David Hare-Scott wrote:

I have been pulling apples, pears and quinces this week. The pears
are still hard, hopefully the timing is right and they will ripen off
the tree this time.

The Granny Smith apples are beautiful; crisp, sweet and slightly tart.
We had some visitors and I pulled one off the tree and offered it
around. They said "aren't you going to wash it?" I said "why?"

Yes a fresh apple off your own tree is fantastic and makes the best of
bought apples look average.

Are your apples free of codling moth or do you use a non-spray method of
control?

We used to have a great Granny Smith apple crop but ut has been very poor
in recent years. Recently I was told that possums eat apple blossum which
could well be the cause, so we will net much earlier next year.

We also have a fuji apple but it has never had more than a few apples on it
(maybe the possums have been eating the fuji blossum since day one).

Interestingly, possums don't seem to eat nectarine blossums (we get a great
crop of them - no spray - just buggerising around with nets to keep out
possums, birds, rats and bats).

We also have a problem with possums eating the leaves off trees (eucalypts,
apples, and they nearly 100% stripped the apricot).

When we first planted the apples, we had no problem with codling moth but
it has progressively got worse.

We have a new Ballerina "Polka" apple tree in a large pot so it is away
from the Granny Smith planted in the garden and doesn't have a large
problem with codling moth - although we are going to have to do something
to control them next year as we have already had the odd codling-moth-
affected fruit fall off. Haven't yet picked a Polka apple to see what a
good one like.