I have problems with boring pests that lay their eggs in my fruity vegetables like cucumbers, gourds, beans sometimes, luffas and some others. I have been bagging them with paper bags made from old newspaper and now upgraded to organza. The organza was used for netting my leafy vegetables before I was able to get real vegetable netting. Both paper and organza bags are not full proof but it did help by reducing the number of destroyed fruits. Now I am thinking of using plastic bags because one of my neighbour is using it for her fruit tree and it is working very well. So do anyone of you here bagged your fruits or vegetables before? What material did you use and its effectiveness.
Hi KK, I would be a bit wary of using plastic as it could make the fruits/vegs sweat. Have never ''bagged'' any in my garden before, and although it may well be too late for this year, I think I would prefer to net the whole plant with very fine mesh so the bugs can't reach any part of the plants at all. If you do decide to use plastic I'd be very interested to know what results you had.
I bagged my strawberries for the first time this year with organza bags. I had mixed results. It definitely helped with the lygus bugs and slugs not damaging them, but with the wet cool weather it kept them wet and I had some issues with rot. I may have had the rot issue regardless with the cold wet weather, but it definitely didn't help with air flow. I will do it again next spring when these pests are prevelant, but not in the summer I don't think.
Thanks Tetters, I agree with you. Some of the sites I visited mentioned that plastic is the first choice, mainly for apples. There are manufacturers that actually make plastic bagging bags for fruits and vegetables. Covering the whole plant is out of the question for me because the plants are usually vines and need open space to grow. Right now I am using home made organza bags. Melody, I observed that the older and worn organza had the tendency to stick to the fruits when wet but the new ones is faster to dry out. I do not have issue with rot because the fruits are above ground.
