A while back, I decided to try bagging one of the three Asian pears my tree successfully produced this year. I wanted to see if it made any difference in pest damage prevention.
Here are the results:
This is the unbagged pear:
There’s no internal damage, no worms burrowing, but I see some superficial damage, probably from an insect with sucking mouthparts, like a stink bug.
By comparison, the bagged fruit, pictured on the left, doesn’t have this damage.
Conclusion: I think this is a good technique, one that should be used on more vulnerable fruit, but is of negligible value for these Asian pears until the bugs well and truly find them. Since the pressure on them at this time seems relatively low, I probably won’t make the effort to bag them in the future until I see the insects start to be a problem.
I will definitely try this on any apples I get next year.
What do you think?
Good study. Good conclusions. Thanks!!
I appreciate your experiment.
For my apples I used coddling moth traps, and haven’t had any problems. But my trees are young and might attract more pests as they produce more fruit.
Thanks!
Sallie–Let’s hope for a “larger sample size” next year!
I love this idea. And, your results were favorable. My only problem is I find it hard to trust plastic these days. I use glass instead of plastic containers for the most part. I wonder if you could use a muslin drawstring bag. It may not keep everything out, but wonder if it would deter some things. Maybe coat them in beeswax first. I’m just brainstorming…haven’t a clue really. The bees would probably divebomb them. LOL!
Claudine–I’m going to look into those, thank you for the benefit of your experience.
Kathy–Yes, that is an issue. The Japanese use a layered paper bag, and I think cloth is an option. With opaque bags, you’d need to remove it a bit before harvest to allow the light to change the fruit to its natural color (it would be blanched otherwise). Cloth might let in more light than paper. Some people slip on bits of nylon hose.
Some good points there, Daisy!