, involve two different layers with different levels of light transmission. The inner layer allows more light to penetrate so that when the outer layer is removed the fruit can color up. These two layers would be different than using two identical layers of nylon mesh. If you are willing to do the cutting and sewing, you might as well just use one.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

Thanks for the info, Don, and good point about location.

I and my fruit trees are at 2,000 ft. in the central Sierra Foothills in CA.

How are you attaching the 'footies?' Might it work to just hang them on the fruit? At least it would be fun and easy! I have enjoyed your posts and all the valuable info you have provided. I have been visiting for about a year.

Thanks.

Wobur

I recall reading that you can just slip them on and seal the ends by twisting them, but I plan to use cheap wire ties to hold them at one end, and twist the other end, leaving it able to expand easily as the fruit grows.

The footies I used last year are easily and firmly attached using an ordinary paper stapler. I doubled over the end, streched it tight, and stapled. When released there was a tight fit that never blew off. I also had no trouble with the fruit pulling off during the operation. But then apples are very firmly attached. The bags held up in our intense sun for over three months. I'm not sure how much they helped with insects because we only have a few codling moth. I suspect they may pass thru the mesh as there was some minor worm damage.

The Fruitnut

fruitnut,

Would it be feasible to wash and reuse them?

I should have mentioned that a combination of the footies and Surround gave good control of sunburn and kept the birds at bay. Those are my biggest problems on apples. I'm in a hot sunny climate with summers similiar to CA foothills.

The Fruitnut

Murky: No, reusing them is out of the question. They are pretty flimsy things to begin with and after one use are shot.

The Fruitnut

I have heard that putting the nylon footies thru the wash/dry laundary cycle tightens them up for reuse. I have not personally observed this. However, I don't see why they couldn't be used and reused with a twist-tie to hold them on.
The Home Orchard Society has made these available on their web site:
http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/footies/

$20 for 300, shipping included. Looks like PayPal only for now.