Apple Trees and their management

[GANGGREEN]

I started a small orchard a couple of years ago but, after a horrible spring last year, it hasn't produced a crop yet. The older trees will be 3 years old this spring and I'm hopeful that they'll set fruit. I have apples, pears, plums, sour cherries and a peach/nectarine or two. There are about 50 trees in the ground now but I'll plant two dozen more this spring and will probably top out at about 100 trees next spring.

I think that there are some government grants available for commercial organic farm operations around here and I'll probably check into it but I'm not interested in a lot of government rules/regulations that I have to follow and I'm not convinced that I want the bother of proving that I'm a commercial operation.

So far I mostly have varieties that are best suited for fresh eating, at least with the apples. I have Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Empire, Gala, Spartan, Northern Spy, Pristine and a probably a few others that I'm forgetting, mostly on G16 rootstocks. I also have Aurora, Bartlett, Collette, Harvest Queen and Seckel pears, Balaton and Surefire sour cherries and Longjohn, Greengage and Stanley plums along with Saturn peach and Fantasia nectarines.

 

[Old Philosopher]

I'm bumping this old thread for a couple reasons.
First, for the past 3 weeks I have obsessed with apples. They have controlled my life! They say trees alternate years with production, but this year both our trees went nuts! We ended up only picking about 3/4 of our crop, which yielded 3 and 1/2 33 gallon garbage cans full of unblemished apple. I don't think it was the Tanglefoot traps, but rather the weather. Virtually no pests!

I ended up giving away about 80 pounds of apples the local food bank, and the neighbor is picking the last 1/4 of the crop, which is still on the trees.

I've made 12 gallons of wine, 3 gallons of cider and have another 4 gallons of juice in the freezer for next Spring's wine. All this from TWO mature trees! I can't imagine having to deal with the crop from a larger orchard.
I still have another 80-90 pounds to turn into dried apple rings, pie filling (to be canned), and jelly.

So...my second reason for bumping this thread is to ask of anyone has a proven method for storing fresh apples for an extended period of time? My first inclination is to layer them in straw in a garbage can and put them in my root cellar. I've tried layering them with newspaper in crates that allowed air to circulate, but that failed. I'm not about to wrap each one in tissue paper and stack them in apple crates. I'd be at it until Thanksgiving!

Any suggestions?

 

[Larryh86GT]

I have 3 apple trees and also would like to know if there is any way to store the apples. But I doubt it's doable without a temperature controled warehouse so I plan to make cider/wine out of them.

Old Philosopher - What do you do to control codling moths? That seems to be the biggest problem with my apples and I hate the idea of chemical spraying the trees.

 

[Old Philosopher]

I have 3 apple trees and also would like to know if there is any way to store the apples. But I doubt it's doable without a temperature controled warehouse so I plan to make cider/wine out of them.

My understanding is humidity is nearly as important as temperature. I can't control either in my half refurbished root cellar. I guess if we don't get any feedback here from experienced folks, I'll try the straw and report back as time goes on. If you come up with a good answer, please post. Good luck with your wine! With yeast nutrient and both Curvee and Montrachet yeast, my wine has been finishing in about a week!

Old Philosopher - What do you do to control codling moths? That seems to be the biggest problem with my apples and I hate the idea of chemical spraying the trees.

I have found the traps work very well. I use bright red rubber balls (the size of apples) coated with Tanglefoot. Only 3 balls hung in the 2 trees cut my pest problems to 1/4 what it was.
I heard that a bright red apple coated with honey will work also, although I've not tried it. The apples last less time than the balls and Tanglefoot.
Get the traps in your trees before the first blooms. I haven't had any evidence that I was trapping pollinators during the bloom.

 

[grapeman]

The only real way of long term storage is to store in a very close to freezing temperature and even with that they will get punky after a couple months. Some apples store better than others. Large apple storages place them in Controlled Atmosphere storage (CA) where the amount of 02 is regulated by increasing other gas levels. This decreases the ethylene production which matures the apple and makes them age. Some varieties store better than others.

