I know I've mentioned Mom's mini-orchard before. Well she & I read last fall that if you take a baggie and tie it around each apple when it's about the size of a cherry, snipping just the bottom corner off, (to prevent rot) it will foil the bugs and you'll have a beautiful perfect apple come harvest, instead of a wormy funny-shaped apple. Now if she had more than two dwarf trees, I wouldn't even consider this. But her little trees always produce approximately 1000 of the tiniest, buggiest little apples you've ever seen & we're both curious enough to put the time into bagging the whole darn tree if anyone thinks it might actually work. As it is we end up tossing a full third to half of each harvest straight into the compost heap so the time would be saved come fall when we're paring them... and we'd love to actually be able to eat some of the apples WHOLE for once! Has anyone heard of this? Do you think it would work? Do you think it would be worth, say, trying on a third of the apples? love, mom
Yes, that will work. It will protect the apples (or pears) from bugs & maggots, and from fungal attach. Plastic and/or paper bags work and also footies - disposable short nylon socks often given when women try on shoes. Here's some further info: http://www.umext.maine.edu/piscataquis/gardening/2005/vol3iss6/baggedapples.htm http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/nwgardens/276534_smith06.html http://www.indianalivinggreen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=1 Peace, poor_old_dad
Since your mom has so few trees, she needs to consider thinning. It will result in bigger fruit overall. Thinning for young trees is especially important. Thinner fruit set and development results in healthier trees and resulting fruit. You might not even have the bug problems you do now. Orchardists traditionally thin, by hand or using shakers early in fruit set.
Yep, we're looking at thinning for the first time this year too. We haven't in the past, and these little trees will put out SO many apples that the branches literally drag on the ground! They tell us not to because of the uncertainty of frost this far north, but since she put the trees in... oh 20 years ago or so (?) we've never had a problem with the apples dying off - just the apricots. Know any tricks for crabapples? She's got a dolga (20-ish feet high & NOT a dwarf) crab in the side-yard that is just as productive. Makes for some very drunk bees every year when the windfalls ferment, but we simply can't GIVE away all the apples that tree puts out... and we've both still got jelly in the pantry from 4 years ago! love, mom
I have a dolga too, but it's strictly for the flowers and memories it evokes (my grandmother had one). I just pick the fruit up when it falls and throw it on the compost heap. So no help there.
