Apple tree advice please

[mistajay]

I have 3 apple trees , the one in the picture and 2 smaller ones.

 

All 3 of them produce loads of apples but since I've been at the property which is 5 yrs we have never harvested them as there are always bugs/maggot of some sort in them

 

It looks like to me they go in through the bottom of the apple via the core bit.

 

Any advice would be great as I'd like to harvest them for something.

 

 

 

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[farmer rod]

Im sure someone with some real knowledge will be along soon, but for what its worth, (very little) here's mine.

 

So if they are eaters, then just pick one you fancy, take a bite out of the good side, if you see no maggot holes then enjoy, otherwise spit it out and go for the other side.

 

Cookers:- plenty of opportunity to peel , inspect, reject etc in the kitchen whilst preparing the apple crumble.

 

Alternatively:- make cider.

[farmer rod]

After a bit of brain wracking, I think this may be codling moth. There will be plenty of results on Google for both organic and chemical remedies.

 

Not my field at all, but I think that lacewing may predate the eggs or caterpillar, I have seen lemonade bottles hanging from fruit trees, the bottom is cut off and a rolled bit of corrugated cardboard inserted in the bottle. This provides the habitat for the lacewing to lay its eggs /pupate or whatever it does.

 

Once again, hoping someone with some real knowledge will bail me out.

[agg221]

Almost certainly codling moth. A bad case will take out almost all the apples. Fortunately the solution is easy - traps like these:

 

https://www.ashridgetrees.co.uk/codling-moth-trap?gclid=CNenmcHArtACFWsz0wodKKcEkQ

 

Can be found cheaper on Amazon and Ebay but the links won't work.

 

It won't be 100% effective but if you do it every year then after a couple of years the damaged apples will be the exception rather than the rule.

 

Alec

[peatff]

I'll second the Codling moth diagnosis. We have a couple of small eating apple trees on the back garden and this year they have been ravaged with the little blighters. They are tiny, about 6mm long with a grub like body and black head. I'm getting a couple of pheromone traps for next year.

[Paul in the woods]

Try grease bands.

 

The pheromone trap catches the males, which is all well and good. But it's the females, which don't fly, that lay the eggs. Stopping them walking up the tree to lay their eggs is very effective.

 

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=518

 

Grease bands will not help, I was going to post up the same link but if you read through it it mentions:

 

Note that sticky barriers give no protection against codling moth (the cause of maggoty apples), plum moth (the cause of maggoty plums) or other types of caterpillars. That pest has winged females that are active in midsummer.

 

RHS's guide to codling moth is worth a read:

 

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=489

[mistajay]

Thanks so much for the advice

Will get on this for sure

 

 

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[mistajay]

 

 

 

So if they are eaters, then just pick one you fancy, take a bite out of the good side, if you see no maggot holes then enjoy, otherwise spit it out and go for the other side.

 

 

Alternatively:- make cider.

 

 

Haha

I have been doing this each year, the apples are lovely but now I shall try what the others have suggested

 

I thought about making cider too but was not sure if the bugs etc mattered

 

 

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[10 Bears]

I thought about making cider too but was not sure if the bugs etc mattered

 

Not a lot else matters once the cider has fermented... except where your next pot of cider is coming from!

 

I (along with several friends) help a family from the village who have a good sized orchard, with their 'apple day' that they host each year.

 

Basically a load of families all get together, harvest the apples, play games, drink, eat, play more games, then chop, mush and press a lot of the apples for juice and cider that gets consumed over the year - until we all do it again the next year. All very much good fun.

 

The apples that go in the cider are a mixture of everything - cookers, eaters etc. and it doesn't really matter just as long as they are not the apples already fallen to the ground and turned bad. I am certain there are the occasional invertebrates in the mix, but as you press you extract the juice into a barrel (you could pass through muslin if you want, but I don't think there is any point - we don't), and the pulp containing the invertebrates bodies is left behind and disposed of.

 

So, I wouldn't be concerned about the potential for contamination from a few moth/grub bodies as in reality I think very little would get into the end product, and if you think about it, you are more than likely consuming the same amount of contaminants whenever you buy similar products from the supermarket...

[agg221]

One other observation - the tree in the picture has developed a few rather vigorous upright branches which I would be inclined to have out a few at a time over the next few winters.

 

Alec

[mistajay]

One other observation - the tree in the picture has developed a few rather vigorous upright branches which I would be inclined to have out a few at a time over the next few winters.

 

 

 

Alec

 

 

So should I take out all vertical growing branches Alec?

 

 

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