 

[Old Philosopher]

The only real way of long term storage is to store in a very close to freezing temperature and even with that they will get punky after a couple months. Some apples store better than others. Large apple storages place them in Controlled Atmosphere storage (CA) where the amount of 02 is regulated by increasing other gas levels. This decreases the ethylene production which matures the apple and makes them age. Some varieties store better than others.

Makes me wish I could by those "green bags" (that dispel ethylene) in 30 gallon sizes! Hahaha!

 

[Larryh86GT]

Thanks. I'll give the tree tanglefoot and red balls idea a try this coming spring. I planted my golden delicious apple tree 20+ years ago and the yield is very good but wormy because I hate spraying them. My other 2 are a Jonathan and a red delicious that are just beginning to produce.

 

[Old Philosopher]

Thanks. I'll give the tree tanglefoot and red balls idea a try this coming spring. I planted my golden delicious apple tree 20+ years ago and the yield is very good but wormy because I hate spraying them. My other 2 are a Jonathan and a red delicious that are just beginning to produce.

Both my trees are Johnathans. Out of 14 bushels harvested, we had less than 1.5 bushels of wormy apples. We don't spray for anything.

 

[Larryh86GT]

I see that you can wrap material around the trunk of the tree and put the tanglefoot on that also to trap the critters as they make their way up the tree.

 

[Old Philosopher]

I see that you can wrap material around the trunk of the tree and put the tanglefoot on that also to trap the critters as they make their way up the tree.

IIRC, apple maggots/codling moths are airborne attackers. I know ringing the trees with Tanglefoot would get me scratched from my cats' Christmas list in a hurry!

 

[Larryh86GT]

The painted red balls are supposed to look like apples to the moths? Just a thought but would plastic fake red apples work even better?

 

[Old Philosopher]

The painted red balls are supposed to look like apples to the moths? Just a thought but would plastic fake red apples work even better?

Yep! This is the time of year to buy an extra box of those 3" red apple Christmas tree ornaments!

 

[Larryh86GT]

And green ones for my golden delicious tree?

 

[Old Philosopher]

And green ones for my golden delicious tree?

Hahaha! Now THAT'S funny! Never thought about that. But come to think of it, all apples are green to begin with, right? Besides, last time I checked, bugs were colorblind.

 

[Larryh86GT]

What do you do with the red balls after moth catching season is over? Is the tanglefoot able to be cleaned off the balls or do you have to throw them away?

 

[Old Philosopher]

What do you do with the red balls after moth catching season is over? Is the tanglefoot able to be cleaned off the balls or do you have to throw them away?

They can be cleaned with solvent, or even hot soapy water (marginally effective). The coating of goo, and dead bugs usually makes them a candidate for the garbage can at my house. Not unlike a used fly trap!
I got two years out of my first ones by leaving them in the tree and letting them weather, then just re-applying Tanglefoot over what junk was left.

 

[Larryh86GT]

I've bought a 16 oz tub of the tanglefoot and am looking for the balls now. Thanks for your help. It would be nice not to have all wormy apples next year.
Maybe I should get this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/24-Red-Chri...104?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item519ba6c5f0
Then I would only have to get one for the three trees.

 

[Old Philosopher]

are they all the same apples?

Why can't you get them identified? take them to a local grower?.. or send photos to a few different nursey growers and see what they say?

Allie

After my apple marathon this fall, I'm really wanting to identify these old apple trees. I've come to the conclusion they are NOT Johnathan.
I've taken leaves, branches and apples to two different nurseries, and received two different answers.
It seems to be narrowed down to Gravenstein, McIntosh, or possibly Winesap.
I'm leaning toward Gravenstein myself.
Does anyone have some advice on a web link, book, or other source of a definitive key to identify a specific apple variety? Or are there just too many cross-varieties these days to even try?



BTW, what has become of St. Allie? She hasn't been on since last February??? She okay?

 

[Angelina]

Here's a link that might help.

http://www.orangepippin.com/varietyindex.aspx

 

[Old Philosopher]

Here's a link that might help.

http://www.orangepippin.com/varietyindex.aspx

Outstanding!!! While all the three I mentioned look pretty much alike, that site clinched it.
Medium sized
Cold tolerant
Late season
Flowering: mid-season
Flowering Groups: 3
Spur-bearer (!!)

They are Winesap, almost 100% sure of it.

Thank you so much!