Do you grow your own apples?

[GardenWeasel]

We have just planted apple trees and saw a spray schedule of tons of chemicals. This should probably be on another forum but a few quick tips...

 

[Beekissed]

You can spray any kind of oil, usually folks do foodgrade oils, on the new little apples and repel most parasites and even molds. I wouldn't spray any tree with chemicals, which drip off the tree and taint your soils also. Ick!

 

[me&thegals]

We have about 6 trees, but we don't spray. We also have not had any apples yet They're young, though. Our last batch of trees was specifically bred to grow good apples without needing spray (Miller Nurseries), so we will see how that goes...

 

[TanksHill]

I have two apple trees they are still prety small. I have never sprayed them with anything. Last year was their first real pruning. One bears really well the other is kinda lagging. No bugs though!

Not that this helps.

 

[Wildsky]

We have two apple tree's - been growing here for years and years.. there was an entire orchard in our back yard at one time or another.

I did try spray a couple of years ago with Neem oil, I didn't notice a huge difference in the bug population and it was difficult to spray up into a tree, I haven't bothered since then, we get so many apples its not a big deal to cut out a piece that has a bug in it.

 

[enjoy the ride]

I neither spray nor water my apple trees after the first year. Well- except fot BT if I notice a nasty influx of catapillars. They can strip off the leaves from a tree at certain times and conditions.
I do thin a bit but not much. One of my objections to gracery store apples is their ungodly size. Too much to eat at one time IMO- having many smaller apples suits me better.
But the real reason I grow my own is that they are sooooo much better tasting than store bought or even locally grown.
There is a perfection of taste in apples for about 20 minutes after they are picked. Then the taste starts to get less crisp and sweet even though the apple keeps. Also I can wait to harvest til the apple is perfectly ripe on my own trees.
This year I discovered that if I put apples into packs without washing into the fridge right away, that sweetness lasts a lot longer. Not enough room in the fridge for all but I do keep some of my best apples there.
So they are not as perfect looking as store apples but once you get hooked on the taste, you can't even look a store apple in the face. Red Delicious my foot................

 

[big brown horse]

I have a small orchard with many different types of apples. We have a "condo" full of orchard mason bees that do all the early pollinating. (They are highly efficient pollinators, way better than bees and they start earlier in the year than bees.) We water if we are experiencing a dry spell. Oh yeah, we prune them in the early spring. My trees never get sprayed with anything. Tons of nice big apples this year.

 

[patandchickens]

It depends so much on where you live. If there are not a lot of other apple trees (esp not large orchards nor large numbers of totally-untended wild trees) you may not have too much of a pest problem. OTOH if you live among a lot of commercial orchards AND a lot of hedgerow and roadside wild apple trees, you may have fairly high pest populations, some or all of them. Depends on your apple varieties and tree health, too. So, it is worth waiting and seeing what happens, for a few years anyhow. Do clean up all windfalls and autumn leaves and burn or hot-compost them.

I think there is a lot to be said for dormant oil spray if you have had a problem, and for Bt if you notice a caterpillar problem during the season. I am told that the sticky balls and some 'organic' sprays (soap, and there's one that's, what, DE or clay or something) work pretty usefully if you have a real problem with the things they work on, but have not used them myself as of yet.

I'm fine with SOME scab or worms or whatnot on the apples. However I have seen a few situations where you literally get NO usable crop without doing something, so that I think not *everyone* will be able to get away with do-nothing or extreme minimalist approaches. It just depends where you are.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[enjoy the ride]

I agree clean up of both windfall and leaves is very important- luckily the horses will clean up the apples and the goats the leaves for me.
The other thing is to get apples that have good pest resistance to pests in your area and do well in your climate. If it is being grown to far outside of of its needs, you stand less of a chance of getting consistant good results.
I don't generally by fruit trees from general stores like Kmart or such- they not only stand a better chance of carrying disease but also being very limited in selection.

 

[savingdogs]

We just moved to our current home last year and planted new apple trees, but we already grew apples in this climate. I bought four "Liberty Free" apple trees this time because at our last house it was the only one resistent to apple scab which is terrible in our area (southwest washington state). I did have to buy one other type as a polinizer. But we loved the fresh picked taste and these Liberty Free are a dessert apple, really a treat!
We also grow asian pears. We are hoping for a nice crop this year as we have eight trees all together that should bear pretty well this coming year.
I'm hoping to have alot more apples now that I've planted the right variety for my area. We did use dormant oil but did not want to do alot of spraying. After all, we are growing our own apples so that it does not have all that junk on it. We did not have wormy apples, we just had apple scab all over the trees that were not the Liberty Free.

Next fall my apple crop should be great!