Getting the garden ready for winter

[journey11]

That little bit of pitting looks like bug damage to me. Maybe beetles, they suck on the juices. The tree looks pretty healthy from your picture.

I always intend to spray, but rarely do. Jan/Feb is very windy here and I struggle to get a good day for spraying (that and not wanting to get spray on myself).

When I still had my two apple trees, prior to fireblight doing them in, I would take the bumper crops of apples and cut them up best I could (mine were a bit buggy too) and run them through the juicer. We had cider and I made some ACV too. The yeasts to make it are naturally occuring and it will ferment just as it is, if you juice them including the peel and all and don't wash with soap, just plain water.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

Oh Rabbits, don't feel stupid, you have obviously had a lot more to worry about than apple trees for a very long time.

Here's a site that may help you figure out why your apple is dropping apples prematurely.

When the apple trees on my driveway that grew from the root stock started producing I didn't think any of them were worth using. I had tried a few and they were awful.
One day my neighbors were out for a walk and stopped to ask if we were going to use all those apples. No, I replied, they taste terrible.
My neighbor tried one and pronounced it as good as a Gala. So I tried one too and he was right! I just hadn't waited long enough for them to get ripe. Now I know that it takes them until late September/early October before they're ready.

I guess the dropping the apples makes it seem like they should be ready. I never let DS thin them, but I think that needs to be done. He did that for some old people he worked for. I cut one for him, and he was shocked how good it was.

 

[Gardening with Rabbits]

That little bit of pitting looks like bug damage to me. Maybe beetles, they suck on the juices. The tree looks pretty healthy from your picture.

I always intend to spray, but rarely do. Jan/Feb is very windy here and I struggle to get a good day for spraying (that and not wanting to get spray on myself).

When I still had my two apple trees, prior to fireblight doing them in, I would take the bumper crops of apples and cut them up best I could (mine were a bit buggy too) and run them through the juicer. We had cider and I made some ACV too. The yeasts to make it are naturally occuring and it will ferment just as it is, if you juice them including the peel and all and don't wash with soap, just plain water.

I have never seen anything on the tree. The only bugs really were the aphids. I see wasps around the tree in the summer. I do not want to spray without any chemicals. I looked at pictures and maybe scab. I do water at night overhead. I can stop that. I think I will juice them.

 

[baymule]

I am in awe of the fall bounty of apple trees. On our place we have some very nice oak trees that are dropping their fall bounty of acorns. The sheep scarf them right up like vacuum cleaners. I'd be glad to trade you my fall bounty for yours. LOL LOL LOL

 

[Nyboy]

@thistlebloom I would give up all my shoes for a apple tree that did not need spraying

 

[thistlebloom]

@thistlebloom I would give up all my shoes for a apple tree that did not need spraying

Wow. Knowing how you love shoes, that's really saying something!

 

[thistlebloom]

I have never seen anything on the tree. The only bugs really were the aphids. I see wasps around the tree in the summer. I do not want to spray without any chemicals. I looked at pictures and maybe scab. I do water at night overhead. I can stop that. I think I will juice them.

That's the same with my Honeycrisp. Every year it's an aphid convention site. My apples were pitted like yours, so maybe that's what's causing that.
I release ladybugs on it every year, and this year was the first time I actually saw evidence that they stayed long enough to reproduce.
Next year I'm going to release green lacewings in my trees. They consume a lot more aphids than ladybugs, and also stick around better.

 

[Beekissed]

I've found the flavor of the apples are affected by how much or how little the tree is fed. After applying some good horse manure, cow manure and chicken manure to our orchard a few years back, some of the trees that have pretty tasteless fruit had a great new flavor. Then this past year I didn't get a chance to fertilize and they are back to bland...so bland they are the only trees that the squirrels didn't pick clean. Even the squirrels think they taste bad.

 

[flowerbug]

if you ever get a chance to go pick some wild apples and then dry them they are a great snack. they may be a bit on the tart side but drying them gives them more sweet.

i was going to get some apple trees planted around here eventually, but our best place to plant them is way out back and that would mean they were nothing but deer food.

to prepare the area i was going to plant out some apple tree saplings that i grew from seeds (very easy to do and they grow great here - plant the seeds in the fall about an inch down). this was to establish the predator/prey cycle and to see what diseases showed up.

after two years i had 5-8ft saplings some with stems an inch or two across. i never got them transplanted where i wanted them so i keep cutting them back. i think they'd make a good deer fence/hedge planted closely, the trees have thorny branches.

i don't plan on letting these ever get big, they are in one of my gardens inside the fence. i just don't have the time to dig them out so i just keep cutting them back and using them as mulch.

i don't see much in the way of aphids around here except on very odd plants i might grow (okra and some strange thing that grew that should have been a cabbage, but was just some leafy green that tasted like brocoli). we don't really eat okra and the leafy green got pulled up and buried. cabbages will grow great here but i need netting to keep the cabbage moths off them.

i don't spray for anything here. a bug has to eat too.

 

[baymule]

@thistlebloom I would give up all my shoes for a apple tree that did not need spraying

I think your clients might freak out a little if you were barefoot......