Pest control of apples - Organza bags for the win!
After 2 years of using Organza bags, I haven't seen any insect in my apples during that time.
Apples are buggy fruits to grow
My feeling is that apple trees in our region should come with a label that warns gardeners that apple trees require prevention strategies for coddling moth and apple maggots.
I’m in a lot of gardening groups on Facebook, where people are constantly asking about what is tunneling through their apples. Most often it is one of the two mentioned insect pests.
Though coddling moths and apple maggots will infect other fruits, their main preference is for apples, and if you grow apple trees, you are incredibly likely to find insects unless you take prevention measures.
Prevention measures
Growers will use either barrier methods or killing sprays in order to get control of insects.
Sprays: I don’t have knowledge of synthetic chemical sprays. The “organic” option that I’ve heard some orchardists use is Spinosad. My understanding is that multiple sprays are needed at optimal times (you’ll want to consult professionals or extension office on this one) and you’ll want to be careful that you don’t hit non-target insects. Bees in particular are susceptible to damage from Spinosad exposure.
The other “organic” spray that I know of is a product called Surround, which is a Kaolin Clay that essentially forms a barrier that pests won’t penetrate once enough layers are applied. With this one, 3 sprays are needed. The timing starts when the apples are marble sized-and the rain is forecasted to mostly stop for the season. I understand a fan sprayer will likely work, but this particular concoction may need a special sprayer. and a constant agitation is needed to keep the clay from settling down at the bottom. With a backpack sprayer, this means jumping up and down in order to accomplish the job.
Other folks swear by magic potions - supposedly “holistic” nutrition sprays for their trees. The folks that swear by these methods say that they see a reduction of pests, not elimination.
Lastly, there are gardeners who don’t mind the insect damage, as the apples get crushed and used for cider, which filters out the noticeably buggy parts.
Bagging
Another way of preventing insect damage is to literally create a barrier for each individual apple by bagging them. Some folks do this with paper, others do it with plastic baggies or nylon booties.
So far, I’ve formed a preference for organza bags. They breathe well, don’t get destroyed during a rain spell, and cinch tightly around the apples to effectively exclude insect pests.
I’m not certain how well they exclude stink bugs though - I still get what seems like occasional stink bug damage on my pear. Lucky for me, my stink but population is fairly low.
Bagging each individual apple may seem like a lot of work, but you should be in there thinning fruit out early in the season anyway. While you’re there, it only takes a few seconds to slap a bag on the fruit you’ve chosen to grow full-size anyway.
I find it a fairly easy task, but my orchard is young and I don’t have tons of fruit yet. I’m not sure how I will feel about this task once I have many hundreds of apples.
I do know that this is one of the main reasons to keep apple trees pruned to reasonable size, with all areas of the tree’s fruits being within easy reach.
I may decide to not bag all of the apples, and just bag a few I want to make sure are bug-free. Or perhaps I’ll take out trees that don’t perform well for me, so I don’t have to bother with it. Time will tell.
There are multiple sizes of bags available. I find 4x6 to work with small apples, 5x7 to work with a bit larger apples, and 8x10 to work with really large apples.
What’s your method of pest exclusion?
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