Help with Apple trees, please

[BeccaOH]

My 2 Golden Delicious apple trees are loaded this year with apples. I don't know if I've ever seen so many on the trees. They are about crab apple size right now. The trees are bushy, and I have done NOTHING as far as spraying/treating goes. Usually what apples we do manage to get are very scabby and not worth working with. What should I be doing right now to save these apples for food? I do have an organic anti-fungus fruit spray concentrate I probably bought 2 years ago and never used. I wanted to talk to our farmers market orchard guy about it this Saturday, but he wasn't there.

 

[savingdogs]

You might want to thin the fruit if they are really loaded. Maybe you should upload a picture? But if you have too many fruits you will just get a lot of tiny ones.

I don't have a solution for apple scab except we were spraying dormant oil in the winter. The only thing that seems to prevent it in our climate is buying disease-resistant trees. I hope it is better where you are.

 

[Boogity]

Becca - I'm having exactly the same thing over here in Indiana. We spent the winter in Florida and I completely forgot to spray the dormant oil. I thinned the apples about 4 weeks ago but I have way too many trees to do all of them and they're full size trees. I guess we'll have to dry some, make applesauce with some, and I'm sure we'll have lots of apple pies. But these apples are not fit to eat off hand.

 

[Wannabefree]

Thin the fruit by at least a third and sprinkle Epsom salts kind of thickly around the drip line. My grandma SWEARS by Epsom salts to keep from producing "knobby" fruits that scab and look like big nasty warts I ave never seen knobby fruits on grandmas trees Epsom salt is supposed to add magnesium? I think to the soil and help the tree produce better fruit. It is also suppose to repel bugs.

 

[BeccaOH]

explain the "drip line," please.

 

[Wannabefree]

explain the "drip line," please.

The "drip line" is the area around the tree that rain "drips" off the ends of the branches. The perimeter if you will. Basically it is the outside of the area the tree would shade at noon. The root system will get a lot of it's nutrients from this area. A lot of folks make the mistake of fertilizing around the trunk, but you need to fertilize/treat around the drip line, where all of the smaller roots are underground and the tree will benefit from the nutrients soaking in.

 

[savingdogs]

I think I remember them telling me at the nursery that with apple scab you should really clean up the ground under and around the trees really well regularly and make sure when you water not to hit the fruit. It is a real problem with apples in my area.

 

[MetalSmitten]

my apple trees didn't produce a dern thing this year =/ i don't really know why either, my best guess is because we trimmed them heavily last year (they came with this property and look like older trees that have been neglected for years). sorry i'm no help, good luck with your trees!

 

[Boogity]

This is way off topic but I have to ask . . .

MetalSmitten, any new developments on the missing student, Lauren Spierer? We have not seen anything new on the news lately.

 

[GOOGLE NIKOLA TESLA]

explain the "drip line," please.

The "drip line" is the area around the tree that rain "drips" off the ends of the branches. The perimeter if you will. Basically it is the outside of the area the tree would shade at noon. The root system will get a lot of it's nutrients from this area. A lot of folks make the mistake of fertilizing around the trunk, but you need to fertilize/treat around the drip line, where all of the smaller roots are underground and the tree will benefit from the nutrients soaking in.

man that makes alot of sense, the complete nutrition is usually not found in commercial fertilizers, you do need the magnesiums etc, to add the missing parts in the fertilizers, it makes alot of sense, its like when you have people missing nutrition like goiter from missing iodine. it makes alot of sense, an old man i take care of, told me of using epsom salt with sugar at the root growth of tomatoes makes them take off 10 fold, i forgot to do it with mine, but its interesting to think that you are adding all the elementals that help the plant combat disease and strive at full strength.