There are so few things in my life I'm sure of like- whether or not my car will start when I turn the key or whether or not my internet connection will actually connect during rainy weather. However, there is one thing that I know- plastic lunch bags stapled around a developing fruit will give me perfect fruit!!

This is my fourth year of bagging and each time I have had perfect apples. See the adjacent picture as proof for what I'm talking about!

For protecting my apples I prefer to use the most basic of basic plastic bags stapled to itself. Other friends of mine prefer to use ziploc bags that don't need to be stapled. Either way, it will work with whatever bag you use as long as it's put on the apples before apple maggot flight time, which is around July 4th around the Twin Cities in Minnesota. (For more information on apple maggot in MN click here).

There are a lot of skeptics to this approach since it does seem like a lot of work. However, it really isn't! Depending on amount of apples per tree, the size of the tree, how much thinning needs to be done...you can expect to bag approximately 1 to 2 apples per minute. Of course, like anything the speed at which you work will only improve with time!

Is this really more time consuming than doing a chemical spray which includes up to 6 sprays over the summer if you want complete protection? No, at least not in my opinion! Now in all fairness I've never done a chemical spray regime so don't really know the exact length of time that's needed. I would love to hear from anyone how much time they spend doing the chemical sprays so we can compare. Please comment to get this conversation going!

To read more from the person who invented this concept click here