Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2012 16:22:16 GMT -5
As the trees go into dormancy, and I understand that there are dormant sprays, I was wondering about these apples, which always seem to get brownish/black holes, nowadays. Looks like sawdust coming out of the holes.
During the growing season, bluish-black wasps take an interest in the fruit. I don't know whether they're the culprits, or if they're looking for larvae to eat.
Can anyone recommend something cheap, low tech, effective, non poisonous?
I don't have nearly enough money to help everyone with their projects and am somewhat phobic of chemicals.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
|
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 30, 2012 16:41:45 GMT -5
Tilling the soil under the trees will help to minimize the population of apple pest insects that might be hibernating over winter in the soil
|
|
|
|
Post by mnjrutherford on Sept 30, 2012 17:27:21 GMT -5
Really? How close should you get to the trunk? Our apple is already showing signs of a fresh infestation of fire blight. We lost every single apple, peach, AND nectarine to plum circulio.
|
|
|
|
Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Sept 30, 2012 17:36:06 GMT -5
Tilling wouldn't help with fire blight, but if you till immediately after weevil damaged fruit falls off the tree, then the weevil larva will be killed before they hatch out into sucking adults.
I get as close to the trunk as my equipment will go. Immediately picking up fallen apples and doing something destructive with them like boiling, or fermenting, or feeding to animals, or landfilling would also help.
|
|
|
|
Post by MikeH on Sept 30, 2012 18:49:52 GMT -5
As the trees go into dormancy, and I understand that there are dormant sprays, I was wondering about these apples, which always seem to get brownish/black holes, nowadays. Looks like sawdust coming out of the holes. Sounds like coddling moth. If you cut open the apple, what does the fruit look like inside? |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 30, 2012 23:30:20 GMT -5
Tilling the soil under the trees will help to minimize the population of apple pest insects that might be hibernating over winter in the soil We could stand to remake the dams, this winter. Will that familiar, white paint will keep larvae from crawling up into the fruit, or is it used against bugs which eat at the trunk? Sounds like coddling moth. If you cut open the apple, what does the fruit look like inside? Fruit is firm, sour, under developed. Larvae on images.google look familiar, and, this year, there are alot of similar looking moths in the house, for some reason. Need to check air holes, around the eves, to see whether any pests are storing fruit in the attic. We've been very thorough, to keep the pantry clean. |
|
|
|
Post by MikeH on Oct 1, 2012 6:56:14 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by oxbowfarm on Oct 1, 2012 8:43:50 GMT -5
The white paint is mainly to protect against sunscald and frost cracking in winter. It also makes it easier to see borer holes at the base, but it doesn't prevent them.
|
|
|
|
Post by richardw on Oct 1, 2012 13:44:26 GMT -5
When my orchard was young my apples used to be attacked coddling moth but as i managed to kill out the couch grass area by area and replace with herbal plantings the codding moth slowly disappeared,last season i had 0% attack.
I believe its having lots of flowering plants in and around the trees that provide a food sauce for parasitic wasps that control the codding moth,another bonus about having heaps of foliage around the trees is windfall apple are not damaged when they land.
|
|
|
|
Post by Drahkk on Oct 1, 2012 19:53:01 GMT -5
Really? How close should you get to the trunk? Our apple is already showing signs of a fresh infestation of fire blight. We lost every single apple, peach, AND nectarine to plum circulio. If you ever find a solution for fire blight that doesn't involve religious application of chemicals, please let me know. I've given up growing any apples here other than the one tree that was already on the property when I bought it, which seems to be immune. MB |
|
|
|
Post by MikeH on Oct 1, 2012 21:55:50 GMT -5
If you ever find a solution for fire blight that doesn't involve religious application of chemicals, please let me know. I've given up growing any apples here other than the one tree that was already on the property when I bought it, which seems to be immune. MB Arkansas Black, Liberty, Freedom, and Black Limbertwig are all supposed to be resistant to fire blight and growth in the South. |
|
|
|
Post by Drahkk on Oct 4, 2012 19:52:08 GMT -5
Thank you! I'll get a couple of those in spring and give it one more try. I've been curious about Arkansas Black anyway. Rhonda is partial to golden apples; do you know any of them that are resistant?
MB
|
|
|
|
Post by MikeH on Oct 4, 2012 21:20:49 GMT -5
No, I don't but Kuffel Creek carries a number of yellow apples & they are experts on warm climate apples - www.kuffelcreek.com/apples.htm. You could email Kevin Hauser and ask him if he knows of fireblight resistant apples that will grow in the South. |
|
|
|
Post by Drahkk on Oct 4, 2012 23:21:27 GMT -5
Sweet! Thanks!
MB
|
|
|
|
Post by MikeH on Oct 5, 2012 3:14:56 GMT -5
|
|
