I have tons of aphids on my apple trees…mainly conglomerating around the flowers and forming fruit. This is the first year my Apple trees have bloomed and set fruit. There are lady bugs all over and they have laid tons of eggs and have their larvae all over the trees. I have no doubt they will take care of my aphid problem as they do every year but I am wondering if the aphids can negatively effect the developing fruit and therefore I need to intervene and get rid of them?
Also…apples and pears are the only trees in my orchard to get aphids to any noticeable level…not sure why.
Yes I did apply a single dormant oil spray in early February for all trees. I had a single peach tree starting up early and blooming mid February so I applied the dormant oil to all trees at that time. Perhaps I should wait on the other trees until they are closer to breaking dormancy as my apples break dormancy the latest around mid March?
if you alredy have Ladybugs maybe you can purchase some greenlace wing’s. The lacewing larva are called aphid lions and with the existing ladybugs you could be looking at a knock out blow.
I get aphids every year on my stonefruit & pom fruit. It is solved by putting tanglefoot around the trunk of the tree. This stops ants from coming up the tree. The ants farm the aphids and chase off the lady bugs. If you stop the ants the ladybugs will solve the problem in a couple of weeks. Take a look at your tree and see if ants are on the branches.
Make sure to not harm ladybug larvae, as they eat a lot of aphids
Yup, those little bastard ants will protect the aphids. Stop the ants and aphids will be gone in a week or two. If you have ladybugs around I wouldnt spray, they will handle it. I also get lacewings, but usually not till mid summer.
The thing that really knocks out the aphids is tiny predatory wasps. Most people don’t even know if they’re around. They lay eggs in the aphids and are most easily noticed by the grayish/brown mummies that result after the wasps emerge from the eggs. Lady bugs and lacewings aren’t nearly as fast at reproduction as the wasps. I’ve never seen either clean up aphids even though they’re present. In large acreages of field crops that have massive aphid problems ag consultants pay attention only to the wasps. If they are present and increasing those crops aren’t sprayed. The other predators are by standers.
Good to know…i have plenty of wasps, but will start paying more attention to the smaller ones
The wasps I have absolutely love my sweet cherry trees…a virtual swarm of them enjoying those trees
You probably know this but it’s recommended to have a protective layer around the trunk before applying. I actually use buddy tape since I have a roll of it from grafting. It makes a snug fit and expands with the tree/no girdling.
Tanglefoot Warning: I second what @SanJoseFool said above. I killed five young apple trees by putting Tanglefoot directly on the trunks- it ate through the bark and girdled the trees. I tried bridge grafting but it was wrong season, lost them. AM Leonard I believe sells a brown corrugated paper wrap that you can wrap around the trunk and then put the TF on the paper.
Years ago I put TF directly on the bark of much older apple trees without injury. That’s why I assumed it would be ok on any apple tree- not so- it can kill young ones. Hope this helps avoid some heartache.
It does no good to put out oil before the trees are growing. If they are as predominant this early as you say, I suggest that the amount of energy they are sucking out of your trees at the most crucial time is a concern about relative productivity- both of good sized fruit this year and a return crop next. Understand that aphids are drilling for protein and vast amounts of hard earned carbs are extracted and deposited on leaves to get what they are working for. There isn’t a whole lot of protein in sap.
You need to put down a spray when aphids first become active- here it is at half inch green for apples. A good hort oil (summer oil) can be sprayed as needed until temps rise into the 90’s, so you can continue to reapply as needed until then. Next year I’d start with a 2% mix early- hold off when blooms start to show color and then reduce it to 1% if subsequent sprays are needed from petal fall on. Spray only when the oil can evaporate fairly quickly- cloudy is fine but mist to rain is not.
