The Treat of a Lifetime…

 Apples you pick at the peak of ripeness and eat right there on the spot can be the treat of a lifetime, whether the apple is juicy and sweet or crisp, tart and delicious. 

This year it was an exciting time at my home when I was able to pick enough apples from my very own, very young pippin apple tree to make two delicious pies. This is what all of the hard work, the sweat on your brow, and the dirt under your nails is all about.

Fruit and nut trees, grape vines, and berry bushes need more care than most plants. And their fruits are just as tasty to insects, birds, and four-footed pests as they are to you, the gardener. These plants often require special tactics to thwart pests and disease, ranging from bird netting to sticky tape and pheromone traps that lure pests.

Always consult a local nursery for varieties that resist the different problems common to our area. Practice careful garden sanitation, picking up dropped fruit throughout the season and raking away fallen leaves in autumn to keep pests from overwintering near your trees, vines, or bushes.

There was a down side to my apple harvest this year, to my surprise and disappointment. Because of this I decided if I was having problems with some of my apple crop, then possible some other mountain gardener might be having problems as well. Out came my gardening books and the research on apples trees began.  

The majority of the apples in my fist harvest were not huge, but the outsides looked almost perfect; that is except for a couple of very small holes, and the occasional bite or two from a hungry bird. After washing the fruit, I laid them out on a towel to dry, while retrieving a small cutting board. As I cut into my apples I found dark, rotted narrow paths, mostly in the direction of the center or core of the fruit, and occasionally I found a pinkish white worm, about 1/2 inch long inside the apple. Later I began to learn that codling moths damage the apple and the small holes are the exit holes. Let me explain.

The worm is the larva of the codling moth, one of the most serious apple pests in the United States. The 1/2 inch-wide, gray-brown moths appear in spring when the apple trees are blooming, usually flying at twilight. They lay eggs on leaves, twigs, and developing fruit.  When the eggs hatch, the larvae tunnel into the fruit. They feed for several weeks, and then emerge to pupate, often leaving dark excrement on the shin and inside the fruit. After pupating, another generation of moths emerges in midsummer. Apples may be damaged throughout summer. In fall, larvae spin cocoons in protected places on or around the tree, such as under loose bark or in tree crevices. They spend winter in the cocoons, emerging as moths in the spring.  

Solutions:

1:  Control pests with traps, barriers, and biological control.  

2: Thin fruit on trees and remove fallen fruit. Once in the apple, the pest is immune to pesticide.  

3:  In late winter, hang one or two pheromone traps per tree. Pheromones are the chemicals that moths produce to attract the opposite sex. 

4:  In early spring, scrape loose bark from the tree and spray the tree with dormant oil to smother eggs. Wrap the trunk with a band of corrugated cardboard or burlap and regularly remove pupae you find behind it.  

5: Thin the fruit so that they do not touch. If the tree is small, tie paper bags over each fruit in May or June, after thinning.  The bag creates a barrier between the apples and the moths.

6: On a daily basis, remove fallen fruit, which may harbor larvae.  

7: If problems have been severe in the past, spray the tree with BT, a biological insecticide, two to six weeks after the tree blooms.  Follow label directions carefully.

For FREE gardening advise contact a Master Gardener at our local University of California-Cooperative Extension at 209-533- 5696 or email me at bettyhensley@mlode.com.