23-03-2003, 12:32 AM
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Help! Never had a garden (about apple maggots)
writes:
It's gonna be tough growing apples and actually getting any usable fruit
without using pesticides. I spray mine with "Fruit Tree Spray" every 2
weeks after petal drop until late July. Then I spray them twice with
Diazinon to control apple maggots, and I stop spraying them after that.
I only have one tree. I need to investigate "integrated pest
management", or whatever it's called, because I still get too much
Bob,
I'd be very interested in whatever you do regarding the apple maggots. I
try not to use chemicals in my yard, even those that are "good" and am
interested in continuing that. However, I am tired of picking up hundreds
of worm houses each fall when my apple trees are such good bearers. To
get even one pan of applesauce is far more work than it's worth, even as
good as it is, and I don't have a horse to use the apples for treats. The
birds, squirrels, etc. can only eat so many. Even the chickens stopped
eating them last fall and won't touch apples at all now though they loved
them the first few weeks.
If even 75 percent were worm-free, I'd have more apples than I could give
away. Having grown up in apple country (eastern Washington) makes it even
more distressing to see them go to waste.
Glenna
Seven apple trees, not one full box of edible apples :-(
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