Yes, you can bag them in cotton drawstring parts bags. Some people also have had luck with footies (small nylon socks used for trying on shoes at shoe stores) but it is possible to get bug attacks through the footies. The cotton bags are more expensive, that is the downside, but they can be washed and used again the next year (if they were made well enough). On some peach varieties they may be a bit more prone to rot in the bag, but overall I have found they work well. If you have problems with squirrels stealing your peaches you simply tie the bag to the limb itself, and the squirrels will not be able to run off with the bagged peach (which they otherwise will do and eat a hole in the bag to get the peach). To tell if the peach is ripe you push very gently by the top through the bag so you don't need to actually see the peach. They ripen up perfectly fine in the bag. I was pointing out a source for them in another recent thread, see that link below.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: other thread

Scott-

How many years do you think those PackCo bags would last? I'm going to order some (for peaches/nectarines). Do they have any UV protection?

Here's the link to the Packco Inc's page with their parts bags.

I looked and looked and could not find a better price. In fact I could not even find a price that was even close.

Here is a link that might be useful: Packco Inc Cloth Cotton Drawstring Parts Bags

Frank, I have several batches and all of them have durable bagging but one batch has the strings fraying a lot. I think I can still reuse the frayed string ones but it will be harder. All of them can get black spots of some kind of mold on them but it doesn't affect the fruit inside.

Scott

Scott: With the footies, I slide the footie over the young peach and tie the ends together around the opposite side of the limb from the fruit. How do you tie the parts bags? Good thing we don't have to install these things with cold fingers.

Slip the bag over, pull strings tight, tie a bow knot over the limb it is on (include the limb with the string). You need to face the string opening toward the limb to get this to work best. The reason to tie to the limb is so squirrels cannot steal it. If you don't have squirrel problems you can tie without that step. I would definitely do a bow knot so you can easily untie them without cutting the string.

Scott

Thanks Scott: no squirrel problems... YET!

Hey, I really like this PackCo idea, "thisisme"....worth trying....glad I read this thread.

I have also used color paper sacks bought from U-line....the kind that you put cookies in......but I might like the cloth bags even more.

Folks if you try these bags please post this fall how they worked out. I came up with this idea about five years ago and I have brought it up several times here but I haven't heard feedback from anyone else trying it.

Scott

What's the optimum size Packco bag for peaches?

Thanks!

Bart, I think my bags are 5x7 but I will go check tonight to be sure. They were OK on all but the biggest peaches, but I don't thin as aggressively as some people so if you are the type that likes very large peaches or is growing Elberta and the like, you probably want 6x8. If the peach gets too big it is very hard to get it out of the bag. I have had that problem only 2-3 times total with my 5x7's how I thin, all on my Silver Logan peach which is a biggie. I had more problem on the super-large apples which definitely do not work in 5x7 though nearly all apple varieties do work OK.

One other unrelated point I just remembered is if you decide to bag plums you really need to tie them over the stem in the squrrel-protection mode, because the plum stem is not strong enough and the weight of a wet bag will pull the fruit off. Donut peaches also need to be tied over the limb because they are hugging the branch too closely to tie at the stem.

Scott

do you need to take the bags off before they get ripe or do you leave them on until harvest?

I leave the bags on til harvest. I check ripeness by a thumb push by the stem while its still in the bag. They taste great grown in the bag, no loss of flavor noticed.

Scott

Oh GREAT--now another "must have" thing for me to (1) spend more money on; and (2) have my neighbors look at me like I'm crazy.
Seriously, I think they look like a fabulous idea as replacement for my footies!

Carla in Sac

Scott, let us know which size is best -- I think I'll try using them as 'backup protection' for Citrus in case of freeze. Wrapping them around the fruit itself should provide some decent protection during freeze whether (since you lose fruit first, before the tree).

Hey Carla -
I should be getting some nice fruit off of that Indian Free Peach you sent me last year. It's full of tiny peaches right now, so unless something goes horribly wrong, come September I'll be enjoying some Indian Free.

THANKS!

cebury, the size bag all depends on the size of the fruit and I don't know how big your oranges get. Basically, take the width of the bag (say 5"), multiply by 2 to get the circumference of the fruit it will hold (5x2=10"), and divide by pi to get the diameter of the fruit assuming its perfectly round (10/3.14 = 3.2"). The bag needs to be a little bigger so a 5x7 bag will probably hold up to about 3" diameter fruit and the 6x8 bag will hold up to about 3.7" diameter fruit. Most plums will fit in 4x6 bags I would say, thats about 2.4" diameter max.

By the way I noticed the HOS is selling these Surround-soaked footies and they are working very well on codling moth so they could be a good alternative to the cotton bags for peaches. They are charging 10 cents each for the Surround soaked ones which is cheaper than these bags but they cannot be reused. See link below. I have a pile of footies and may soak a few in Surround and see how it works for me this year.

Scott

Here is a link that might be useful: Surround soaked footies

why not just soak these bags in surround ?

ScottSmith asked for feedback....I did not bag peaches but only apples (and a few pears) but here goes:

1. For some reason I found very few apples inside of the PackCo bags at Harvest time.....they seemed to have dropped early....I didn't put many on or pay much attention....data was incomplete, but slightly troubling on the PackCo bag here in Seattle on apples.

2. I also found that MANY of my green U-line paper sacks had apples that dropped early....I may have only had about 40% success with these and wonder if that sack heated them up too much.

