Hi Jason,

Depending on how long the nylon stockings are, you could cut a stocking into say two pieces, and sew the cut piece(s) closed at the bottom. You might be able to get more than two usable pieces from a stocking that way.

I make a similar thing from see-through fabric "sewn" with black yarn. I got several yards of the see-through fabric at a fabric store and a supply of black yarn and a large knitting needle to thread the yarn through the fabric.

Their main purpose is to protect the zinnias seeds from seed-eating birds (like finches) and these sheer sleeves work well for that, and they are reusable from year to year.

ZM

in a concurrent topic elsewhere ... baby shower/bridal shower mesh gift bags were also suggested ..

bet they are cheaper than nylons ...

and if you have sewing machine technology you could make your own ...

ken

https://www.walmart.ca/search?q=organza%20bags

Awesome ideas! I found 100 5x7 mesh bags on Amazon for $11:

https://www.amazon.com/Wuligirl-Christmas-Drawstring-Seashell-Chocolates/dp/B07W8GR4JC/

That fits the budget a heck of a lot better than $125! :-D

For future readers, you can find 4" bags for $7, too. They would probably work well on some flowers, but my pods are a little bigger than that:

https://www.amazon.com/Hopttreely-Premium-Drawstring-Festival-Bathroom/dp/B078249Y7C/

The idea is to recycle old stockings, not to go buying new ones for the purpose. It’s meant to be a money saver. You could get 9 or 10 bags from one leg. No need to sew them. you can just tie them off.

My girlfriend only had 4 old pair of knee-highs. They're really not long enough to cut and tie off; I could have sewn them, but ain't nobody got time for that! LOL And 16 of them still wouldn't have been anywhere near enough.

If you don't care about the color of the mesh bags, I found these for $6 (for 100):

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08WYWNFJZ/

I actually prefer the color, if they fall off then hot pink will be a lot easier to find :-) They should come in tomorrow, so I'll update then with how well they work.

Although I have never collected seeds using a bag, a torn panty hose could be a source for all the bags one needs. Also, no need to sew, just use plant ties or a thread to tie the end that goes over the seed pod and tie the free end the same way or just use a little extra to be able to knot it off.

just use the twist tie off the bread bad .. but not the plastic bag ... we need air circulation for drying ....

for some reason.. unknown to me.. and im the cook .. my peeps save all the twist ties.. its insane ... i would happen to have a dozen or more in the cupboard right now ... its like they are twist tie squirrels.. whats that all about .. lol ..

anyone else save them???

ken

I save all the twist ties, whether on bread, vegetable bunches, electrical gadget and device wires or whatever. They come in handy in the garden. I reuse garden wire ties (that come in a green roll) too. Eventually, the use and throw thing is bad for the environment and bad for the wallet.

well i can appreciate you saving them.. and actually using them .. my squirrels just save them.. apparently for posterity's sake ... lol ..

actually this stopped when we divorced ... the kids tried to keep doing.. probably by rote ... and i said .. period.. two is all we need .. just in case we lose one ... but crikey my beloved children.. what do we nee a hundred of them for ...

the other thing.. was throwing the milk cap ring on the floor so the cats would play with it for 7 seconds ... after they left.. i found hundreds of them all over the house.. again.. squirrels ... lol ...

i digress... apparently .. lol .. but it feels good to get it off my chest ... and now i feel better so i can go pick up the ring on the kitchen floor right now ... i was so mad when i saw it.. lol ...

ken

Back in the day I used to buy cheap trash bags, and they would come with a pack of about 20 twist ties! I had always grabbed two handfuls of the bag and tied it together, so those twist ties ended up in a drawer. When we moved, I had HUNDREDS!!! LOL

They all ended up in the trash :'-(

Most of the bread I buy now has clips instead of twist ties. In the last several years I've gotten in to the habit of throwing away the clips or ties immediately, and instead twist the bread bag a few times and slide the excess over the bread:

https://lifehacker.com/seal-a-bag-of-bread-or-anything-with-just-the-bag-5957796

Ironically, several years ago I bought a roll of picture wire for like $1 at Big Lots, and I'm always cutting off a piece to hold up one plant or another! LOL

was throwing the milk cap ring on the floor so the cats would play with it for 7 seconds ...

Same!! My cats would end up passing it back and forth for awhile, which inevitably turned in to a kung fu match. They both passed away in 2019, though :'-( Last year, I found about a million of those rings (and water / milk jug lids) under the oven and fridge!

Bread-tie saver here! I save them all - never know when you might need one or two or a hundred lol. I blame my grandma for my habit. She saved string, wax paper (used), clips, - she had a kitchen drawer full of all kinds of interesting things!

:)

Dee

P.S. I also save every old stocking and knee-hi I have ever worn. You also never know when you'll need a piece of one to tie up tomatoes, or dahlias, etc.

On Amazon try searching for Apple Maggot Barriers. These are basically the toes from stockings.

Nylon Barrier Bags

Most of the bread I buy now has clips instead of twist ties.

==>> these would probably also hold the organdy bags together .. on the top side .. i saw one on the floor last night.. and thought about this post ....

lol'd on never knowing when you might need one or two.. or a hundred ...

double lol.. under the stove .. yep.. thats where i found them also ...

yeah.. never fess up and take credit on your foibles.. blame mom or grandma ... or dad ... lol

ken

"...yeah.. never fess up and take credit on your foibles.. blame mom or grandma ... or dad ... lol..."

