Why were all my apples rotten or eaten this year?

Question

The mother of a friend of mine has apple trees in her garden and has grown them for many years. She has even grafted on branches of other species to give more variety (I didn't even know you could do that before I met her!)

Anyway, this year her apples have been terrible. They have all either rotted on the branch, or have been attacked and eaten by various "worms".

What do you recommend she does next year to prevent this from happening again?

Answer 1

Prune the tree. If there is too many branches, it stands to reason that there will be alot more leaves. Leaves are perfect breeding places for insects.

If there are less leaves, it is easier to treat the tree. spray 1-2 times a month from the beginning of spring. Enquire at your local nursery for suitable pesticides.

Answer 2

Codling moths are a pain - but you don't need insecticides unless it's a last resort.
If your friend's mother knows a good tree surgeon, perhaps one who specialises in fruit trees, it's worth asking him or her if they can a.) see if there are any other problems - canker, other disease, other insects, and b.) give the trees a good haircut - apple trees do best in an open or cup shape so that lots of air can get to all the fruit and leaves. Take out all the 'water' shoots and leave good strong disease-free branches only - but she probably knows this already. The other reason for leaving the tree as open as possible is to encourage birds to come and eat the insects - hang all your bird-feeders, houses, bee, lacewing or ladybird overwintering houses, whatever, on the tree branches and the birds and predatory insects will have a go at the 'worms' and other things as well - with any luck. 'Cleaning' the tree with a soft soap spray could help - this isn't washing-up type soap but something you get from hardware shops. Probably the best time is in February/March before the blossom starts and the little creatures get going -codling moth overwinters on the tree, so getting rid of it this winter is the thing to do.
If she prunes hard back she won't get a crop next year - but the year after should be very good.
Fruit tree specialists are the people to ask - or you could try the RHS, or Kew - if you go to garden centres they might only give advice that sells their products!
I would say the weather might have made a difference, but I don't know where you live - and in any case most people have had a really good apple year - we certainly have.

Answer 3

The Cornell Cooperative Extension document talks about four common diseases of apple trees.

The 'worms' very likely are codling moth. Neither spraying nor biological controls will EASILY control them, but the UC extension site offers a variety of options.

Answer 4

sounds like you need to spray them well the fruit has been infected by bugs/worms

Answer 5

special feed and spray to keep off the insects, grafting may have spread disease

Answer 6

It was too dry. happened to mine to and me chestnuts

Answer 7

spray with pesticides