sherwindu wrote:

I don't spray anything until after 100% petal drop out of respect
for the bees; they're having a tough time here with the mites. I
didn't spray any fungicides this year and it shows, but a little
scab on the apples doesn't hurt anything. I stopped spraying in
July (out of laziness) and was afraid the apple maggots would ruin
everything, but diligent clean-up of fallen apples last year seems
to have paid off. In the past, some years even with spraying the
apple maggots have totally destroyed my crop.


Did you use an effective spray like Imidan? That one really works on
apple maggots, but it is not available to the home orchardist
anymore. If you can locate a supply of it (farmers can still get it),
give it a try.


I used a mixture of malathion EC and methoxyclor WP (I'll add captan or
maneb in the spring next year). If I had seen actual signs of apple
maggots, I would have sprayed diazanon in July and then switched back to
malathion in August, and stop spraying in mid-August. I have a quart of
diazanon 50 EC.


I would love to get to where insects and disease could be
controlled with just a dormant oil spray before the buds break,
followed by Integrated Pest Management (with a sprayer of malathion
standing by, unused, just in case of emergency.) I don't know if
IPM works here or if the insect load is just too high. I think
proper orchard hygiene, traps, and minimal spraying whenever the
traps show a high insect population might be more effective and
more ecological than prophylactic spraying every 10 days and every
time it rains.


Best regards,
Bob