Yep, Ken, that's right lol. Grandma is my story and I'm sticking to her. After all, we learn at the knees of our elders....

:)

Dee

I promised updates on the mesh bags...

They were supposed to come in on Friday, but showed up on Saturday. I blame USPS, though, not the seller. Everything seemed good, and they were definitely breathable so should be great for the seed pods:

I ended up using 50 of them on one moon flower plant! I spent over an hour, and here's the end result:

I know, I know, I see that I missed one :-O I was losing light, and didn't see it until just now. Which means I probably missed 20! LOL

I have absolutely no complaints about the bags, but do have suggestions for future users.

The moonflower pods have spikes, like chestnut burrs. Putting knee highs or mesh bags either one was hard because the spikes would get caught in the material! After doing several of them, I realized that a better method is to take a piece of paper and fold it in half, then tuck it in to the bag with the fold on the side (not the bottom or top). Slide the pod inside of the paper so that it avoids the mesh sides completely, then pull the paper out and reuse it for the next bag.

It's a lot easier to have 2 people; one to tuck in the paper and hand over the next envelope, and one to hold the position and put the bag over the pod. Doing it by yourself means that you keep losing your place to get the next envelope and having to spend time getting back to it.

The drawstring worked perfect, I just pulled it shut and it stayed tight so no need to tie or anything.

All in all, I think it was an excellent choice and well worth the $6 :-D I might buy a few more, just to have for the future.

Okay, I am curious why you need bags to collect moonflower seeds. They are always plentiful, pretty big, easy to collect straight off the vine as they ripen. And why do you need to collect so many? Each pod has 4 seeds I think. I would think bags are more useful for catching seeds that are much smaller and disperse easily making it harder to collect directly, such as pansy, petunias, poppy etc. But then those seeds would slip through the mesh...

Jason, I don't usually collect seed and (so far) haven't had any plant I'd go to so much trouble for, but I think what you've done is very inventive and pretty cool! You've got it down to a workable system. I can see where the spikes would definitely cause trouble and think you came up with a good solution. Nice job! Good luck and let us know how it works out!

:)

Dee

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ccgk8PXz64&ab_channel=SimonGarfunkelVEVOthosearethoset those are exactly the bags i was thinking about ... organdy.. it reminds me of that old simon and garfukle song ... now im going to go crazy figuring out which one.. lol ..

you said you didnt want to spend $125 on this.. what did the 50 cost you.. perhaps i missed it ...

and whats the complaining about .. lol.. you had the time of your life doing it.. all mad scientist and all ...

let us know on your haul .... and how many seed you actually end up needing and using .. compared to what you harvested ... lol

ken

ya know.. the WWW kind of ruins the search .. lol ... i could have spent a lot of hours listening to good music trying to find it..

https://songmeanings.com/songs/view/7380/

didnt even need to pull out the CDs

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=for+emily+simon+%26+garfunkel&t=ffsb&iar=videos&iax=videos&ia=videos&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D-HQ2j-SGBZk

now i need to go harvest the parsley sage rosemary and thyme .. lol .. what the heck in for a penny in for a pound:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ccgk8PXz64&ab_channel=SimonGarfunkelVEVO

What wonderful songs to start ones morning. Thank you, Ken.

Thanks for the clarification Jonas. Still wondering what you will do with 5000 seeds though. :) Also, question on the mesh size- would it keep fine seeds like petunias from falling or not?

What am I going to do with 5000 seeds? Not a dang thing! LOL I traded a few seeds last year and started with 10 moonflower seeds (I was told it would be an Angel's Trumpet, oh well), but they all came up and now have pods! I'll end up with 20,000 seeds before it's over.

Next year I'll probably plant 4 or 5 of them in my garden :-/ I do a lot of local trading, too, so I'll post on the local message board and take pre-orders for anyone wanting one in the Spring. I'll probably get 15-20 orders.

The rest of the seeds will end up in a Ziploc with one of those silicone "do not eat" packets to keep them dry :-/ But if I don't collect them then I'll have 1000 of them coming up together in one spot next year!

If anyone has seeds they want to trade, just send me a message :-D I have dark purple Devil's Trumpet seeds, too. I'd love to get some Angel's Trumpets that are a color other than white or purple.

As for the bag, I tried the "candle test" that we do with masks (blow through it and see if I can blow out a candle); it does without any noticeable restriction, so it's definitely letting plenty of air through.

After that, I can also confirm that it has a slight glue taste :-O LOL Or maybe a glue smell, I'm not sure.

I also put it under the sink and can confirm that water pours right through it without any noticeable restriction.

Here's a close up with my hand inside, so you can see the tightness of the mesh. It's still just a little wet, but this should give you an idea of the size of the holes:

socalgal_gw Zone USDA 10b Sunset 24, thanks for the tip! I see that you posted 3 days ago, but I just got the email about it a few hours ago... maybe the link made it get delayed?

Jason, your mesh bags look a bit better because you can see what is going on inside. The stocking ends are a finer weave but thus more opaque.