I’ve found this link from Cornell very good. The pictures are also very helpful. It is for beginners and not so beginners, I think…
http://ulster.cce.cornell.edu/resources/apple-ipm-for-beginners
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I printed this off for reference. Thanks!
Katy
I wish I could do color printing but it is a lot of pages.
I hope every apple beginners in this forum read it and use it as a reference.
Great link Tippy. I printed it out for reference. I can use all of the help I can get 
You’re welcome, David. I do think it contains very good info.
@scottfsmith, Is there’s a way we could pin this thread (or other thread like this) so forum members esp. newer members could easily spot it for their benefits, please?
Tippy, there is a page in the references section with many links like this. Its a wiki so you can add this page there.
I am a bit reluctant to pin the reference and guide pages as they are already categories, but the above page doesn’t seem to be all that frequently visited so it probably needs to be made more find-able.
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Thanks, Scott. I am one of those tech- challenged persons. It took me a while to figure out how to find anything including what PM is and how it works. I did not answer those who PM me for months because I did not know about the green dot!!!
These references are helpful esp. for beginners. However, usually it’s the beginners who have difficulty finding such the resources on the forum (low tech like me, in particular).
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They can probably be added to the welcome message pinned now … that might get them some more visibility.
EDIT: I just added the fruit reference page there.
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Thank you, Scott.
Under Reference - category
General Fruit Resource - sub category
We should refer new members (or anyone interested, having questions) to this category more often. There are tons of useful info there for all kinds of fruit growing.
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Oh, I just skimmed through it all and it is making me very depressed. Those poor apples, Do they even stand a chance? Bagging helps, but I hate using a lot of chemicals on my food.
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Cornell experts are expert on one thing- producing pristine fruit with long shelf-life on large acreage for a profit. Their information is largely research based, which is a plus, but the research isn’t about producing sound fruit in a home orchard for home use.
If I had believed that commercial guidelines were what I’d have to follow to make home orchards work I would have never gotten my business off the ground- fortunately, there was a professor named Prokopy working at U. Mass who developed low spray strategies in the '90’s that were the basis for my own low spray approach that involves only 2 insecticide-fungicide sprays in spring to produce sound fruit- with apples that means fruit gets no spray for usually 3-5 months before harvest.
I do often have to include the addition of a single fungicide spray for brown rot on stonefruit about a month before their harvest and other problems occasionally crop up, but this has worked for me in S. NY and CT at scores of orchards for over 25 years.
Cornell has no one involved in communities like the one on this forum so the institution remains largely clueless about what can be accomplished with less input in small, relatively isolated orchards. When government helps farmers it tends to be about helping the economy and the land grant colleges do the government’s bidding. We are a small group and most taxpayers wouldn’t want their money going to help us (besides the people we share our fruit with).
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North,
No need to feel depressed. I think people in colder zones have fewer apple issues than the warmer zones ( not include arid places).
Apples can be grown organically. Choosing varieties that are disease resistant will help you win half of the battle. Suuround and bagging will carry you to the finish line.
The link I posted is just to give you an idea what you could be up against. I did not mean to discourage you. I do understand it could be overwhelming at first.
Your U of Minn extension services probably have guidelines that more relevant to your area, too.
Further north than you, we don’t need to bag. Pest pressure is mostly over for apples after May and Surround works well enough until then if you get it down early enough. That is, if apple fly maggot doesn’t become part of the pest complex- but they can be controlled with tangle trap and fake apples.
Thank you for the link. Very comprehensive and easy to understand. I learned a bunch.
Its pretty much everything you need to know about managing insects and disease on Apple trees. The fewer chemicals you use or want to use, the more valuable the guide is.
I assume you are referring to the fruit only. Fungal issues could follow later, depending on humidity. The decision to treat for these depends on preference and how the apples will be used. I don’t care a about cosmetics for apples I process immediately after harvest, which leaves codling moth as my main concern here.
By the way, have you noticed that codling moths have a preference for certain varieties?
You’re welcome. Agree that it is comprehensive and easy to understand. Good read for beginners and not so beginners!!!
No, I’m referring to main the fungal issues also- with myclo and captan in the mix these two sprays usually control scab and Car also. At a couple sites last year the high humidity brought a brand new pest to NY that did defoliate apples late- mostly yellow apples suffered. Marsanona leaf blotch, or something close to that name.
I didn’t get scab control at a couple of sites with tall grass last year either- it only was a big problem with Macintosh and Macoun, however. The sites where the scab was a problem had lots of other varieties that were not affected. Other sites with the same program had no scab on Macs.
" Choosing varieties that are disease resistant will help you win half of the battle."
While often recommended, this is one of the toughest things to do successfully. Look hard enough and you’ll find just about every variety being promoted as “disease resistant” by someone or some catalog. Most people don’t know which diseases are going to be most important to have resistance for. And if you do know what to focus on, there usually isn’t good, reliable data on most varieties you are considering planting.
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That is true that one needs to have some idea what diseases and pests one has in his/her area.
I think if one can find reliable sources of info like this forum, it is a good place to start, When I first started out, I read a lot of posts from backyard growers at Gardenweb’s Fruit and Orchard forum. I learned about disease resistant varieties from actual growers coupled with checking a list of resistant varieties put out by reputable nurseries like Cimmins and ACN.
Those lists are pretty good. The description tells you what it is resistant to and what it is not. I think it gave people pretty good place to start.
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