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Post by johno on Apr 7, 2011 19:58:49 GMT -5
Last fall I severed the main roots on two sets of suckers growing a few feet away from a semi-dwarf Winesap apple tree. A few weeks ago I dug them up and transplanted them here. I'll use them to practice grafting starting next year. Today I took advantage of a buy 2 get 1 fruit tree sale and got 3 apple trees: Arkansas Black dwarf, Golden Delicious dwarf, and Grimes' Golden semi-dwarf. I'm so happy to finally start my mini-orchard!  |
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Post by heidihi on Apr 8, 2011 7:39:56 GMT -5
oh how wonderful! I wish I could grow apples..I know this sounds insane living in an apple famous state but I have been defeated by apple maggot ..very severe awful I just gave up ..my beautiful trees are gone .I am doing fine with the Asian pears...while these are really good ..they can never replace an apple ...you can not make great pies or cider ..they do not dry well ...I sure do love/miss/hate the fact I can not grow apples due to this horrific infestation in our area..(some of my neighbors seem to have great success others are in the same boat I am in) and would love to have a min orchard...have fun with your find!
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Post by garnetmoth on Apr 8, 2011 8:27:02 GMT -5
awesome Johno! we have 2 fruiting crabs in the back yard, hoping for a taste this year
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Post by synergy on Apr 8, 2011 9:29:44 GMT -5
I am finally going to try some dwarf trees this year and my wish list is , 2 winter apple , a multigrafted cherry and a peach/apricot grafted tree .
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Post by ottawagardener on Apr 8, 2011 19:31:12 GMT -5
I read somewhere about someone who uses pantyhose socks to protect against apple maggots. Lots of work, I imagine but worth it I guess if you can't have them any other way. I must get myself one of those Asian pears while the local pests have learned to nibble too much on them!
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Post by heidihi on Apr 8, 2011 22:00:42 GMT -5
I read somewhere about someone who uses pantyhose socks to protect against apple maggots. Lots of work, I imagine but worth it I guess if you can't have them any other way. I must get myself one of those Asian pears while the local pests have learned to nibble too much on them! I tried I tried I read I researched I begged I pleaded..every old gardener here just shook his head ..told me of the elaborate methods of getting rid of it and pretty much telling me to just back off and wait ten years I can buy magnificant apples here so I guess like MNJ and tomatoes..somethings you would love to grow but have to buy my beloved apples so I will just watch read and learn from you guys! |
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 8, 2011 22:22:42 GMT -5
I tried I tried I read I researched I begged I pleaded..every old gardener here just shook his head ..told me of the elaborate methods of getting rid of it and pretty much telling me to just back off and wait ten years I can buy magnificant apples here so I guess like MNJ and tomatoes..somethings you would love to grow but have to buy my beloved apples Presuming that you are adverse to the use of pesticides... Perhaps you could change your expectations about what an apple is, and what it should look like? Would it be acceptable to cut a worm out of an apple before eating it? If not, would it be acceptable to toss the 70% of the apples that had worms in them? If not, would it be acceptable to eat tarter apples that are not so attractive to fruit worms? There are methods that can help a lot in the control of fruit worms: For example by disrupting their life cycle in the pupa stage by tilling, and/or by gathering all infected fruits/nuts and burning/cooking them. There are innocuous controls such as diatomacious earth. |
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Post by anablake on May 11, 2011 5:04:10 GMT -5
I would love to grow apple hydroponically... |
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coppice
gardener
gardening curmudgeon
Posts: 149
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Post by coppice on May 11, 2011 7:18:14 GMT -5
Apple maggot can be reduced by:
1., Clean culture under your apple trees;meaning, no weeds old leaves apple drops, and an annual dressing of bark mulch
2. Traps any red ball painted with tanglefoot. Set out after blossom drop. At least one per tree and repainted with tanglefoot X 2 per summer.
Apple maggot ride old fruit to the ground and pupate in the soil. Not all grow into adult apple fly the next year.
The more OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) you are about cleaning out your orchard the quicker you will get a reduced impact of this pest.
But no without spraying for a period of years, Nothing will eliminate apple maggot in one go.
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Post by mnjrutherford on May 11, 2011 7:21:29 GMT -5
I can buy magnificant apples here so I guess like MNJ and tomatoes..somethings you would love to grow but have to buy So true Heidi, so true! Interestingly enough, we have had ZERO luck with apples as well. Mike's dad was not a good parent, still Mike was devoted to him. He gave Mike one gift and Mike treasured it. It was a 5 graft apple tree from "Carole Wright". It was babied like nobodies business. Last spring it taught us all about a fungal disease called "Fireblight". Little by little, Mike amputated a twig here, a branch there. By early spring, he pulled it out. He never even told me. It was a couple days before I even noticed it was gone. Yet still, we have the lessons learned. |
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Post by greenfinger on Jun 2, 2011 21:24:35 GMT -5
There are methods that can help a lot in the control of fruit worms: For example by disrupting Joseph said.. "disrupting their life cycle in the pupa stage by tilling, and/or by gathering all infected fruits/nuts and burning/cooking them."
I disturbed their life cycle by setting up my freezer right beside the tree, opened the door, and freeze-killed all the blooms. Strange that my frost reached the commercial growers 20 miles away too...no cider that year. Now, we (or my child) pick up all the fallen fruit. We've been 3 years, no worms!
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Post by steev on Jun 2, 2011 21:48:45 GMT -5
Sounds like a good reason to raise a pig: to dispose of the infested apples, possibly getting it to pick them up for itself. Otherwise, how about a soft foam collar around the trunk ( to fill in the crevices ) held on with duct tape, on which is a band of tanglefoot. While the males fly, don't the females have to crawl up the trunk?
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Post by johno on Jun 6, 2011 17:26:14 GMT -5
We use the not-so-perfect apples from Dad's trees as deer food, but when mine start to bear we'll probably be feeding some to the neighbors' pigs.
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Post by wildseed57 on Jun 6, 2011 17:34:14 GMT -5
I have two apple varieties that I planted 3 years ago that are just starting to make apples, we do have apple maggots or worms depending on how you look at them, also we have a lot of diseases that effect apple trees. Last year I got some cuttings of some Heritage apple varieties as a gift, so I tried my hand at grafting i made some mistakes, but I did get three cuttings to take on one tree, so I'm very happy to see them growing and will look forward to the time when I can allow apples on the new limbs. I have to keep them sprayed with various fungicides and sulfur and copper treatments do to the diseases, and I will have to cover the young apples as they form with little baggies so that they don't get full of worms I will look at it as a learning process to get nice apples you have to thin them out if you want large apples anyway so why not bag as I go. I will most likely leave some unbagged and hang traps around on some of the taller branches so I don't break my neck trying to get to them, after I'm gone I'll let someone else worry about how to take care of them. Now if I could just get a few good peaches.
George W.
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Post by johno on Jun 6, 2011 17:39:41 GMT -5
I've got cedar apple rust on the ones I bought, but not a speck on the two I'm growing as/from root stock.
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