Menu Close
Avatar
Log In
Please consider registering
Guest
Forum Scope






Start typing a member's name above and it will auto-complete

Match



Forum Options



Min search length: 3 characters / Max search length: 84 characters
Register Lost password?
sp_TopicIcon
Fruit Sox
Avatar
John S
PDX OR
2874 Posts
(Offline)
1
May 28, 2024 - 10:23 pm

I've got so many apples now I can't cover them all.

However, I find that Sturmer is a great keeper and a very good apple. Yet it is quite susceptible to both codling moth and apple maggot. 

To prepare the fruit sox, I self doused the maggot barriers in a liquid clay solution. I figured i didn't need to buy something so readily available near my house.

Sometimes, when I get ready to put the fruit sox on, I notice a little dot on there.  I figure it is the oviposited (?) egg of the codling moth, so I scrape it off with my finger.  Most of the time,

it works.  The apple looks bad, and I couldn't sell it, but I don't sell fruit. I eat it. 

Most of the time I don't put fruit sox on anything else because I'm too busy. Or too lazy?

 

JOhn S
PDX OR

Avatar
jafar
805 Posts
(Online)
2
May 31, 2024 - 7:05 pm

What is so readily available by your house, the clay?

Avatar
John S
PDX OR
2874 Posts
(Offline)
3
June 1, 2024 - 8:23 am

Yes, the clay.

John S
PDX OR

Avatar
Rooney
Vancouver SW Washington
805 Posts
(Offline)
4
June 2, 2024 - 6:14 pm

Okay. So you 'self doused the maggot barriers in a liquid clay solution', and (maggot barriers) meaning foot sox of course.

Instead of clay particles does anybody think leaves of stinging nettles in there would work?


 

After sleeping on that comment of mine I now think the nettles stings are aimed at deer. Then using a potent tabacco plant that carry lots of nicotine in leafy sections would work better? Pingo farms at farmers markets at the Alaska state fair is where I got seeds of more potent strains of tabacco for the purpose of repelling insects by (if you hadn't figured) interspacing live plants of these in vegetable gardens (eg. pingo gardens). If that ends up working then mint leaves (without nicotine) probably would work too.

Avatar
John S
PDX OR
2874 Posts
(Offline)
5
June 3, 2024 - 8:25 pm

With clay, it's a textural thing.  The fruit sox have a dusty clay through them, which insects hate like diotomaceous earth. I think it gets into their exoskeletons.

If I were to try to use stinging nettle, I would probably make a tea with a high speed blender and then soak the sox in it.

I don't think it would work better than clay, but who knows, until someone tries it.

John S
PDX OR

Avatar
Larry_G
199 Posts
(Offline)
6
June 4, 2024 - 11:28 am

Clay and other dust may get into the insect spiracles and interfere with breathing.

 

From what little I read, once harvested, the nettle pieces dry out, the chemical effect is gone and only the sharp leaf hairs remain as an irritant.

Same might happen when the tea dries.

Avatar
Rooney
Vancouver SW Washington
805 Posts
(Offline)
7
June 4, 2024 - 3:52 pm

Larry: Maybe it's possible to interfere with these openings in high smog such as growing maggot free apples some day in big cities?

College lesson via Collegedunia.com

I hope it never comes to that but possibly we are already there here in PDX for our pollinators. Cry

Forum Timezone: America/Los_Angeles
All RSSShow Stats
Administrators:
Idyllwild
Moderators:
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
Top Posters:
Rooney: 805
DanielW: 519
PlumFun: 495
Reinettes: 428
davem: 367
Dubyadee: 241
sweepbjames: 235
gkowen: 218
Larry_G: 199
quokka: 174
Newest Members:
linaluice002
Thimande
Nupich
simplepress
tammyR
CR
samui
OscarG5
murkwell
jimmyjane
Forum Stats:
Groups: 1
Forums: 4
Topics: 2925
Posts: 16914

 

Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 0
Members: 1442
Moderators: 4
Admins: 1
Most Users Ever Online: 283
Currently Online: jafar
Guest(s) 41
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)