Apple Trees and their management

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St Allie

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Tanglefoot on red balls hung from apple trees.. codling moth.. borer.. fireblight.. lichen..fertilising.. pruning..

anything and everything to do with apples..

If people are making cider and wines out of specific apples.. please name them and the ratios you are using also..

Some of us are still planting more trees.. all information gratefully received.

Allie
 
Apple varieties

Sad but true, I have no idea what brand my apples are! :e
Somewhere between a Johnathan and a Gravenstein from the looks and taste.
 
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
 
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

Pretty sure they're Johnathans
jonathan.jpg
 
I'm pretty sure that's an apple..:p


In the US. Your apples have different brand names to NZ.. If you can narrow it down to a brand name.. It will help the international members here. ( Aust/UK/NZ/USA etc)

Allie
 
I'm pretty sure that's an apple..:p


In the US. Your apples have different brand names to NZ.. If you can narrow it down to a brand name.. It will help the international members here. ( Aust/UK/NZ/USA etc)

Allie
Ah, ha.... Take your pick:


http://www.allaboutapples.com/varieties/index.htm

Or:
Jonathan
(Also known as: Philip Rick)
Parentage / Origin: New York, 1862
View list of Jonathan sport varieties
Harvest / Season: Harvest: October, Season: October - January
Description: Good eating and keeping apple. Medium-sized attractive fruit, striped red with high colour in spots. Flesh juicy and crisp. flavor refreshing and subacid.
Tree Characteristics: Tree naturally small, bears young, heavy crops. Self-fertile, better when cross-pollinated
.
 
Okay...
Allie started this thread because, among other reasons, I mentioned elsewhere that I had solved my worm problem with "traps" instead of sprays.
Years and years ago, I'd heard about using fake apples to deter apple maggots. You get something round (I used rubber balls), and if it's not red, paint it red. There is a product called Tanglefoot around here. I'm sure there's something similar in other places. It's a sticky goo (Castor oil, Natural Gum Resins, and Vegetable Wax) the consistency of honey. Coat the fake apple with this and hang it in your trees. This year we went from an 80% loss, to 90% good apples. That was only three traps in 2 trees.
(Note: wear gloves! It takes mineral spirits to get it off your hands!)
 
Apple Jack

Pardon the multiple postings. :e
Pioneer's recipe for Apple Jack:
Take your hard apple cider and set it outside when the temperature is below freezing. The water content will freeze and what's left if almost pure apple flavored alcohol. After you rack off the Jack, if you're really thirsty, put the slush in a salad spinner and give it a twirl, or two to get those last drops.
Just don't smoke while you're enjoying this treat. :se
 
In the beginning...

Just thought I throw this in here, to keep the thread going. This is where my 8 bushels of apples came from.

Apple Trees 052009.jpg
 
I had never heard of tanglefoot before.

After a little search on the net about it, I will definately be trying it next year.

It says to hang the "apples" at the end of blossom time, before all the petals fall.:br This sounds like a great idea. I'll be sure to try it next spring.

Thanks guys.;)
 
I had never heard of tanglefoot before.

After a little search on the net about it, I will definately be trying it next year.

It says to hang the "apples" at the end of blossom time, before all the petals fall.:br This sounds like a great idea. I'll be sure to try it next spring.

Thanks guys.;)
I held this idea in reserve for over 20 years before I tried it. It appears to have worked like magic!
 
I've got a couple of apples trees that were just planted last spring. There's 1 each of the following: a Golden Russet on mm.111, a Michelin on G.30, and a Dabinett on M.7. There's also 1 each bartlett and bosc pears. My intention is to make cider and perry mostly. Those aren't the best pear choices, but there's more lawn out there. Just gotta work around the plums and peaches. :)

I have a spray schedule for apples that was provided by an orchardist. This stuff is regulated for good reason, so I'm not suggesting anyone use this. But it's interesting to see what is sprayed by commercial growers. Uh, wait...can't figure out how to upload the jpg...More on that later.

-Mud
 
One of the reasons we have a garden, and are adding to our fruit orchard, is to avoid all the pesticides and other chemicals used commercially. Hence my interest in using the fly traps described in my earlier posts.
 
my bosc has a lot of residual sorbates Mud.. you'll find you won't need to backsweeten at all. In fact it was too sweet for me.. but blend some perry into your cider to add sweetness .. about a litre perry to 4 litres cider.. is a good balance without over doing it.


another point about infected fruit.. fall cleanup is really important.. clean up under the trees any fallen infected fruit must be gotten rid of.. if you have cattle nearby.. throw it over the fence.. they'll eat the lot. rake all fallen leaves and burn them.

Allie
 
Good points, Allie! My sons' least favorite chore in the fall is keeping the dropped apples picked up. My youngest asked, "Is this why they call it Fall?"
We give ours away to friends as deer treats, and feed a bunch to our chickens. The deer come and clean up the rest as winter progresses.
I don't burn the leaves. I use them for sheet composting the garden and greenhouse beds. I usually have too many other things to do, than tending to a smoldering pile of compacted leaves. Too much smoke, nasty smell, and dirty looks from the neighbors. :D
:ot: If you want a fine leaf mulch for potting, or flower beds, try a bunch of dry leaves in a 30 gallon rubber garbage can with your weed eater (string trimmer). It's like a giant Cuisinart!
 
I don't burn the leaves. I use them for sheet composting the garden and greenhouse beds. I usually have too many other things to do, than tending to a smoldering pile of compacted leaves. Too much smoke, nasty smell, and dirty looks from the neighbors. :D
:ot: If you want a fine leaf mulch for potting, or flower beds, try a bunch of dry leaves in a 30 gallon rubber garbage can with your weed eater (string trimmer). It's like a giant Cuisinart!

I was speaking of infected trees.

don't compost or mulch the leaves from the apple trees if there has been any sign of bugs...

Leaf roller caterpillar /codling moth will over-winter in these leaves.. and give you a nice dose of reinfection come springtime. If burning them is a problem with the neighbours.. dig a hole well away from your apple and pear trees and bury the leaves.

Allie
 
Allie, my reading comprehension failed me. Fortunately, the only time I ever had to burn leaves was when I got a dose of fire blight on a flowering cherry. I spent hours tending the burn barrel, only to find out later that fire blight is so robust that even the smoke from burning leaves can carry the disease to other trees! Arrrghhh. I was lucky, nothing else got infected. Not too sure about the neighbors down wind of me, though. :<
I haven't had any problem, that I can trace, with regularly composting leaves because (I guess) the high temps in the compost heap. Sheet composting is more risky, I agree, because eggs, etc. just go dormant.
Bottom line for me though, is that I'd rather fight a new hatch of a few critters, than wondering if I washed all that malathion off my produce. :D
 
I'm really glad that we don't have fireblight here.

Aussie still won't accept our apples due to infected fruit tree stock being sent here from overseas once.. the stock was all destroyed and we never had a problem.. but the aussies still insist on using that incident as an excuse to prevent us shipping fruit to them..

grumbles .. mutters... and goes off to delete spambots...

Allie
 
At one point, Washington State, because of their apple industry, wouldn't allow ANY fruit into the State, even if it was packed in you picnic basket!
 

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