3. The footies seemed to have worked better, but here's the problem: Everything I do is on public spaces and I have no fruit trees of my own that I am experimenting on to be sure of what the exact data is....I can only say that subjectively it seemed to me that there were fewer drops inside of the footies.

4. I did not use ziploc bags this year but may try next year. Why? Because even my kaolin-soaked footies, while they offered complete protection from apple maggot, did NOT offer complete protection from codling moth in high codling moth population areas. I need to try to put kaolin footies on earlier in some of those spots and also put on ziplock bags or some such because ziplock bags WILL keep the codling moth out, I believe.

5. In the past, when I used fuji bags, I would have some June drops but not as many as I seemed to have had with these U-line bags.......this could be something related to differences in temperature and humidity where I applied them.....again, I need more data. I also seemed to have had better success in past years with #2 bleached white paper sacks......and this is what is also making me think I was having a heat problem with my U-line paper sacks.

Still exploring....your results can and WILL vary.

Don R.

Are there fruit that won't ripen properly inside the cotton drawstring bags? I'd like to use them with apples, peaches, apricots, loquats, pears, tropical guavas, avocados. Do any of these types need direct sunlight during the ripening process?

John

Don, for all the dropping you got I wonder if you did not thin enough? If bagging fruit you need to thin out all the unbagged ones or the bagged ones may be the drops. I didn't notice any big difference in drop rate with the packco bags here in Maryland but there could be something going on there.

Thanks for the information on the kaolin footies not working well on CM, I didn't get around to trying that this year and after your report I probably won't ever try.

John, not many people have tried the drawstring bags, I think I may have been the first person to try them and I have never heard of any results on tropical fruits. That said, generally fruits don't need sunlight to ripen but they may no color up as well. Fruits in the interior of a tree will get less sun than a bagged apple on an outer limb since the bag does let in some light.

Scott

I tried the footies on plums this year and they were totally infested with earwigs in May/June, when the fruits were soft and vulnerable. I had to pull all the footies off.

I bagged my peaches with plastic sanwich bags. I think the squirrels or coons pulled 1 or 2 bags off. again I use them in conjunction with surround. The surround leaves a very slight mottled appearance on the fruit it washes off and does not effect flavor.I find it more difficult to bag them when small compared to apples hence the surround.
One of my wifes patients , gave her a tip to keep critters out of the peach trees.Place water filled balloons around the trunk of the tree.Also air filled .I know this is work but it absolutely does work.If there are any branches that can be jumped up to you will have to deal with.There is a 5 , 7 , 9 rule with squerrils. They can jump up 5 feet. They can jump laterally ( horizontal ) 7 feet and can jump down 9 feet.thats approxiamate but does seem to be true.happy gardening Johnny

Scott, the kaolin definitely works. The reason I am unsure as to its total effectiveness or not is that I am still not sure I bagged at the appropriate time in some places. Believe it or not, there is one area in Seattle surrounded by a heated up parking lot where the codling moth pressure was high and the moths came as early as about May 13th.....and there is another public space I worked with 20 miles north of downtown Seattle where the codling moth pressure was low and did not come until about July 1st. Imagine a 6 week differential depending only upon the specific micro-climate!
As to your other point, I will consider the thinning factor.

"1Hilton", earwigs are harmless.....they will find their way to any bag or footie you use. They will not eat the fruit. The only thing I noticed is that they leave little tiny excrement droppings near the stem that have to be washed off.

"JohnnyRasbrix", interesting idea about the balloons.

Not all earwigs are harmless. They burrow into my stone fruit and will be inside the pit and in the fruit around the pit.

They are foul tempered and it hurts when they pinch you, which they seem eager to do. That means every piece of stone fruit must be broken open and examined before taking a bite so that you don't end up with an earwig stapled to your tongue.

donnieappleseed: I used to consider earwigs harmless when they'd get into my bagged apples in the fall, but they were certainly not harmless to my ripening plums this year. The holes they chewed in the fruit were a perfect opening for brown rot.

After I removed the footies, no more earwigs.

donnieappleseed
I filled enough small balloons to encircle the trunk. Also some air filled ones mingelled in among them.Also I hang air filled ballons from lower branches. Some balloons broke from branches.after hanging the balloons I was able to harvest 100% of the remaining fruit.After filling the water balloons about a week I needed only to replace broken air filled ones.As the squirrels climb the trunk they cannot avoid popping the balloons. The air filled ones are constantly moving , Until they pop or snag.Happy Gardening Johnny

thanks for the feedback on earwigs....I didn't know they bothered stone fruit when bagged because I never bagged stone fruit. apples and pears never a prob.

and thanks for the balloon idea....I would like to try that out on raccoons and see if it works.

Wow! Imagine having different colored foot sox and bags covering the fruit and then have the trunk of same tree covered with different covered balloons.....put up a few lights, leave the bags that covered apples that dropped early, and you could "double" this tree for being your Christmas tree after harvest is over.....
just kidding, of course!

donnieappleseed
Bah Humbug. Picture this. Next summer I will be sitting on my sun porch with the sweet juice of a lucsious peach dripping down my chin while you are cussing at the coons and squirells . Just kidding also. If I can get my grandaughter to help me I will post photos. I dont use bright balloons. The moition of the air filled ones seems to help.The water filled ones hugging the trunk cause a big commotion when they get popped. I could live trap them but we have gazillions of them .Happy gardening Johnny